> Hello Mister Malouf, perhaps could you help me?
> My Sarracenia purpurea doesn't want to become red.
> The lamp of my terrarium is a Grolux 18 watt ?
> Is the power good ? of must I put more light tube ?
It is ironic that I do not grow Sarracenia, even though
I live in a place where they can survive outside.
Unfortunately I am not as familiar with Sarracenia cultivation
as you had hoped.
I can offer some general guidelines. First, these plants
like to sit in direct sunshine all day long. The more
light you give them, the better. One 18 watt Grolux
is probably unsufficient.
Second, a friend of mine has conducted some experiments about
pigmentation in Sarracenia. He found that the red pigment can
be related to the presence of chemicals in the potting medium,
such as various alkaloids which leach out of pine needles on
the forest floor.
My friend prepares a "tea" by boiling peat moss in water, one
quart of peat moss per gallon of water. He then strains this
mixture through nylon stocking material and uses the resulting
tea once per week on his plants. The "tea" contains alkaloids
and other compounds which come out of the peat moss. The
Sarraceniae that have been treated with this show a vast
improvement in red pigmentation.
Perry Malouf