Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 07:32:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Andrew Marshall <andrewm@eskimo.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2201$foo@default> Subject: Sarracenia and Nepenthes answers
Hi Folks, Hi Peter, Hi Matt,
Peter, in answer to your Sarracenia question,
> I have a question for members who are growing S.purpurea.purpurea and
> S.minor. I have been grow these two plants for about a year now, they
> don't seem to be growing too much. My question is the following:
>
> How deep is the rhizome suppose to be planted from the surface?
It should be planted so that it lays horizontal and so that the
upper surface is exposed. The back end, the non-growing end may be buried
if it so curves downwards, but don't bury the crown.
>
> How deep and wide should the container be? Drained or undrained
This depends on the size of the plants. I will assume mature,
flowering plants and advise at least six inches accross (roughly 15 cm)
and for the purp, shallow. For the minor, it can be deeper to accomadate
the plants preference for slightly higher water tables.
Matt, in answer to your Nepenthes question,
> Up until a month or so ago, it still had all of the original pitchers
> it had when I bought it. Then the pitchers started to go brown and
> die, one at a time, the oldest first. The plant has about 5 pitchers on
> it now, One dead from the top to halfway down, one with the lid just
> turning brown, and three healthy pitchers. There are a couple of
> growing but unopened ones too.
> I thought it might be the lowest leaves dying off while the crown
> continued to grow, but I really don't know. They DO seem to be dying
> oldest to youngest pitchers.
>
> I mist it every day, feed it crickets, etc. No fertilizer.
>
> Can anyone offer any suggestions or thoughts as to why the pitchers
> might be dying..? I hope to take care of it before the whole plant
> goes, if there really is a problem.
From your description, I would say that this is a natural reaction
to feeding too many crickets. The sequence of die off suggests what
happens normally. The traps capture as much as they are able to handle,
digest it and die off, from the top down so as not to attract more prey
(IMHO). Ease off on the cricket feeding for a while and see what happens.
I have noticed among my many plants that when I over feed, they often will
stop producing traps for a while, and in extreme cases like some that I
rescued once from an orchid grower, it was years before they produced
anything at all. They had been fertilized heavily as orchids are to
induce blooming and had shut down.
I wouldn't worry about what is happening to the traps on your
Nepenthes. If the leaves also go, this can be normal as well, but only if
they are being replaced faster then they are dieing off, and if it is from
the bottom up.
Best of luck to you both,
Good growing
Andrew
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