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Akai ryu's leaves doing weird things...

  • #21
Gotta add my 2 cents, too.
I have mine on the tray method for the summer.

I used Darcie's method for my VFTs durring their dormancy. Seems like it worked. Keeps the soil just moist.
 
  • #22
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (schloaty @ Feb. 28 2003,9:45)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Gotta add my 2 cents, too.
I have mine on the tray method for the summer.

I used Darcie's method for my VFTs durring their dormancy.  Seems like it worked.  Keeps the soil just moist.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Thanks. Glad it worked....

And I keep my plant in about 1/2cm water during the summer letting is dry slightly weekly. I'm sure their are many ways that work, mine is just the cautious meathoid, and of corse, red dragons always need a little extra care. Oh yah, and I don't use fungiside, so it's more importent to regulate conditions
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(If I were to get any more nerotic about my plants I'd have to put in moisture gadges, and I do have personal resons for dislikeing blanket tray meathoids. I lost my first two plants that way and was only told after their death about how the pots need to dry off a little and how stagnent water is bad(specially if you have no live sphagnum))

I just try to give the most compleat growing instructions possible without barking at people to go buy lights to shine on their plant (something that is a pain and not everyone will want to do). And of corse, in this proticular thred, I was addressing a plant showing the classic "I can't take the water" symptoms, in addition to that, we are talking about a red dragon, a plant that requires much much more light to handle the same amount of water as other plants without dieing, but a typical plant will grow well in the dragons conditions too, which is why I figure, if you have to do it for a week plant, you should be doing it for a strong plant, lol
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Oh yah, and I also am a big fan of using live sphagnum as a conditions indicator. Chances are, if it is happy, so is the VFT. My sphagnum usually spoors once every week or two and each strand grows about 1 inch per year after it's origenal growth spurt of about 1 inch in 2 months (only counting long lived fleshy part, not the short term reproductive organs). From what I have heard, thats fairly good, right?
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hee hee, I remember my first sprig bit fondly. It was stuck next to the vft for the heck of it by the grower (asked in an e-mail). I was actually more worried about killing my sprout then the vft, lol. Then one day it made a spoor head and when it dried and dabbed it againced the soil in hopes of babies. I was so excited when they came, by the next year they had taken over the pot. Now, I collect the spoor head for other pots and the little 1inch green heads conseal a tangle of dead peat being made. Sorry, I got nestelgic their.
 
  • #23
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Jeremiah @ Feb. 28 2003,09:41)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I totally agree with BigCarnivourKid
I let mine VFTs sit in ½ in of water at all times
I repot mine a lot with great results
give them as much light a possible[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Oh, yah, repotting isn't an issue for me either, I just don't recomend it in case the plant does take a turn for the worse, because if your new to the plants, you won't know how to pull it back from the brink
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Their not like cape sundew where you can pull the roots to shreds and have them survive.
 
  • #24
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Darcie @ Feb. 28 2003,11:46)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">And of corse, in this proticular thred, I was addressing a plant showing the classic "I can't take the water" symptoms, in addition to that, we are talking about a red dragon, a plant that requires much much more light to handle the same amount of water as other plants without dieing, but a typical plant will grow well in the dragons conditions too, which is why I figure, if you have to do it for a week plant, you should be doing it for a strong plant, lol
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[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Darcie,

I am going to have to disagree with almost everything you have said here. All VFTs are capable of taking conditions from submerged to just damp and none will try to "escape" these conditions as it is what they evolved to grow in. A plant can not make a consious decision to not like the amount of water it is exposed to and "lift" itself away. If a plant gets too much water it has 2 choices: tough it out or rot and die. As far as special conditions, the 'Akai Red' VFT does not need any treatment different from a typical VFT, I have my 'Akai' in a window box with a type, 'Dentate' and 'Green Dragon' and all are thriving. If you want it to be red then you need to give it good light but it does not require the light to grow like a normal plant. If grown under lower light conditions all you get is a well grown 'Akai Red' that just stays green. It does not need to be kept drier, I know the guy who created the 'Akai Red' and he has one that he has grow submerged for 2 seasons and it is a monster.

