Re: HELP ! S. Flava 'Maxima' is d(r)ying

From: Wim Leys (Wim.Leys@vlm.be)
Date: Wed Jun 17 1998 - 07:19:04 PDT


Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 16:19:04 +0200
From: Wim Leys <Wim.Leys@vlm.be>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2071$foo@default>
Subject: Re: HELP ! S. Flava 'Maxima' is d(r)ying

I was asked to translate my reply.

> A couple of weeks ago I bought a (big) S. Flava "Maxima".
> The plant was doing well until last week when the pitchers suddenly
> started drying & shrinking.
> In three days there was almost nothing left of the big plant except
> the flower but that one went also down in the weekend.
> I checked the roots of the plant and they were fine, I could not see a

> fungus on the rhizome, nor were there bugs in the soil.
> I kept the plant in the same conditions as my other Sarrs. which are
> doing fine.
>
> Has anyone ever seen this weird drying effect and/or knows what to do
> to save the plant, please e-mail me.

I have, regrettably, also some experience with the dying of pitchers -
and eventually the whole plant - as you described. The rhizome becomes
dark brown on the inside. This mostly happens in spring (or at least
that's when I notice it), and mostly with plants that grew for too long
in the same mixture. It often starts at an old piece of rhizome.

The only solution (curative) I know is to cut *everything* away that has
the faintest appearance of being brown. Sometimes you may end up with
nothing more than a piece of the growing tip. I have never been able to
save a plant in that condition. Acting as soon as possible is the only
way of dealing with this.

I don't know how to prevent this from happening. Perhaps someone on the
list may know what is causing it. Each year I lose about 10 plants to
this phenomenon. On a 1000+ plants this is "only" less than 1 %, but
this is still a lot more than I like.

Kind regards
Wim



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