FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I got two plants from the Rainbow site, 1 Ehlersiae which is doing great and one Cyclosecta which isn’t doing well. This was beginning of February.

They came wrapped in a paper towel inside a little plastic cup. I watched a video about potting them as I have really never done that at the start. I used some plastic tweezers to gently try to tease the roots out a bit so they would go into the hole in the medium and grow as normal. Both plants didn’t really seem to have any long roots, so I just crossed my fingers.

Since the Cyclosecta especially over the last week has seemed to look more and more unhealthy I decided to check to see if they were even rooted in the soil. With very gentle pressure I tried lifting them both. The ehlersiae is definitely well rooted, but the Cyclosecta is still just sitting on top of the medium. Yesterday I again tried gently cleaning the roots and nestling it in a hole, but I figured I should probably inquire about it as well.

I’m using medium I bought a couple bags of from the Rainbow site. I also have their crushed seashell mix, but I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to mix that with the peat/perlite/vermiculite mixture or if it was more something you’re supposed to use by itself. I’m not sure how you’d get the roots to grow into that either as you can’t exactly make a hole in the same way as with the peat mix. I’ve read that a lot of times it’s trial and error with ping medium. Like what works well for a plant with one person may not work for someone else, so should I try the seashell mix by itself and how does that even work with the roots? Just stick it on top?

I have it at a window that gets natural light for all but a couple hours a day, and I’ve had my grow lamps on too because we’re not really having consistent spring weather in Ohio yet so it’s been a lot of extremely overcast days. And obviously I keep the medium slightly moist. Side by side pics with ehlersaie on the left and cyclosecta to the right.

That looks Iooks bad. It looks like brown heart disease which is terminal. Now, keep in mind that I have a terrible time with pings, but I think all you can do is hope to get solid pullings to try and get a strike.

Yeah, what Panman said, and if I were you, I'd move my pullings to a different pot. Might not help but it won't hurt.

Wow what a bummer. A quick search says that it can be from excess water? I’m not sure how else it could have happened based on the fact that everything in the two pots is identical.

Any idea why the roots never grew down? The brown center was just a bit of odd color a couple weeks ago. I actually thought it was a tiny bit of medium on the plant, but when I went to remove it with tweezers I realized it was part of the plant. It was so tiny though it looked like maybe just a bit of purple coloration.

So I guess repotting the plant won’t help either? Should I worry that the leaves I pull may have the disease and spread it to other pulling? The one I pulled that’s in the pot was pulled yesterday or the day before and looked pretty good and it already looks perhaps a bit shriveled? I’m not sure if I should put that in the new pot with the others either. Most of the leaves look like they have a tiny bite taken off the end so are those even viable? I’ve taken a closer picture for reference. I’m not sure if I should just try all the leaves that aren’t brown in a pot and give up on the full plant or only some leaves because maybe some of them are carriers?

I’m assuming I should try to stay with the current medium? The Ehlersaie seems to be thriving although I’m certainly not an expert. Thank you for the help, I never would have figured that out on my own.

Lastly when I googled the disease I got a thread from here talking about potential fixes like some peroxide spray, anyone know about that?

I'd take at least the whole lowest ring of leaves off and spread them among many pots to try to propagate them. After that, use what's left of the plant to experiment with cures for the brown heart disease. If/when this plant dies, sterilize or discard the soil.

BTW, I've had better luck getting strikes by laying the leaf flat, curved side up, just being sure the white (stem) end is the medium. april-2024-photo-contest-stuck-on-you-t ... ml#p449827

Those are beautiful, thank you. Unfortunately I only have two more of those pots and the one I took my VFT out of. I’m new to all of this so I don’t have as much on hand as most folks.

Your medium looks more rocky… I may try two pots with the same medium as I have there and maybe one mixing that with the shell mix I had bought. Might have better luck trying two different types? Is there anything different about caring for just leaves than the whole plant? Again thank you.

Sorry for all the questions. I’m a little bit OCD when it comes to needing to follow instructions at least until I get used to something.

I can try experimenting, but I’m wondering like how long would you try a cure before probably lightly washing the plant and starting something else? I have no idea what I’m doing so I’d just be using whatever I can find other people try on the internet.

As far as my medium, we just did a thread: all-mineral-media-t59534.html

Pings can grow in shallow pots. If you still have those plastic cups that the plants arrived in, punch a hole or two in the bottom and use them. The leaves won't care and you can replant them later when they've grown. You can similarly use pretty much any shallow-ish plastic container - providing you add drainage holes. So frozen dinner trays, deli salad portion cups, whatever.

Oh yeah I saw that and bookmarked it actually thank you.

I think my brain has at least temporarily lost the ability to think even a millimeter outside the box or at least some of that would have occurred to me lol. For the moment I have a few leaves in each pot. I figured it might work. 2 pots have the peat mix from rainbow, and 1 has that in the bottom with some of the shell/calcium mix at the very top. We shall see if I’m lucky.

I actually just realized looking back at 1st day pics how many leaves the ehlersaie has grown. I somehow missed it even though I see it everyday. It makes me happy that I have retained one plant I got at least. For now anyhow, knock on wood and all that.