I believe that BCK hit the nail on the head when he said it was likely that soil had just been washed away from the bulb of the plant. This happens all the time when top watering until the soil compacts to normal levels.

Back to the original topic at hand, My plant did something similar with the whole colour change thing. I never was able to figure out why but towards the end of last season and now with new growth I am not seeing it. So maybe it is just an artifact of transplant and establishment. Or maybe there are some trace minerals in the soil that have not fully flushed and these are having an effect.
 
  • #25
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Pyro @ Feb. 28 2003,1:17)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I believe that BCK hit the nail on the head when he said it was likely that soil had just been washed away from the bulb of the plant. This happens all the time when top watering until the soil compacts to normal levels.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
That would be true, but I don't top water. I was just keeping the plants in about a quarter inch of water for about a week and the peat seemed almost completely waterlogged. Hmm, now i'm not sure if I want to leave them in the water 24/7 or do it every so often.
 
  • #26
Sorry I missed that part
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Soil can stil compact when sitting in the tray though, it happened with all my Sarrs a while back. If it is an option, conside top watering your plant. I do this with all mine, it helps keep the soil flushed and you can do it on an erratic schedule to to simulate the various water levels it would experience in the wild.
 
  • #27
The only problem I have with top watering is if you have a mix of peat and perlite the perlite will float into some of your traps and trigger them. This really has nothing to do with the original topic but hey, neither do the last bunch of replies.
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  • #28
Ok, so that one's gone. Still not too sure what happened. The other one that was in the pot that was doing ok is now showing the same symptoms only slower. I still don't understand what would cause an 'Akai Ryu' to go from green to red to yellow and then I believe to brown...they don't even look like they're turning black like normal dead traps. Oh well, the rest of them are doing fine. Just wish I knew what it was that did it in.
 
  • #29
I'm no expert,but, what Darcie said about VFTS is true. They do grow in sandy poccosins ,wherin pine trees also occur. The roots tell the story-upto a foot deep(searching for water in wild grown plants).My information comes from various sources. Root length in plants always suggest a hunt for water(and minerals)during drought conditions,again,suggesting in its natural environ these plants go through dry spells. To confirm many people let the soil dry a little between waterings. Also VFTS have a tendency to pull themselves deeper into the soil at times through their roots(Dr. Samuel Vergio Miensinompe).
 
  • #30
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Vertigo @ Mar. 18 2003,12:41)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Ok, so that one's gone.  Still not too sure what happened.  The other one that was in the pot that was doing ok is now showing the same symptoms only slower.  I still don't understand what would cause an 'Akai Ryu' to go from green to red to yellow and then I believe to brown...they don't even look like they're turning black like normal dead traps.  Oh well, the rest of them are doing fine.  Just wish I knew what it was that did it in.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Vertigo:
Didn't I already answer this question? Your plants are too wet and getting crown rot. Those are the EXACT symptoms of it. Red Dragons are more sensitive to rot then other plants thats why it was the first to go. The green ment low light, the change to red is actually a shut down of the chloroplast revealing the underlieing pigment like that of a maple leaf (anyone who has seen a green red dragon leaf die will have seen it turn redish orange first). Then the plant removes the red/orange pigments (of which their are more of in even a green red dragon leaf) yeilding yellow. Finally the moisture and last of the pigments are removed leaving the leaf brown. When the leaf gets soggy it startd to decompose and becomes black.

These same color changes happen in normal leaves, but with less ovious contrasts.

Zappafan: Thank you for your support. Now all we need is to take everyong on a field trip, lol.
 
  • #31
Darcie,

I guess I got a little lost in the post. I took the little guy out of the tray he was in, and put it a little closer to the light. If it's not too late, I guess i'd either see new growth, or whatever healthier looking leaves that are left pick up a little more. Thanks for the help.
 
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