FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

My Pinguicula moranensis "F Vera Paz" is growing nicely. Look at the leaf jump in the new growth since it arrived on October 28th.

It shows no signs of going into a succulent state. Should I be concerned or give it a year to acclimate to the seasons in its new home? Should I be doing something different? It looks happy but I'm a Ping neophyte and don't know for sure.

Current conditions are 9 hours of LED light, synced with local daylight photoperiod. ( Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 43 Deg. N.) Temperature varies from 70 daytime to 55 at night. Humidity is 50 percent dropping to 25 during the day. It does not sit in water, but I water it when I think it needs it, less than once a week. I'll put an 1/8 inch of water in the tray.

Good growing,
Mike

It won't go succulent if you keep watering it :p

Leathal_Traps wrote:It won't go succulent if you keep watering it :p

Thanks, I was waiting for it to go succulent before I withheld water. I guess I got that backwards. The tray is dry now, haven't watered it in several days. The Winter drought has officially begun.

Will it start growing normal leaves on its own in Spring, or do I trigger that by watering it again in 3 months?

Good growing,
Mike

the three things I do that lets my pings know that it's Winter is: reduction of photoperiod, reduction of water, and reduction of temps. I start with the photoperiod and water reduction, then when they start putting out Winter form leaves I put them on a cool windowsill. when having carnivorous leaves I water every week; to get them to go sleepy I cut that to every 2 weeks. works like a charm and mine are currently in their Winter forms (except for the leaf-pull baby I did earlier this year lol)

It's not a huge deal, and won't harm the plant if it doesn't go succulent. Reducing photoperiod, from what I understand, just mimics the slightly less intense sun they receive during the winter (being equatorial, the photoperiod really doesn't change much). Lowering watering is always necessary, sometimes they won't go succulent and just dry out instead. I believe that it is best just to water according whatever stage the plant is in.

This year, my cyclos and esseriana went succulent as the photoperiod dropped and nights got cooler, despite still being wet. However, most of the succulent plants from BCP woke up, likely just due to the change in conditions, so I have watered them instead of trying to force a succulent stage upon them.

Mine went succulent on their own time. It was up to ME to lessen up the watering, otherwise be stuck in an endless succulent form.

IIRC P. moranensis and related species will happily grow year-round without entering a succulent phase if the conditions remain good for active growth.

Here's an update on my Ping.

I stopped watering it (except for one spritz weekly) and it did two things for me.

First, it started putting out Green succulent leaves. The new leaves are getting the same light as the old ones but are not becoming Pink. They show no trace of the Drool Lip that the summer leaves have. And they look much thicker than the Summer leaves.

Second, it sent up a flower scape. When it opens, I'll cut the flower open and pollinate it. Maybe there will be some seeds to donate to the Seedbank in the not too distant future.

Thank you to the Ping People who offered help. It worked.

Good growing,
Mike

If you're interested in crossing instead, I have flowering P. esseriana and a flowering P. emarginata.

Benurmanii wrote:If you're interested in crossing instead, I have flowering P. esseriana and a flowering P. emarginata.

Thanks for the offer, but I think I want to get some Pinguicula species seeds in the seedbank. This seems to be a nice "Starter" Ping and I want to spread it around.

Good growing,
Mike