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Chompy





Hey, i got some problems with my VFT and i would like your help.
They are getting worse by each week. They are in this situation for 2 months if im not mistaken.
They grow by the window, they get around 7 hours of full sun/day, at around 25*C now, they experienced even 38*C, the always had water in the tray, and about feeding, i was afraid to feed them because they will lose even more energy by eating, and they look like they don't have enough already.
My guess is that the soil is to blame, because i transplanted them 2 months ago( since then they are going worse and worse), and at that time i didnt know that i need to rinse the media several times, and it's forming mold or fungus at the upper side. And i think it might have some residual minerals.
I want to know what is your guess and what i might do...
Thanks in advance,
Andy!
 
What is the media composed of?
 
also, how deep was the water in the tray (i.e. how many inches below the soil surface was the water level)?
 
What type of water are you giving them? I see some kind of salt build up on top of the soil.
 
i am giving them only pure water, and the tray is only one inch deep. the pot has 6-7inch i guess.
The media is supposed to be peat moss, and what you see on it is not salt, i water them only by tray method and the upper part of the media is never soggy, cause i had some problems, and that's why i transplanted them, when they showed signs of crown root, and now i water them just for the upper media to just feel it wet by touching it.
 
a couple of suggestions... what do you mean by "pure water?" if you use collected rain water, bottled distilled water, or reverse osmosis-filtered water you should be OK. depending on how hard your tap water is, filtering with a charcoal filter like Pur or Brita is often inadequate to remove salts and other nasties. also, if you're using bottled spring water, that stuff is loaded with added minerals (for taste) that don't taste too good to CPs... :puke:

also... if your stuff is planted in peat moss, what brand of peat is it? many brands contain fertilizer pellets (even if not directly stated on the packaging) that will kill your plants given enough time

perhaps your plants are too wet in the all-peat mix? peat moss retains moisture and doesn't drain as well as it might with added sand or perlite (or some combination thereof)

finally... maybe these plants are just pouting because they were recently transplanted ???
 
The water is bottled water purified through reverse osmosis.
I am watering several D.capensis, aliciae and a Ping. Tina with the same water but they have peat moss from another brand, which i also took the advice from growsundews.com and rinsed it thoroughly before i transplanted the little ones in it. I don't know the brand from the peat moss from the VFT, but the mold or fungus it's developing is not making me happy at all. Few days ago i even had a fight with my gf, cause they're actually theirs, if i should transplant them again into the new peat i tried and it's showing much better results, or it will be too disturbing for them, and they might actually die quicker.
 
flooding the pot from the top and letting it drain out the holes multiple times could remove the nutrients
also throw out the mold chunks, they're not doing the plant any good
 
I will try to flood the media then.
If i do throw out the mold chunks everytime they show up, ill end up with no soil for the plants to grow in. I always throw it away, and it keeps appearing again...
 
  • #10
throw out the stuff before you flood, or you'll be washing the media with mold
 
  • #11
as far as repotting goes... if it has been at least a few weeks since your last repot then I'd go for it... but keep in mind that continually repotting might lead you to believe whatever problem you were trying to fix in the first place is still happening, even though you really may have fixed the problem with your first repot and now you're just pissing your plant off by disturbing it so much after the initial upset. generally every time i've repotted more frequently than that i've ended up killing my plants.

if you think it's time to take drastic measures, one thing you could do is get some sulfur-based fungicide (not sure what is readily available in your country... just stay away from anything with copper in it) and drench the surface of the soil with it every week, making sure to flush it well afterwards. if you do repot, it might help to give the roots a nice soak with fungicide (and a thorough rinse afterwards).

EDIT: *IF* you decide another repot is necessary, you might want to sterilize your media before doing that. i see you followed the instructions on growsundews.com for rinsing the peat, but that won't remove all mold and algal spores... just *most* of them. some people boil or microwave their media before using it (obviously letting it cool completely first). there are other threads here about how to do that. just my $.02... but, only repot again if all other options have failed.
 
  • #12
Have a problem?Burn it down. Huh... :p I will try to was the media first. If the plants held up with this much heroism until now, they will handle a little bit with a better washed soil. If they will still not thrive, i'll change the media. Now im thinking, if they are in this situation, would be ok to give them dormancy.
One interesting fact: last winter when i wanted to give the mother plant a dormancy period of 3 months, I've put her upstairs, cause my gf is living in an appartment at the last floor, in a room with around 5*C, little to no light, for like i said, 3 months. She had the best time of her life in that "cave". She was green, healthy, nice looking and hard leaves. So i reckon she didnt had a dormancy last winter....
 
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