In march of this year, I divided my S. purpurea, half of which I put into a mini-bog, half into its own pot, both on my back porch.(The plant was inside under growlights before division-er actually dormancy, since it was march when I made the bog...) They seemed to be doing quite well--the larger half flowered, and both plants turned a lovely burgundy color--at least until a few weeks ago. I noticed white areas had appeared on some of the pitcher leaves, usually on on the lower 1/3 of the pitcher. I have no clue what the white is. I thought it might be thrips, because I have read about whitish looking leaves being a sign of thrips damage, but I've seen no black specks that I've read accompany the white.
Dime to nickel sized holes, in the upper portions of the pitchers, have also appeared in some of the leaves. These holes are generally roundish in shape, but not perfectly. I suspect something is munching on the leaves, because the holes get bigger, and the edges never turn brown. I have observed the plants at different times of day, to see if it was perhaps something that only appears at certain times, etc. but no luck. Also just today, I noticed the lid of a s. rubra pitcher had a "munch" out of it, and half of a vft red dragon trap is gone.
Also, the surface of the mini-bog is covered in long fibered sphagnum, and I have noticed that it sometimes appears as if some small creature like a bird or squirrel has been digging or rooting around in it, because there are shallow depressions about 2-3" in diameter and the sphagnum is pushed to one side of the depression. At first this only only appeared when the sphagnum was fairly dry, like when it hadn't rained in a while, which made me think that birds were possibly trying to use it as nesting material, but now the depressions appear whether the sphagnum is dry or waterlogged.
Comments, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
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elarwhis
P.s. Sorry I have no pics to accompany my description. I'd post some...but I don't have a digital camera.
Dime to nickel sized holes, in the upper portions of the pitchers, have also appeared in some of the leaves. These holes are generally roundish in shape, but not perfectly. I suspect something is munching on the leaves, because the holes get bigger, and the edges never turn brown. I have observed the plants at different times of day, to see if it was perhaps something that only appears at certain times, etc. but no luck. Also just today, I noticed the lid of a s. rubra pitcher had a "munch" out of it, and half of a vft red dragon trap is gone.
Also, the surface of the mini-bog is covered in long fibered sphagnum, and I have noticed that it sometimes appears as if some small creature like a bird or squirrel has been digging or rooting around in it, because there are shallow depressions about 2-3" in diameter and the sphagnum is pushed to one side of the depression. At first this only only appeared when the sphagnum was fairly dry, like when it hadn't rained in a while, which made me think that birds were possibly trying to use it as nesting material, but now the depressions appear whether the sphagnum is dry or waterlogged.
Comments, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
------
elarwhis
P.s. Sorry I have no pics to accompany my description. I'd post some...but I don't have a digital camera.
