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Mystery disease: Before, during, and after

Here's a little photologue of the disease that hit my flytraps. My biggest, oldest VFT didn't make it, but it looks like the D. muscipula 'Pink Venus' i got this year will pull through... although in a rather strange way. See for yourself:

Before:
20030619-CP-D.muscipula%20'Pink%20Venus'.jpg


During:
20030731-CP-D.muscipula%20'Pink%20Venus'-%20diseased.jpg


After:
20031015-CP-D.muscipula%20'Pink%20Venus'-recovering%20from%20disease%20as%20plantlet%20sprouts.jpg


As you can see, the disease (anthracnose? Anyone know?) killed it down to the soil. I put it out in the sun when i moved, and the sunlight seems to have coaxed the last remnants to make a comeback... in force! There are a whole bunch of little plantlets growing from the remains of the plant.

I have a few questions about this. I want to try to bring the plant back from the dead a bit more before dormancy, but then i was thinking that these look like seedlings/baby plants anyway, maybe they can get by without a dormancy this year? Should i separate them, or are they all going to be attached to the same rootstock? Has this happened to anybody's plant before?

Finally, does anybody know what the disease was? It scared me pretty bad, and cost me my best VFT. I don't want to go through that again! I bought some neem oil spray (water-based) after a while, and it may or may not have helped the plants i sprayed. It's hard to say. Anybody have a definite success with neem?
 
My Pink Venus didn't get as large as yours, but currently looks the same. Perhaps it wanted to go dormant? Mine is still growing, its just very small.
 
OMG!
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  Thats scary.  I have no clue what happened, but I'm just glad you have some plantlets so that it wasn't a total loss.
 
I've been using Neem spray to hold back the Botrytis that besieges my CPs (also known as the beast from the AC unit). So far all of the plants I've sprayed, including purps, leucos, VFTs, and D. Binata have shown no ill effects. My D. Rotundifolia, however, seems to have withdrawn into a hibernacula (I may put it in the fridge this weekend). It looks like a bunch of little green nibs, like leaves that never fully formed. It's still green, so I'm convinced of it's survival.

Now if only I could get University services to clean my AC unit
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its like a scene from a horror movie
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. Zongyi
 
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!! My gawd every one of my VFTs (well... save the 19 seedlings) has that! So, what is it and what do I do?

Help!

Geeetings,
FTG
 
Flytrap Gurl:

First, breathe into a paper bag.

Second, it may be simply that they are trying to go dormant - which looks very similar.  If this hadn't happened in the middle of summer (and killed it down to a few plantlets), i would have thought that of mine, too.  Please somebody correct me if i'm wrong, but usually when leaves die, they start at the end and work their way down, turning black.  With this disease, the black can start anywhere on the leaf (although usually at some edge) and spread until the whole thing is dead.

Finally, if you really are concerned, get a CP-approved fungicide and treat them.

Cynic:  Is that what that nasty fuzzy white stuff was growing on my dorm AC?  Does it actually infect the plants, or just cover them with unsightly fuzz?  Thanks for sharing your experience with neem. I'm most concerned/curious about how it affects Cephs. My ceph is dying back a bit, with similar symptoms (blackening leaves, etc), and i'm not sure if it's infected or whether it doesn't like the neem spray. I REALLY don't want to lose my ceph!
 
I was just wondering on the plantlets in the picture, are they still attatched to the bulb, or is the whole bulb of the vft dead, leaving behind those mini plants.
Also, I was wondering if this fungicide made by shultz I think, is ok to use on the plants, it's like a three in one thing, (a fungicide, insectacide, and the third is like something that kills little tiny bugs like mits I think.)  by the way it's sold everywhere... so you've probably seen it before.
The reason I need it is because the white part of the bulb seems to be turning all black and mushy.  I've been keeping the overall plant on the drier side and watering only when needed...It still seems to be spreading turning black though...
Is it a fungus or what?
 
