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Hard Rain

I keep having problems when it rains here in VA. My sarrs are in an outside bog garden and everytime it some of my pitchers(The taller ones 12" plus) get blown down on their sides. Even after trying to prop them back up again they never really get rigid again.

They are young and this is just their 2nd season , anyone think that this will get better as they mature? Just frustrated at the moment b/c the were looking so good
 
It happens. Especially to young plants and ones that don't get enough sun and grow leggy. You can do what a lot of flower gardeners do and put wire supports up for them (rings with legs).
 
I know what you mean, My Leuco pitchers keep on getting knocked down, and the rain is totally destroying my pings, my vfts, my seedlings, and my thread leaved drosera.
 
My plants get 6-7 hours a day in the bog of direct light and plenty of indirect. Enough to bring the "red" out in various pitchers. I think part of the problem could be that they seem to get "stuck" to the growing medium and as they are stuck more medium actually gets in the pitchers.
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I think i am going to put a top dressing of pine needles and see if that helps.
 
well i don't think that that's the case for me, I think that we're just getting a whole lot of heavy rain, very often.
 
They get stuck? I don't understand that.

The acid is very good for them, and it looks good too!
 
I think that he means that the wet medium sticks to the pitcher holding them down at an angle to where the rain can get in and topple the pitcher.
 
I have a HUGE(well, 30+ inch tall pitchers) form of S.flava var "cuprea" that holds it's lids upright and in hard rains they get filled right up and topple over, but beyond that I don't seem to have any problems with things getting knocked over...
Sounds like the problem could correct itself in the next season, if not I think the aforementioned light levels might be a culprit??

And it could just be the root development or something too, which again will simply take time.

The tail end of Ernesto dumped WACKY amounts of rain on my stuff and even Byblis liniflora made it through (tho if there was one more inch of rainfall, the perlite would have floated and they would have been history, WHEW)
 
You can by small trellises to hold them up. When I visited JBL 2 years ago he gave me a S. flava that came with a mini-trellis.
 
  • #10
Hi Pokerwseguy

I didn't know you live in Richmond. So do I. Yay!...finally another CPer in Richmond.
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Cynic81 also lives here (at VCU). Maybe in the future we can entice Kahnli to move here since he wants to come back to VA. hehe

I guess the prior storms and Ernesto hit you the way it hit me. All my pitchers are flattened. Combination rain and wind. My pitchers fill up with water and fall over. My beautiful 'Leah Wilkerson' which has stood tall all summer finally succumbed to the elements. I just have her propped up.

Other than staking them, there's not much you can do. The flattened situation doesn't really hurt the plants...it happens in their natural habitat too. By this time of year they are aging pitchers and no match for strong weather conditions. But aesthetically, I know it doesn't look good.

Glad to see a fellow Richmonder around here.
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  • #11
Yep that is exactly whats happening. This is my first year growing but it has gone well. Ernestos rain tipped them over and they dried in the medium, making them "stuck"
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Then since the bog is flooded alot of the SPM flows into the pitchers and they cant get upright again.

I think the way to solve this is with time(as they mature) and pine needles which would keeo the SPM out of the pitchers but i guess i will know next year.
 
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