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AHH! DENTE!

I CANT take it! Both my typical and dente vft are doing soooooooooooooo crappy! The typical is popping out many smaller plants, but they look kinda weak and sickly. The dente is just not producing any new leaves and looks stuck in the moment. Y Y Y!
 
I dont know what to tell ya mine arent doin all that great either but then again they just took a dive off of the second floor balconey actually as of today all of my vfts have decided to take up sky diving.
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I can tell ya though that before, mine liked less light and water than the others, sounds crazy but it worked for me.
 
what kind of water do you use/ how often do you water? How old are your plants?
 
its about 1 year old and i use boiled water, all my plants use boiled and are living large!
 
I might be wrong but I think I read somewhere that there is a difference in results between boiled and distilled water. It might also might be the light and the type of soil you have the plant in.

Good Luck!

- Brett
 
Boiled tap water is even worse than using water straight from the tap. Boiling it causes water to evaporate, the minerals and salts, etc don't go anywhere and cause the water have higher amount of these lethal things.

I also live in the bay area and when I tested the tap water, it was also very alkaline. If I remember correctly, the PH level was at least 8-9, maybe more. I have killed many acid loving plants with tap (gardenia, camellia, azalea...) within weeks! The only way I can get these to survive are by applying acid fertilizer (like miracid) regularly.

I have used tap water with no bad affects on Nepenthes, but very few times. Perhaps bay area water isn't so high in minerals, but gradually the alkaline and/or mineral/salt build up is now catching upto you.
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VFT are most sensitive to impure water, Nepenthes are most tolerant. According to what Peter D'Amato told me a few years ago.
 
Anyone care to comment on what I said above? (agree or disagree?)

BTW Caph88, Are you boiling tap water or distilled/reverse osmosis water? I just assumed you were boiling tap.
 
I'm no expert, but since my VFT's (dente, red drag, green drag) are all growing so well, especially the dente, I think it's ok for me to speak up.

First of all, I agree with statik - boiling water makes things worse, unless you're collecting the steam, condensing it, and using that. Might as well just go to the market and get a gallon of distilled water for under a buck - a gallon lasts nearly a month for the 11 CP's I grow.

This might stir up some controversy, but I find that feeding (insects) helps whenever my VFT's look shriveled. I noticed that when a VFT is unhealthy, I need to feed a smaller insect than usual in order for the trap to be able to handle it. Baby spiders always work very well for me, so do small silverfish (although silverfish tend to be difficult to remove afterwards). In about three days after feeding, shriveled teeth on traps spring back straight and coloration becomes healthier. I have personally never had an overfeeding problem. When in doubt, I feed, and my VFTs seem to appreciate it.

I have personally never tried reducing light and water on an unhealthy VFT. That may or may not be good. I always give it full Southern California windowsill sun (direct for about 5 hours a day, indirect for an additional 8 hours). Humidity does not seem to be a necessity. My windowsill humidity is always below 50.

Leo
 
Ceph88,
 All boiling does is remove the chlorine from the water and concentrates the dissolved minerals in it.  Distilled, RO, or rain water are your best bets unless your tap water is pretty low in dissolved minerals.  Try flushing the soil thoroughly with distilled or RO water to remove any built up salts/minerals.  Also, have your plants had a dormancy yet?  If not they need one this fall.

Hope your plants pull through.
 
  • #10
i boil from the tap..i noe its stupid lol, but all my other plants are doing soooooooooo good! All my temperate plants had a dormanccy, but the vfts resistedfor about 1 month until they finally died dwon.
 
  • #11
Maybe the water is what killed your pygmy sundews...
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I would really only use distilled or reverse osmosis water. I noticed that my Nepenthes make smaller pitchers for a few weeks when I used tap. Probably because it was getting nutrients from roots rather than working on traps to get food.
 
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