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Heli help!

I've been growing heli's for a few weeks/months and suddenly noticed that 3 or 4 of them have developed black spots at the tip while developing. One of my Heli's went all black this week, and now another is starting to go black as well. What am I doing wrong?!

Conditions:
30,000K lumens T5's about 8" away from the tops of the plants.
Temps between 60 and 75 degrees night to day.
Humidity between 75-100%.
Constant airflow during the day.
Moist but not sitting in water media.
Media is a mix of orchid bark, LFS, and APS

Here are pictures.

IMG_7362.JPG


IMG_7364.JPG


Help!

xantius
 
Try tugging on the healthy pitcherd, do they come right off? This happened to my second heli, it was root rot.
 
agreed, they could look perfectly healthy but be dead by the time you find out.
 
Typically root rot will be from the bottom up.

What you are seeing is not that all uncommon. Sometimes they will come out of it on their own, other times nothing you do seems to help

In either case my first aid is to dig them up, treat with Trichoderma atrovirde, remove any dead material, replant and bag for a week or two under cool temps and bright light... It is very rare to lose a plant that I have treated in such a manner.

When they are small and immature, the window of opportunity is very short... Typically if you are going to lose a heli it will be during this phase of their growth. Once they have mature pitchers they become much more resilient to stress

Av
 
8" away from the lights is kinda far. I know some growers might get away with that, but you really can't give these plants to much light. I grow mine 1-2" away from the lights. I use T8 though. The more light they have the more energy they will have to fight disease.
 
8'' for T5's isn't too much at all, the difference in temps between t5's and t8's is huge.
 
Mine died like that as well...
 
I had one died by root rot :(
 
You guys are scaring me!
 
  • #10
Its just an "experience curve" mostly, learning what to watch for and what to do when you detect a problem.
Its nothing that one can really learn without jumping in with both feet At least one of the suspect pathogens have been isolated but not yet identified. It is reportedly fungal in origin though.
My first aid and routine maintenance techniques have worked very well for me... and like I said, once the plant reaches adulthood, the problem is no longer a concern really (based upon my experience)

Fungal spores and other phytopathogens are everywhere... in nature, certain beneficial symbiotic relationships exist that may not exist in cultivation. IMHO this is the root cause of many of the problems associated with the cultivation of CP's

Of course YMMV
Av
 
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