Re: Sick Nepenthes
Kenneth Leong (Kenneth.Leong1@jcu.edu.au)
Sun, 26 Mar 1995 11:31:41 +1000 (+1000)
>
>
>
>
> > To All,
> > I have a Nepenthes ventricosa at the moment, that has
> > developed
> > black patches on some of its leaves, and the other leaves have gone
> > a light yellow color, and are quite limp. The pitchers aren't dying
> > off which is good, but they don't appear to be developing anymore.
> > I've had the plant since November '94, and up until around three
> > weeks ago all was well.
> > Does anyone have any suggestions on what's wrong with it?
>
>
>
>
Is your plant getting enough nutrients? Ie does it seem to be catching
any insects at all? If it is not root rot or disease, it may not be
getting it's supply of food. In this case, a suitable dose of proper
plant food might help. I have a N.Maxima as part of my collection which
does not grow particularly fast or pitcher well in our very tropical
climate. It has many big leaves and only one 2cm pitcher. Because it
was doing quite well and caught a few ants now and again, I didn't
bother to give it fertiliser. But one day, I saw that it was getting
yellow in bits of the leaves and brown as well with light yellow spots
on the normally dark green leaves. I checked the roots and they were ok
so I then fed it diluted fish emulsion (poured into peat and spaghnum)
around the plant. Within a couple of days, the leaves started going
dark green again. The plant is doing fine now and has a few promising
pitcher tips coming out. I had never had this problem with my tropical
nepenthes because of their fast growth and pitcher development so they
catch heaps of ants and occasional cockroaches.
All the best,
Kenny Leong.