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Need help choosing utricularia, or if anybody is giving away

S

slau

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Need help choosing utricularia

I'm not sure if its more appropriate to post here or in the CP Trading Post. I'm looking for Utrics after a round of less than spectacular results on a genus that's supposed to be tough and durable.

The link to the CP trading post thread is here:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=812922#post812922

I'll just post the text here for those who dont want to click over...

I've tried my hand at a few utricularias and I havent had much success. I'd like to ask for some recommendations on what to grow, and perhaps if anybody would like to give me a utricularia you think fits my conditions I'd be most happy to pay for shipping for some. Only problem is,,, I live in Singapore.

Conditions here are 80-90+F daily. Relative humidity is 40 - 90%. This is the weather all year round. I can provide bright shade or direct sun, whichever is needed to get the utric to flourish. I'm looking for utrics that grow in this climate, and flower freely. It's a plus if they grow vigorously and quickly.

What hasnt worked for me so far: gibba. I think algae killed my gibba. The whole thing turned brown and started decaying. I put it in distilled water, and left it in a transparent bowl. I changed the water weekly. Bright diffused light conditions. Graminifolia: no clue why it died. Graminifolia enjoys tropical weather. It just started shrinking and disappeared entirely. Grown in a peat glass bowl with soggy peat that's wet but no water inches above the peat line. What's not doing anything: nephrophylla. It's there, it sprouts out a few leaves they are the size of boogers. Then they die back. Grown in a soggy peat similar to graminifolia. Biloba: it's in stasis. I 've read on this forum it enjoys flooding so I flooded it last night and to my horror, a cloud of peat floated up and has completely covered the biloba. I'll try to do something about that this weekend.

So, I'm open to recommendations on what to grow, and if you're willing to give, I'll be even happier. To my surprise, I cant even find white sandersonii on ebay! But I hear it grows ultra slowly in Singapore. I'm not sure if its too hot here or the substrate was wrong.

The only utric I wont try is subulata. It's vigorous but it will probably never flower here.
 
Actually subulata probably would flower for you there if you grew it outside year round.

Give me a run down on your growing conditions; pot sizes, watering method, media, etc. and I'll see if I can spot any problems

Off the top of my head I would say go for dichotoma, tricolor, calcyfida or livida. Others that might work would be pathenopipes, praelonga, warburgii and arenaria.
 
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Hi pyro. There are a few folks who grow subulata around here. Sometimes it comes as a hitch hiker when we order from Triffid Park. While it does send up flower stalks, they always end up as those non-flower developing seed pods. I forget the exact term to describe it. Cleindestinous flowers or something. Its probably the same as all the rest of the folks who have tried to grow it.

Growing conditions and stuff: pots are non-draining, 3 to 5 inches (does pot size matter?) watering is in the form of misting top down. Media is peat exclusively. The environment is windy, day time temps are in the 90Fs range, and nights are in the 80Fs range. Relative humidity fluctuates between 50 - 90% in the day and 80 - 90% during the night. The water is at the same level as the peat except for the biloba, I flooded that one yesterday. The neprophylla is taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps backward. Little leaves appear and then die off. And gibba and graminifolia have both completely died off.

I can easily repot things into tray watering methods if that doesnt disturb the substrate as much, or use sand + peat. I've even read that utrics dont mind acidic water to kill off algae and I do have coconut husk at home which if soaked in water will start releasing a tannic acid and dye the whole thing brown. I could start using that if need be. I'm just really at a loss on what I've been doing wrong to a genus that everybody else finds virtually indestructible.
 
same thing with D. capensis. everyone over there seems to have difficulty with that weed!
Alex
 
Lmao, what's funny is we can grow them in terraria identical to Singaporian conditions and they do fine.

Atleast mine do :)
 
Actually capensis dont do well in Singapore cause it's too hot here. If you grow a capensis in an office environment with air conditioning, it does fine.

Do most of the utrics need capensis-like conditions to do well? If thats the case then I'd conclude its too hot here to grow utrics.
 
Slau,

Okay here is what I would recommend based on what you described. First go with drained pots, I have always failed when using undrained pots and I believe that this is because of the anaerobic conditions that occur in them pots with time. Straight peat is fine but you can add some of the coconut chips if you want (just make sure they have been well soaked to get the salt out.) Use the tray system for watering. I like to use a deep tray and fill the water till it is level with the media and then not add water again until the tray stands dry for a day or two. I use a terrarium as my "tray" and it houses some 30-odd pots. Takes about 3-4 weeks for the water level to go from full to empty depending on time of year. Obviously smaller trays will dry faster so keep an eye on the set up till you get a feel for how long it takes.

That should work for you. Your temps are not really an issue, my sunroom (which houses all my terrestrials) gets temps like yours and higher during summer and none of my plants are affected.
 
What hasnt worked for me so far: gibba. I think algae killed my gibba. The whole thing turned brown and started decaying. I put it in distilled water, and left it in a transparent bowl. I changed the water weekly. Bright diffused light conditions.

I grow aquatics, in glass jars with some peat at the bottom and some sand over it in my grow chamber under flourescents. I don't disturb the jars, only add some distilled water once in awhile. No algae problems. When I made the jars I let peat settle in distilled water for awhile, dumped some sand on it to keep it down, then scooped of the stuff on the surface and added some pond water, then added the Ultrics.

I also threw some gibbas & intaflatas in the basins that catch the water that drains through the Nepenthes... now they've overgrown and the gibba has made a mat of green that crawls outta the water.

I'd say give the aquatics another chance! Cause they way cool!
 
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