FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi,
My husband and I have had a Butterwort for the last 2.5years and it has lived happily on our south facing bathroom windowsill producing yound plants. This autumn we moved it a bit away from the windowsill so that it did not catch the cold from the window and noticed after a month that some of the smaller plants were dying, we thought this was normal die back but moved it back onto the windowsill in case in had not liked the move, this then it just continues to die one plant at a time. We have not repotted it and we have tried reducing the amount of water it has but to no avail.
The plant pot gives no name except pinquicula but I have attached a picture of the poorly plant and the younger well plant.

IF you have any suggestions that would be great thank you

I don't know much about pings, I have thriving primuliflora, but yours appears to be a Mexican variety.

My only solid recommendation would be to examine the roots for rot and give it a good rinse and repot. Again, I don't know much about pings, but the media in the second pic looks a bit too dry and very dense - perhaps a more airy mix will serve you well.

Looks to be a Ping. Agnata. Have you ever put it through a dormancy?

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

Thanks for your recommendations, we did read somewhere about that we might be watering it to much so I think we will try reducing that and repotting.

Try repotting into an all mineral non-peat mix. I have my mexican pings in the all-mineral mix and they love it. Mexican pings do better with less water and a very airy mix (right now mine get watered once every 2 weeks); you can also use straight perlite with a layer of LFS in the bottom to hold water to keep them moist. Don't worry about the cool window either; mine are on a cool windowsill and they are fine

I don't grow Pings, but that soil looks really compacted, which is bad for any plant. There is likely little to no oxygen getting to the roots.

Benurmanii wrote:I don't grow Pings, but that soil looks really compacted, which is bad for any plant. There is likely little to no oxygen getting to the roots.

I agree. I've gotten flack a time or two because people have said that my VFT mixes look like it has too much perlite in it. I'm mixing it the way a lot of more experienced growers mix it: 50/50 by volume (4 scoops of peat, then 4 scoops of perlite). I haven't had a problem with root rot or anything like that. it's the same mixes I use for my sundews, VFTs, Sarrs, Neps, etc. and they all seem to be doing great a little oxygen goes a long way where roots are concerned

Also stop top watering this solved that problem for me pings get root rot easier


Sent by My Stihl chainsaw

My apologies for not seeing this sooner, I've been away and accessing the forums was a bit tricky. Firstly, welcome to the forums! Hopefully we can help to resolve your butterwort problems.

The plant you have are from a group known as Mexican Pinguicula, which may also sometimes be categorized as succulent carnivorous plants due to their fleshy leaves and ability to store water over winter. Do you have a photograph of one of the fully formed flowers? I can see part of a flower in the first image but it isn't entirely clear as to the colouring - this would help us identify a species, although many Mexican Pinguicula have the same (or very, very similar) basic care needs.

Repotting sounds like a great idea, the soil does look quite dense; many Mexican ping species can be found growing in the crags of limestone cliff faces, so they aren't accustomed to growing in dense soil, which some plant nurseries (not ones dedicated to carnivorous plants) will sell them in. For these particular plants, you can use 50:50 peat and perlite or silica sand with success if you are careful with watering. There are lots of soil mixes available that we can always discuss further if you'd like to, you've already been given some great advice on that front.

It is possible that the plant is experiencing some rot, which would cause a gradual decline. Unfortunately Mexican Pinguicula/butterworts can be prone to it, so reducing watering and repotting (into an airier mix) should help if that is indeed the issue.

There could be a few different factors that come into play here, but the soil looks like it may be a larger part in that, if not the whole, so that'd be great to look into first.