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Urgent! Help needed with H. Minor.

I'm a bit worried about my H. Minor. I think I made a major screw up.

To give a brief summary of its condition. The plant was purchased from the FTS and from my understanding, it was raised in a greenhouse with relatively low humidity conditions. I have it an open container, sitting on a windowsill which receives 5 hours of morning/early afternoon light, and its in a media mix of 1 part LFS, 2 parts peat, and 2 parts perlite. It was doing okay for a while but the plant looks like its declining fast. Many pitchers are drying up. I'm not sure if its a delayed reaction from repotting the plant or if its from something else.

As for the screwup, well, over the last two weeks I've top-watered the plant to the point where the container was very soaked and flooded. I just realized the other day that my drained container was in fact not draining do to a blockage of glazed paint which I promptly drilled away. So this plant has been sitting in some fairly water logged soil. I'm really kicking myself for not noticing this much earlier. The creeping brown stain on the center pitcher, (which had just emerged after I bought the plant) makes me think its root rot. The pictures were from two days ago so it looks even worse now with 2/3 of it browning.

At this point I'm not sure what I should be doing to help it recover. I'm thinking of letting the soil dry out a bit and placing a humidity dome over the plant but would it benefit from the open air? For the moment I do have a dome over the plant. I hope its not too late for this plant and would appreciate any feedback from Heliamphora experts.

Plant on arrival:
ele0ww.jpg


What is looks like now:
349f2o1.jpg

yjybo.jpg


I also have one less pressing inquiry. I've noticed this slime mold that's slowly creeping from the edges of the pot below. These plants get a weekly top watering and the media isn't particularly damp compared to my other containers, yet this hasn't stopped whatever this is from spreading. Anyone knows what this could be and if it is of any danger to the Ceph and his neighbors?

30igmdd.jpg
 
browning from the base up is very bad, likely sudden death....

dig it up, remove all decayed material, dust with trichoderma, repot in fresh substrate.... do not reuse substrate. Do all this as soon as possible.

HTH's
Av
 
^ no better advice then whats up there... he's a heli genius
 
browning from the base up is very bad, likely sudden death....

dig it up, remove all decayed material, dust with trichoderma, repot in fresh substrate.... do not reuse substrate. Do all this as soon as possible.

HTH's
Av

Thank you for the quick response. I will definitely repot the plant in fresh media. What do you mean by "dust with trichoderma'? What kind of mix would you recommend?

Also, was this probably caused by the waterlogged conditions in the substrate?
 
What do you mean by "dust with trichoderma'?

Butch (Av8tor1) asked me to help you out since he has to go. Trichoderma is a fungus that pretty much takes over the bad fungus that is currently killing your plant. Since most recently shipped helis are weak they can easily be overtaken by this bad fungus which is why you dust or soak your heli with trichoderma.
 
Oh, I see. Av8tor1's guide was quite informative. Where can I find Trichoderma or a similar fungicide?
 
I cant remember the source right now. Even if you order some now it might be to late by the time it gets there, root rot spreads really quickly.
 
Google AmPac Biotech and let them know you're with the forums.
 
  • #10
Well that's disappointing. There is no way this plant can wait for an online order. It looks much worse today. Is there any hope for a chemical fungicide that could work?

And if not, should I just attempt to remove the rotting bits and replant it in fresh media and simply hope for the best?

By the way, I really appreciate everyones suggestions and info. Thank you all.
 
  • #11
The tricoderma actually costs the same price as the heli you bought so you might just want to buy a new one if this one dies and moniter the next one more closely. To be honest I wouldnt use the fungicide, only thing you can do at this point is like Butch said, remove rotting areas replant but to be honest there still isnt much of a chance.
 
  • #12
If you have cleaned off the bad portions and put it in a good mix (this forum is full of suggestions on what has worked for others), bag it for a bit and leave it alone, it may recover. Doing too much is sometimes worse than doing nothing at all. Give it a chance to recover. Too much fiddling will get you no where.

That said, I would recommend getting the trich. You'll see from this forum that it is quite versatile. I won't say its absolutely needed, but its definitely a nice to have.
 
  • #13
Yea like z said, you should get some tric in the future for other helis you get. It is very useful.
 
  • #14
If this dies, I'm probably going to hold off buying a replacement until I can provide better growing conditions. I'm rather shocked at how quickly my H. Minor declined and to be honest I'm not quite sure why this happened. I wouldn't think heat was the issue since it's in a cool air-conditioned environment. The windowsill is not particularly hot and the media seems airy enough as well. I guess I got a little overconfident after successfully growing a Ceph for a few months.

Oh and one minor point, Is the green fungus/slime in the Cephalotus pot a threat to my plants?
 
  • #15
What are your conditions like? I have no clue with the ceph, they hate me :lol:. Looks like algae though.
 
  • #16
The Ceph media is 2 parts perlite/sand and 1 part Peat. It gets a weekly top watering regimen (i've heard they are prone to root rot if the soil is too damp) and I sometimes mist the plant in the morning.

It also sits on a windowsill in an open air environment with variable but usually low humidity. The Ceph seems to be doing fine and all the green pitchers are new growth. Is there something I can use to kill the algae/slime?
 
  • #17
Do you know what temperatures your heli is getting? You might be watering the ceph to much though.
 
  • #18
Highest windowsill temp I've seen was 82℉ but its probably not getting the proper drop of late evening temperatures. Is it really a good idea to water the Ceph any less than once a week?
 
  • #19
I really am not a ceph expert so im not sure.
 
  • #20
Hi Roman,

Butch directed me to your thread. I'm sorry to hear about your Heli. It may not have been any one thing, but a combination of things. I currently have a Trichodemera auction going on this website for the NASC if you are interested:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130596

Crystal
 
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