What's wrong? Disease?

[nightsky]

This is my spec x mira. I've had it for 7 months. It arrived in real bad shape - the bag it was in was ripped open and the plant was very wilted, the roots completely dry. Anyway, a month later it was fine, and started to unfurl new leaves. It's done great until about a month ago. Then I noticed an overall yellowing of the leaves. They used to be a more medium green color. Then, spots started to appear on the leaves. And now, just in the past week, a golden brown/orange something is taking over the leaves! It isn't making the leaves dried and and crispy, rather they are going soft in those areas. It isn't just from the leaves being old, as it's appearing on newer leaves as well.

It is kept in my highland grow rack; temps normally 55-77, humidity 65%-85%, 16 hours of light on a shelf with 4 40 watt floursecents. The media is 1part each: Aquatic plant soil, coco shell chunks, chopped LFS. It's an airy, chunky mix. Watered about once to sometimes twice a week.

None of my other neps are showing any of these same symptoms. I haven't ever had a disease or fungus on my neps, so I'm not able to recognize it.

It has been getting cooler at night. Although kept normally at 55 for a low, this week it hit 44 twice. I wondered if maybe that's too cool...but my thorellii x (spectabilis x northiana) isn't skipping a beat despite those low temps.

I did a meticulous pest check and found nothing. I'm familiar with mites, scale, and mealybugs from having dealt with them in the past.


Please help! It's degrading quickly and I don't want to lose it!

Whole Plant, in a 5x6 pot: The curled leaf in bad shape with a hole in it is from when it shipped and was dried out. Not a pest.

Another angle. Here you can see the coloring on a lower leaf:

View from above. Here, you can see it on 3 leaves. One on the leaf on the bottom of pic, one leaf at the top, and one on the left. The one on the left is a fairly new leaf, though not the newest. It is inflating a pitcher.

Another:

Pic of the newer leaf:

The pitcher inflating from that leaf:

 

[SirKristoff]

light burn possibly. or in a worse case scenerio, root mealys or a fungus. keep an eye on it, some experts with pest and disease knowledge will be able to help more than i could.

 

[Nepenthes]

It's been a while since I've read the forums and kept up with the hobby, but I just came across this and wanted to say my Spec x Mira is showing the same symptoms. I would also appreciate any input on this topic as well .

Daniel

 

[nightsky]

What's stumping me is how it did fine for months, only to have this show up out of the blue. No conditions changed, it's been stable. None of my other neps show this condition. I cut off the lower leaves that had the symptom - they were completely taken over by it. Now I am seeing a couple more spot of this stuff on other leaves. They don't appear to be rust spots to me. It just shows up as that brown, and spreads.

 

[Brokken]

I don't know about spectabilis but according to Wikipedia it appears to be an intermediate/highlander while mirabilis is a lowlander. I don't have experience with spectabilis but the mirabilis part of it may like it a little warmer. Perhaps if you placed it in an environment with not-so-extreme lows? The type of markings seem similar to what my lowlanders get during the winter months. It appears that you've had it only during the warmer times of the year.

 

[Zero]

Brokken, mira not mirabilis
nightsky
maybe too wet?
you have a lot of materials that can break down quickly in your potting mix.
have you tried spraying with a fungicide/insecticide?
those are just guesses
I just got one of those and hope you find the problem.
I'm going to spray mine with fungicide/insecticide.
peace,
Zero

 

[christerb]

Hi,

I have the same hybrid, and I have encountered something similar with my plant.

I got my plant in April this year, and it did well for me for several months. Then I had older leaves getting discolored in a short time, and later they dried up. Some newer leaves got this reddish colors as well, but it didn't seem to affect them much. I suspected fungus, especially since I grow mine in stagnant conditions. Since this plant is quite hairy, I have been pondering if it would need a more airy environment. I suspect you grow yours with better ventilation, and still you have had something similar affecting your plants, so I am a bit stumped. Also, in my case I don't feel it is too cool temp's that is the reason. Actually, when this happened I suspected it could be because I kept it too warm, especially considering that both parents have a highland background.

Anyway, the plant seem to do better, but even if it grow new leaves it doesn't increase much in size. The pitchers have grown bigger though, and has gone from looking identical to N. spectabilis too having a fatter look. Also, the pitcher lid in the last pitchers looks a bit strange being recurved, so the underside is exposed. I am a bit disappointed at the peristome shape which looked better before, but it is still early yet so that might change.

Sorry, I can't be of much help, hopefully it is just a temporary setback for your plant.

Regards,

Christer

 

[nightsky]

Interesting that this seems common to this hybrid. Yes, mine gets ample ventilation with fresh air. The medium is actually quite airy, and I let it dry out somewhat between waterings. It was fine for months, this showed up rather suddenly.

Since it has spectabilis in it, at first I thought it was the leaves reddening up like specs do in bright light. But nope not the case. So far, the newest leaf looks good, I'm watching it closely. I don't have a fungicide, and I may go find some and give it a shot just in case. I've read that one part bleach to 9 parts water is effective as a fungicide, and that cinnamon is effective also, so maybe I'll try that. Honestly, I didn't want to hit it with anything until I knew what I was dealing with.

I am disappointed in the thin peristome also. I do like the tubbiness of the pitchers though. We'll see, maybe the peristome will get better with age. I was hoping for more orange or red in the pitcher also - so far it looks like a tubby spec with a thinner peristome.

 

[obregon562]

looks like wet feet. The soil probably compacted to a point were oxygen couldnt be absorbed properly. try adding perlite to you mix or some a=airator.

 

[vraev]

My mira also has done that. But it just went through a big change...the plant was almost submurged in sphagnum. I pruned a lot of sphag away and I noticed the older leaves getting those brown blotches. However, the plants newer leaves are doing ok...so I'll keep an eye on it. I would suggest maybe using one of those water meters that u can use to sense the wetness of the mix and maybe repot in a more chunky media with bark, perlite and small dash of sphagnum. Thats the mix I use myself.

 

[nightsky]

looks like wet feet. The soil probably compacted to a point were oxygen couldnt be absorbed properly. try adding perlite to you mix or some a=airator.

Definitely not that. The mix was new when I put it in there when I recieved the plant, and it does dry out before watering. Plus I took a 'core sample' with a narrow plastic tube inserted into one of the corners. It's came out very loose and airy, not compacted at all - it's a chunky, airy mix. The APS is creating tons of volume and air pockets. It's like Perlite but doesn't float. The coco chunks are still in great shape - look fresh and new still. The only thing that may keep it wet is the finely choppped sphagnum, but it do assure it dries out somewhat between waterings via weighing it in hand and a moisture meter inserted all the way to the bottom of the pot.

 

[Fryster]

I have different Neps do this as well.

I've always assumed that it was natural dying off of leaves as they age. Only accelerated due to the lack of proper nutrients and live prey.

I've never encountered pests or fungus in my Neps.