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Any Doctors In The House?

Can someone diagnose my plants for me?

Growing in a 50 gal terrarium under 3 ft T10 lights about a foot away. Other Nepenthes growing strong right next to these with seemingly no side effects.

I first thought pests, but generally the damage is much more irregular with bugs.

My second though was burning from the light, but I've had Nepenthes grown in close to full sun before - not the correct color for burned leaves.

My final prognosis was humidity related damage? Anybody seen similar things on their plants and then had them survive?

The affected plants are N. tangalensis and N. lowii - neither are pitchering (at least not more than a couple of millimeters before popping the lid).

Doctor! Doctor!

 
I wish I could help you, but I'm not too familiar with various problems like that. I can't think of anything...

I just had to ask though, are you a blood brothers fan, by chance?
 
i've had a nep doing this one day. what I found out is that it was kept too humid (the media at least) and in conjonction to improper lighting, being too low. so I would cut back on watering if you find it is quite damp, if it is not, then maybe wait some time to see if there's any new growth. where they placed in there lately or have they been growing in the tank for quite a while now?
 
No idea who the blood brothers are.... what made the connection?

They've been in since January - only started this about a month ago. Started as one leaf and then spread fairly rapidly.

I'll let them dry out a good bit before watering again and see if that helps. Thanks for the advice.
 
Both of these are highland plants and touchy ones at that (or so I have read). Are you giving them a temp drop at night? If they don't get it they will probably die a slow death.
 
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The blood brothers were a post-hardcore band from Seattle. They broke up in 2007 though.
But they have a song called "Doctor, Doctor!" and when you said "Doctor! Doctor!" I just imagined that being declared in the likeness of the song.

Sorry for being random though. Good luck with your Neps!
 
Root rot? How wet do you typically keep them?
 
im also leaning towards dashman's conclusion about the temp drop. if you arent given them a drop down to the fifties for the past few months, it wouldnt be surprising if they looked similar to what you have since they spend all their time expending energy instead of saving it during the nights.
 
Ya these are almost ultra-highland plants. My lowii and Talengensis get night time drops into the mid 40's that keeps them happy. But What also could be the problem is the humididty. Whats urs at?
 
  • #10
The blood brothers were a post-hardcore band from Seattle. They broke up in 2007 though.
But they have a song called "Doctor, Doctor!" and when you said "Doctor! Doctor!" I just imagined that being declared in the likeness of the song.
Me too :D

BUT, back to the OP's problem. It looks like bacterial rot to me. If it was an orchid I'd be spraying it with physan, keeping it slightly drier for a time and isolating it, or at least keeping it far enough away from the others that water on it's leaves doesn't drip on another plant, and keep the leaves from touching another plant.
Can neps tolerate physan? I know that sarrs can.
 
  • #11
Frankly, it looks like there could be mites there. Can you take a pic on the undersides of the living leaves?
 
  • #12
This could be also a result of overfertilizing. Even if you aren't fertilizing your plants it could be that the rainwater is getting old. Or the filter of R/O system isn't working right anymore. Some species are more sensitive to this than other.
 
  • #13
please provide additional info: are you giving them daily night time drops to at least the 50s? how often are you fertilizing them? etc etc. as you see, the members are giving you way too many possibilities to give you a plausible/effective answer to your problem.
 
  • #14
This could be also a result of overfertilizing. Even if you aren't fertilizing your plants it could be that the rainwater is getting old. Or the filter of R/O system isn't working right anymore. Some species are more sensitive to this than other.

Old rainwater? Why would that matter? ???
 
  • #15
Old rainwater? Why would that matter? ???

After using rainwater for a good while I noticed that at some point my plants started to look bad when I used rainwater which has stayed for a while in the rainwatertank. After this I checked with an EC-meter now for a while my rainwater and recognized very high differences. Fresh, pure rainwater has an EC value of aboiut 10 microsiemens. After staying in the tank for a month the value goes upto 100 microsiemens. Also after a longer dry period the first rain collects lots of dust and EC value goes upto 200 microsiemens which is far too much. This might be different if you run a filtering system like for aquariums to keep it good (which I haven't tested yet) or use R/O water to be on the safe side.
 
  • #16
After using rainwater for a good while I noticed that at some point my plants started to look bad when I used rainwater which has stayed for a while in the rainwatertank. After this I checked with an EC-meter now for a while my rainwater and recognized very high differences. Fresh, pure rainwater has an EC value of aboiut 10 microsiemens. After staying in the tank for a month the value goes upto 100 microsiemens. Also after a longer dry period the first rain collects lots of dust and EC value goes upto 200 microsiemens which is far too much. This might be different if you run a filtering system like for aquariums to keep it good (which I haven't tested yet) or use R/O water to be on the safe side.

Huh....I've used rainwater that sat in jugs for 2months with no ill affects.....but I usually water by putting it in a pump sprayer and spray the soil untill it starts to run through.....maybe this re-areates the water?
 
  • #17
Huh....I've used rainwater that sat in jugs for 2months with no ill affects.....but I usually water by putting it in a pump sprayer and spray the soil untill it starts to run through.....maybe this re-areates the water?

No ... I don't think so. If the salts have built up they won't get lost because of this. Else there won't be no need for R/O systems or destilation. I also use pumpsprayer.
I collect my rainwater via the roof of my house. Who knows what it collects while running down to the rainwatertank. But nevertheless every serious orchid grower checks his water with an EC-meter. Most Orchids need more or less the same conditions like our neps. Using water without EC-meter is a blindflight.
 
  • #18
In usually water the chids with pure distilled or RO. When feeding I use half distilled (or RO) and half well or rain water to avoid PH swings
 
  • #19
No ... I don't think so. If the salts have built up they won't get lost because of this. Else there won't be no need for R/O systems or destilation. I also use pumpsprayer.
I collect my rainwater via the roof of my house. Who knows what it collects while running down to the rainwatertank. But nevertheless every serious orchid grower checks his water with an EC-meter. Most Orchids need more or less the same conditions like our neps. Using water without EC-meter is a blindflight.

I don't see why it would matter, the only stuff in the rainwater would be pollen and other natural stuff......I'm pretty sure that they have that in the wild. I can see why tap water is bad considering the minerals and heavy metal content.....but that stuff can't get into rainwater just from letting it sit.....???
 
  • #20
I don't see why it would matter, the only stuff in the rainwater would be pollen and other natural stuff......I'm pretty sure that they have that in the wild. I can see why tap water is bad considering the minerals and heavy metal content.....but that stuff can't get into rainwater just from letting it sit.....???

I don't think that you can compare rainwater which sits for weeks in a tank to rainwater in the wild which is given to the plants in its purest form. Sitting in a tank for a long while it starts going rotten. Besides the heavier EC-value bad bacterias are also getting alive. I checked the EC-values several times and always the EC-value went up dramatically after a while.
 
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