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Shouldn't my purpurea be purple & other questions

I've got my first S. purpurea from Lowes a month or two ago. It was just about completely green when I got it but cold air and bright light hath done it's magic and the latest pitcher is the reddest of all. I like it but shouldn't it be "purple"?

sarraceniapurpurea.jpg


Also, I notice that unlike Nepenthes these don't seem to self fill with fluid. Should I be putting some R/O in them to make them have moisture in the funnel? How long can I leave this in a 2 .5" W x 5" deep pot of LFS? Repot when i move it outdoors in spring to a 4" or bigger?
 
It may never get completely purple or as purple as some specimens out there but it looks like it can still get a bit more red. Here's a purp from Lowes I picked up a few years ago. Newer pitchers colored up over the course of a few days/weeks but never really hit a deep purple.

As for filling the pitchers with water you can, in the wild they keep the rainwater they catch so adding some water certainly wouldnt hurt, especially during feeding as purps heavily rely on bacteria to decompose their prey. You can repot it anytime really, that pot looks like it'll only do for a little while. Are you growing in pure LFS or is that just a top layer?
IMG_1242.JPG_595.jpg
 
beautiful plants...
 
Typically they are more red than purple.
 
S. purpurea uses rainwater to fill its pitchers. Many purpurea hybrids show this trait as well.
Like French, I'm also curious about the LFS. Do you plan to let that pot drain free in between waterings?
In my experience, LFS decays quickly when submerged (the dried stuff - for some reason the dead end of a live colony seems able to endure.) Also, once it decays or compacts it's a pain to disentangle from the plant's roots when you go to repot, since it has those wiry stem fibers. It's just not very good for Sarracenia. If you can't replace it with peat, I suggest adding lots of perlite/APS/etc.
~Joe
 
Sarracenia purpurea ssp purpurea tend to be darker purple than S. purpurea ssp venosa and S. rosea. I have a S. purpura ssp purpurea from NY State that gets almost black under good lighting conditions.
 
Black? Wow. Mine only seem to darken up when the cold comes around, but then I don't have the best light, either.
~Joe
 
Yes, it free drains, I'm growing it rather like a HL Nep or Heli, "just to see what happens". :D

Nice to know mine could get darker/redder. I haven't fed it at all yet since there's no water in the pitchers. I'll add some (water) on my next day off.

I know peat seems to be the preferred medium but I don't really like it. So will it be a terrible idea to continue using a blend of LFS and shredded mulch when I move it to a bigger container so long as I don't let it sit in water?
 
I know peat seems to be the preferred medium but I don't really like it. So will it be a terrible idea to continue using a blend of LFS and shredded mulch when I move it to a bigger container so long as I don't let it sit in water?

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results. Purps are the best candidates to try in LFS, in the wild they're very often found growing right into LFS beds. Keep us posted, I'll be curious to see!
 
  • #10
If you're conscious of the possibility of rot/compaction, I think you should do fine. And if what French says holds true, it could turn out quite nicely. I've never been able to control the rot problem in my outdoor collection due to the weather around here, so I don't have a means of objective comparison between peat- and LFS-based mixes. If you have problems with this batch, you might experiment with something like coarse perlite or hydroton mixed into the bottom half of the LFS.
~Joe
 
  • #11
I've noticed recently some variation in the purpureas that turn up for sale at Lowes. Typically, during the growing season, we get the northern form of the plant at our NC Lowes stores. Lately, however, there seem to be some intergrade plants for sale there. It looks like French3z's plant is the southern variety, though I may be wrong. I can't tell exactly from the angle, but it seems to have the traits from the picture.

I'm curious where the plants are coming from. If they are tissue culture, which I would think they would be, the propagator is producing several different cultures.

Oz
 
  • #12
A factor that plays into the color of a S. purp is what soil it's in....apparently S. purpurea from alkaline sites seem to be more red/purple than ones growing in acidic conditions.
 
  • #13
Personally, I love green Purpureas with red veins:

sarrapurp5009.jpg
 
  • #14
I got a purpurea ssp purpurea at a nursery and it turns a really dark red. I saw some at lowes but I think they are ssp venosa or that other kind, but they were huge too! I was having a hard time believing it wasn't an upright sarracenia.
 
  • #17
Alkaline conditions? Sarracenia can grow in alkaline? Like mostly sand?
 
  • #18
Alkaline conditions? Sarracenia can grow in alkaline? Like mostly sand?


Only Sarracenia Purpurea ssp Purpurea can be grown in alkaline, but I hear growing in that soil causes brittle pitchers. I think adding vermiculite to the soil would help making it alkaline.
 
  • #20
Hmm... I wonder if a soil flush with distilled water that has had a half teaspoon of calcium carbonate sand or calcium sulfate (plaster of paris/gypsum) boiled in it, would be an easy way to introduce a periodic alkalinity rise? Maybe this would color them deeply but excess could be easily flushed out with further normal waterings. Perhaps I'll try it.
 
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