u. heterosepala growing conditions

[savagegarden]

purchased this u. heterosepala from a very reputable vendor and want it to thrive. searched around for a bit and couldn't find much other than the native location, Philippines, and want to mimick the best possible environment in apt in the midwest. I currently have it under 4 T5HO fluorescents, at pretty much 70F, with a light breeze off a four inch computer fan. It's in a 3x3 pot.

how high should the water line be?

yellow dis-coloration from too much light/not enough water?

 

[Tanukimo]

I would give it high humidity and if you got it from overseas it might need to be slowly acclimated to higher levels of light.

 

[hcarlton]

That yellowish crust you see forming means you need to change the soil. those are mineral deposits, either from hard water or fertilizers (both bad things for this plant). And, hard to tell from the pictures but the plant growing in the center of that pot looks more like moss than a Utric, while repotting I'd look very carefully for the plant you actually want.
And seeing as how this is a tropical plant, from what I gather it's also subaquatic, so it needs a water level above the soil line.

 

[RL7836]

I typically repot new plants so I know what's in the media & how it's been treated. You know neither with the new Utric & visually, it looks close to toxic.

Based on Bob Z's assessment of the U. heterosepala pics on the internet, it appears to be very closely related to U. graminifolia. I suggest checking out this thread for various approaches to growing.

 

[NatchGreyes]

That yellowish crust you see forming means you need to change the soil. those are mineral deposits, either from hard water or fertilizers (both bad things for this plant). And, hard to tell from the pictures but the plant growing in the center of that pot looks more like moss than a Utric, while repotting I'd look very carefully for the plant you actually want.
And seeing as how this is a tropical plant, from what I gather it's also subaquatic, so it needs a water level above the soil line.

I agree with Hawken and Ron, that definitely needs to be replanted. I also agree with Hawken that it doesn't really look like the plant is present (or it'll be hard to find).

 

[savagegarden]

welp, replanted based on the advice given here. cleaned the silica sand, peat, and LFS real well with distilled water, plant looks much happier:

I'll flood it each day like mobile recommended in the other thread, hope i get something that resembles his graminifolia!

 

[hcarlton]

Well, now I see Utric leaves at least. From the pics I'm finding U. heterosepala has a somewhat variable leaf shape, so hopefully that is what it's supposed to be....