Darlingtonia help!

[andrewsx]

Just Planted some cobra's in large plastic pots mix peat/perlite.

One pot in the celler with flor. lights and the other with metal halide light 400 watts. I have a custom terr. built and It house many diff. kinds of cp Plants. The temp in the terr. does not get to be more than 75.f and humid. 50% up to 70%
at night. I then take the pot out of the terr. at night and put it into fridge to get a 20 D. drop. I then put it back in the morning. Two days later the large pitchers started to get soft and flopped over. The other ones are getting soft too. ie these are pitchers from last years growth that's how they were shipped to me. The one in the celler is fine picthers hard and the celler is cold 24/7. Does this plant need to adapt what should I do.

Thanks

 

[endparenthesis]

Maybe it doesn't like the fridge? Wouldn't that be a big humidity drop every night?

I never do anything special with my cobra lilies and they're like weeds. You could also try an airier mix like LFS... I think that's where my success came from.

 

[homer]

Instead of placing the plant(s) in the fridge, just pour ice cold water over them at night.

-Homer

 

[HellzDungeon]

Hay, Hellz here,
yes, it might have something to do with the fridge, i would do as homer suggested, with ice cubes of CP safe water.
samething goes for endparenthesis, ive read that Darlingtonia need more air around their roots than alot of other plants, and more importantly so than cool roots, although it is important as well and so, an airier mix wont hurt to try, it will, if anything help the plant
hope this has helped
Hellz

 

[andrewsx]

What if I put it in the celler every night instead of the fridge
and in the morning put in the terr. with my other plants. I did
re-plant it in a mix of LFS/perlite/sand/peat. This way it can get the cool drop of temp. at night.

What do you think.

 

[Alvin Meister]

Why not just leave it? A plant on a 70F windowsill all day and all night will do fine.

 

[andrewsx]

ok how about leaving it in the terr. and just water it twice a day morn. and night with refridge. water will this work.....

 

[LunaC]

You don't specify where you are, so we don't know what outdoor day/night temps apply.   My Darlingtonia are all outdoors right now (I'm in metro Atlanta, zone 7-8).  I'm with endparenthesis in that I don't "baby" mine and they're all sending up new pitchers.   They get good morning sun outside; shaded afternoons and evenings.  They don't get drastic temp. changes and have adapted just fine.  I mist them after I get home in the evening and make sure the LFS they're in doesn't dry out.  They're in a mix of peat, lots of LFS and lava rock.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I've never thought cobra lily's to be terrarium-friendly.  Anyone... please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken about that.      

 

[aprilh]

Maybe if you just worship it....

 

[LauraZ5]

I've got mine in 100% LFS.  It is potted in a black aquatic plant basket from Home Depot and has a plastic place mat shield around it so that my dogs don't try to use it as a dietary supplement again.  It is on the floor in front of an eastern facing atrium door sitting in a small cat litter pan of water. I drop 4-5 ice cubes in the water every morning before I go to work, some days I forget. House temps are 70F during the day and 67F at night.  I don't normally move my plants but this one gets moved numerous times a day when we slide it over to get in and out that door to the backyard. We've repotted it three times now. Once from being plucked out of its pot by a dog that tried to take off with the whole plant and twice now from tripping over it and it is still hanging in just fine. I plan on moving it outside onto the patio in about a month. I am in zone 5. Northeastern Illinois over by Lk Michigan and up by the Wisconsin border. I'll probably move it back inside where it is cooler for the months of August and early September... if it survives the abuses in this household.

April, maybe if you had taken your own advice and worshipped yours it wouldn't have gone to CP heaven last week. Or... you could have babied it like we did. That's it, you should have babied your Darlingtonia like we do!

 

[aprilh]

Well, here's what I did.

Every morning...I gave it THE finest rainwater ice-cubes that the rain that falls around my house could manage. I spoke to it in dulcet, encouraging tones. I gave it a bigger home in which to spread out it's roots, using the same medium, LFS. I genuflected in it's general direction. I asked it to make believe it was in Oregon, and gave it still more rainwater ice-cubes. It was not grateful, nor appreciative of my efforts, nor hardy, nor native.

Or maybe it was just too messed up from being at Lowe's in a little plexiglass cube.

Buh bye little mustachioed plant! Sorry to see you go! April

 

[LauraZ5]

ROTFLMBO!

 

[jimscott]

For some reason, April's last response reminds me of John Cleese in Holy Grail, mocking the French. At least I think it was John Cleese and the French and something a bout catapulting... I'ts been awhile.

 

[LauraZ5]

Jim, I see you found my super duper top secret tips to successfully growing Darlingtonia. Don't mind April... she's just jealous that mine is still alive because I gave it all that extra TLC.  I mean I was really really really careful when I took off after Audrey to retrieve my plant when she snatched it out of its pot right in front of me and proceeded to take off into the family room with it.  April has a saying about Audrey (Great Dane that you have a photo of)... she's a year or so away from being a good dog. Umm, maybe 2-3.

A note to andrewsx- should your Darlingtonia not make it, I will gladly send you mine, my pleasure. I feel really bad for you and all joking aside, I normally nurture my plants.  This Darlingtonia just had the misfortune of needing an eastern exposure and I was flat out of space for it so I did the best I could with what was left of window space. Poor thing ended up right in the line of fire as there was no where else to go with it. It was a gift from April to me, she actually bought one for herself and one for me from a Lowes when she was down south visiting her parents. I'm serious, if your Cobra Lily goes to CP heaven and you want my bomb proof Cobra Lily, just let me know and hopefully soon before it gets eaten or something.

 

[aprilh]

I settled for bowing 3 times to the east every time I set eyes on it. I did not taunt it, nor did I smile at it, or demean it. I treated it like a happy-fun-ball. I bought it a gameboy, a plasma tv, gave it purebred fruit flies, rain-water ice cubes and the dang thing still croaked. You want to know what I do for my other rara avis? April

 

[LauraZ5]

oh oh oh!  Laughing so hard I hurt. Please make the pain stop or I'll have pop out my nose or something.  Can I be a plant in your house, please pretty please with sugar on top?  Nobody bows to me around here and that would be really nice.  Will you bow down to me some time just for yucks so I know what it's like?  I have wanted a plasma tv for a while now but am too cheap to buy one. If I hop in that pot that your Darlingtonia recently vacated will I be treated like a happy fun ball?

 

[Treaqum]

How hot can Darlingtonia get? My summer temps indoors are 85day/72night. I had 3 this winter but traded them off after my custom-built Darlingtonia icing unit did not work well. I think they got too-much water. Then when it dried alittle the plants did not like it.

 

[Treaqum]

The people who got them saved them though

 

[aprilh]

I didn't save mine...but it was doomed anyway. It was at a lowe's. I tried. I have a few rare/very rare plants here, and they are all fine. Nodding Trillium, Cardinal Flower, Wild Quinine, Kitten Tails, Sullivant's Milkweed, Poke Milkweed, Whorled Milkweed, etc. Darlingtonia was just not happy! I put the blame on it's rough childhood. April

 

[Treaqum]

I did not know that Nodding Trillium and Cardinal Flower were rare.