Petiolaris complex plants - restarting collection

[Cindy]

From tissue culture, hardened and growing since April 2013
- D. darwinensis and D. ordensis


- D. paradoxa


From tissue culture, hardened and growing since beginning of this month
- D. broomensis


- D. lanata


- D. kennealyii




- D. dilatato-petiolaris


From division
- D. paradoxa

 

[Not a Number]

Excellent. They should thrive in your climate I couldn't get away with growing them in live Sphagnum in case they go dormant.

 

[Cindy]

It's a new method for me. Mostly because live sphagnum is great for hardening tc plants.

I used to grow them potted in sphagnum or peat but somehow they disappeared from the collection....mealy bugs at the roots, dormancy during the cooler months (??), kept shrinking etc.

 

[jimscott]

Gorgeous plants!

 

[theplantman]

Absolutely beautiful plants!!!!!!

 

[bluemax]

Are you growing these in a terrarium, Cindy? I am curious about how you would go about it in a tropical climate. For me it is a heated tank with a lid.

 

[dionae]

I've always loved these dews. Especially the really fuzzy plants. You have some great looking plants Cindy. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Cindy]

Are you growing these in a terrarium, Cindy? I am curious about how you would go about it in a tropical climate. For me it is a heated tank with a lid.

Basically, I live in a heated tank...with high temperatures and high humidity year round. LOL

The plants are normally placed at the balcony under natural light but this season, they are under T5s as there's no direct sunlight shining into my apartment.

 

[bluemax]

I've got to admit that the idea of keeping my petiolaris 'dews outside where I could more easily see them does sound inviting. Growing them in live sphagnum sounds intriguing, too. I wish you success.

 

[Cindy]

The plants are colouring up very nicely but the Sony DSC cannot get the correct white balance so I'll leave it to your imagination if the tone should be more yellow or blue.

D. kenneallyi


D. dilatato-petiolaris


A whole group of D. dilatato-petiolaris

 

[amphirion]

very nice Cindy. I've never seen anyone attempt growing them in live sphagnum before either as NaN noted. You mentioned this is just for hardening--will this mean that you will go into the sand/peat mix when they've hardened up?

 

[Cindy]

Hmm....I thought of just using live sphagnum moss as hardening media at first but some species are doing so well that I'll be leaving them as they are. However, I'll be pulling out one plant each to be potted in peat/sand mix for comparison.

My experience so far...
D. falconeri (a few plants rotted and the remaining plant grew very slowly; but then again the species is the most sensitive of the lot...it has been moved to peat/sand mix)
D. broomensis/D. lanata/D. darwinensis (prefers lower water level, will react when LSM is flooded even for 1-2 days i.e. water at the crown but recovers and continues to grow well if water level is lower)
D. ordensis/D. kenneallyi/D. paradoxa/D. dilatato-petiolaris (ok with fluctuations in water level; best growing of the lot)

 

[Oregoncp]

Very Nice Cindy! I always like when people try growing things outside of the "normal" conditions. Experimenting with different medias and techniques is how we expand and become better growers.

 

[Sonia]

Really nice

 

[jimscott]

I'm converting over to LFS, but it's the dried 'orchid moss' and hope to be starting seeds in that medium.

 

[amphirion]

Hmm....I thought of just using live sphagnum moss as hardening media at first but some species are doing so well that I'll be leaving them as they are. However, I'll be pulling out one plant each to be potted in peat/sand mix for comparison.

My experience so far...
D. falconeri (a few plants rotted and the remaining plant grew very slowly; but then again the species is the most sensitive of the lot...it has been moved to peat/sand mix)
D. broomensis/D. lanata/D. darwinensis (prefers lower water level, will react when LSM is flooded even for 1-2 days i.e. water at the crown but recovers and continues to grow well if water level is lower)
D. ordensis/D. kenneallyi/D. paradoxa/D. dilatato-petiolaris (ok with fluctuations in water level; best growing of the lot)

your experience with falconeri makes sense-- the plant tends to die back into a bulb during dormancy and is very sensitive to moisture levels at that point--too much moisture will cause the bulb to rot. caduca seems to also follow this life strategy. i believe kenneallyi also does this.

 

[kulamauiman]

I have tried to prevent them from going dormant. falconerii, and lanata and kenneallyi only did when I tried to grown them outside where my night temps drop down to the 50 F range nightly. They did go dormant and when i got them to break dormancy they all split like mad. I am wondering if this is something normal and by keeping them from going dormant I am preventing them from splitting....

 

[amphirion]

My lanata seems to split faithfully once a year---was hoping for four but ended up with 3. Seems to split after flowering, and flowering happens when breaking dormancy, so you could be on to something.


kenneally and falconeri (maybe caduca also) might split after dormancy but for different reasons-- maybe the bulb is just a mass of undifferentiated cells and tissues. Perhaps they remain that way until dormancy is triggered to break. The appropriate hormones now end up haphazardly concentrating within certain areas of the undifferentiated tissue and form growth points, later causing the plant to split into multiple plants.


Just a cute hypothesis which I have no means of testing and validating...

 

[Cindy]

It's been 1.5 months since the TC plants arrived and here is how they are doing.

I think the lower left is the D. broomensis while the other two are D. lanata.


The MUCH larger single D. broomensis is also potted in sphagnum moss but media is just moist without being soppy. But could the large size be due to the lava sand? Hmm....the plant was only slightly bigger than the ones in the first pics when it arrived...

 

[kulamauiman]

I use the lava sand/gravel also. I like it especially for my nepenthes. I don't think it is as inert as silica sand. From what I remember form soils class (20 years ago) maybe more iron, magnesium, potassium. Not that mobile but eventually comes out.. ... left me thinking about 50 ways to leave your lava......