Not sure whether to get out the black arm band or not...
MuadD'ib (MBT1159@ACS.TAMU.EDU)
Thu, 27 Apr 1995 9:14:36 -0500 (CDT)
Well, I had a real disappointment the other day. My _S. purpurea venosa_
has all but gone to that big CP bog in the sky. I've had it in a sealed
aquarium now for 3 years. It's grown slowly and could probably have been
healthier, but it had been that way for all that time. Recently I got into
a mobile home and actually had a real window in which to put my plants and
not just a sliver of glass connected to the outside world that my dorms
offered. It did a little better in the higher light, but the real
improvement came when I put a vial of water, sugar, and yeast in the far
corner of the aquarium. The deep red veins started showing up, it greened
up, and really started growing. THEN IT CAME. The chlorosis. The green
simply got a little lighter and lighter until I realized it was yellow.
Upon examination of the crown, I saw that the base of each pitcher was
necrotic. I pulled the whole plant out of the aquarium and broke the stem
open, trying to save a small portion that had not yet completely died. I
cleaned and repotted it, then re-examined the rest of the plant. The roots
appeared to be fine, but the crown was just rotten. I cut the thick roots
(approx. 2-3 mm in diameter) into 3" sections and put them in cells and
Jiffy pellets with the hope that at least a few will re-establish (someone
please let me know if this even has a chance of working).
The only explanation I could come up with as to why it began rotting so
coincidentally with the introduction of high CO2 is that beneficial
micro-organisms were inhibited in growth and harmful ones then took hold.
Anybody have any other clues?
Mournfully,
Matt in Aggieland