D. Muscipula: I'm not sure about the mold infecting. I got concerned when it started covering pieces of wood interspersed in the moss. I asked for an ID of it and Botrytis got a lot of votes. I'm not sure if it just covers or infects, but I'm not really willing to wait and find out
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. I just hope my plants hold out until Christmas and I can put them in the fridge (I'd do it at Thanksgiving, but I'm visiting realtives in NH and won't be able to go home). I'm not sure how the Neem would affect cephs, as I don't grow any, so you'll have to find out for yourself on that. Try spraying one pitcher and see if it reacts negatively.

The stuff I'm using is also the water-based three-in-one stuff (Insecticide, fungicide, miticide). The label says it's safe to use on tomatoes and veggies, so I guess CPs would be okay (especially since I've yet to see a negative reaction from my plants after over a month of use. *knocks on wood*).

BTW: My plants are doing great under the CF Bulb. Thanks again for your help last summer
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  • #10
that dying back from the edges of the leaves can indicate spider mite attack. these are not insects, so dont respond well to insecticides, you need an acaricide, and you need to spray the undersides of the leaves cos thats where they live, or try submerging the plants in water for a week or so. if it is spider mites, you will need a x20 hand lens to see them as they are tiny!
 
  • #11
Interesting. Do spider mites usually kill entire healthy plants? And do they not attack dews and neps?

Here's a pic of the plant that was killed, early in the stages of the disease/infestation:
20030731-CP-D.muscipula-%20diseased.jpg


I hadn't thought the leaves and traps all died back from the edges, but it kind of looks that way from this photo, too. Has anybody else had spider mites do similar-looking damage?
 
  • #12
That plant is really impressive and it died?
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Why are VFTs such wimps? ARGH
 
  • #13
So sorry to hear that
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Glad to hear the pink venus survived (those things are expensive),it`s just too bad you`r biggest plant had to die (I know how I`d feel if my grape fruit tree that I raised from a seed died),also I think you could get away without dormancy this e=year.
 
  • #14
That was a nice set of traps there. Do these kind of random diseases occur often?
 
  • #15
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (flyboy12 @ Oct. 18 2003,9:59)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">That was a nice set of traps there. Do these kind of random diseases occur often?[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it?

I wish i knew

1- What it was

2- If it will happen again

and

3- How to prevent that!
 
  • #16
D musc, you mean my plants have been going into dormancy since March? Seems unlikely...

They have been getting better since I flushed out the pots every day for a week two months ago... maybe they will start looking better after I repot them later on in the winter... Also, every one of my VFTs have been totally teensy and weak all year... Oh well... maybe the 19 seedlings will turn out better...
 
  • #17
D. Muscipula, do you think its possible that the plant died back in reaction to its new environment? I have a typical that I bought last summer from a local nursery that died completely to the ground to the point I literally left it for dead for several weeks. Then by chance I happened to glance into its pot one day and saw new sprouts. Since then it has been growing like a champ.

Also a question for you and FTG, are the plants that are having problems ones you let flower this year? Do you think the problems might be weakening from flowering?

Steve
 
  • #18
Actually, the one that died DID flower this year, and set seed. However, none of the other affected VFTs flowered this year. The flowering may have made the difference between living and dying, but it didn't determine who got sick or not.

Unfortunately, the disease began before the move. Otherwise, i'd just chock it up to environmental changes.

FTG: I didn't realize it had been that way since March. It sounds like you might have a bad soil mix, since flushing the pots helped. Or, you've been watering with tap water. Finally, the fact that ALL of your plants have been sickly all year suggests that something is wrong with the growing conditions. In the case of my plants, they were growing great until WHAM! They started dying back.

Perhaps your plants missed dormancy last year, and have been trying to go dormant all summer?
 
  • #19
hhhm , that kinda happened to one of my flytraps before , it was a dionaea muscipula ' red variety ' . the plant looks great and well grown then later the whole top part of the plant dies and only a few shoots come out , weird ehh .
 
  • #20
Hello there,

The same thing happened to me, with the dying of leaves...Only, I keep getting new leaves growing. Not only that, it's very unpredictable as to which leaf this happens to, when, and also, new leaves/ traps have begun to sprout out from different sides of my pot. The same dying effect happens on my nearby sundew as well as pitcher plants. I've been trying to figure out if it's just a lack of humidity.
 
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