FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I have been growing sarracenia for a year and this time is the first time I did the fridge dormancy method, with slight modification of glass door cooler and good airflow, controlled watering every week. I have this excellens rhizome that I took out on friday, looking really promising after 3 months of dormancy in the fridge like this



Then since I had to go away for a biz trip for 3 days, I decided to take it out at night for cool temp and did not repot at all, rather leaving it in full sphagnum moss like that, in that cup and just watered with a tray underneath, spraying a couple of times before leaving.
I came back on Tuesday only to find the a lot of green parts have been blackened and the green shoot doesn't grow at all.






I started to clean it up a bit, trimming off the dead leftover leaves and only to find the rhizome is so soft, and then I freaked out craving out the dead parts until what is left is this. The only thing looks good for me is the root and that is it.





I think it is pretty much done for this one yet I really want to investigate what might cause this, and what is the real problem so I could prevent for other rhizomes that I have not taken out yet.
For now I just repot it into 50/50 lsfm and perlite, hoping for a miracle in vain. There is no way this one can recover right?

So far I have gathered what I did wrong in this was, not adjusting temp gradually up enough, like from 10C to 28-30C in the day out, full LSFM, too much water (?), and perhaps some other shocks I didn't know? Somehow I also feel that it looked like the roots could not absorb water, causing the leaf to turn black so fast? I really can't decide what is the problem

These are some other healthy looking rhizome of sarra excellens and exornata that I have and I really don't want to repeat this problem with these babies. These ones still look ok right?





A rather long post but
Please help me out in identifying the real problems of this, I just learn and learn by mistakes and really want to improve my skills in taking care of these CPs

Thank you guys so much,

Steve

I'm sorry to say it looks like it's toast, the rhizome appears to be completely rotted. You can see the rotten color creeping up the new growth from the bottom. I would guess this started during the fridge dormancy and just didn't start spreading until it was taken out. I'm afraid I can't provide any advice for fridge dormancy, having never done it myself, but I do know it's not easy.

nimbulan wrote:I'm sorry to say it looks like it's toast, the rhizome appears to be completely rotted. You can see the rotten color creeping up the new growth from the bottom. I would guess this started during the fridge dormancy and just didn't start spreading until it was taken out. I'm afraid I can't provide any advice for fridge dormancy, having never done it myself, but I do know it's not easy.

Thank you Nibulan. Do the other 3 rhizomes I post at the bottom of post look good to you?

I actually get good air flow in the cooler itself but perhaps once or twice I went away and put too much water into it. Besides, that one is so small anyway perhaps couldnt deal with it

This is my first fridge dormancy, so I'm just going off of how it's going for me. In my case I used sealed zip lock bags with LFSM and cinnamon as an antifungal. I haven't watered mine at all, and I'm going on month two. They get absolutely no light at all. I do check them every weekend for mold, by looking through the bag. I haven't even opened a bag since they have been in the fridge. As of last weekend they all look fine. Nice and green, big long roots.

When I cut mine down I tried to leave as much green as I could. The phyllodia stayed as long as it fit in the bag. The open pitchers I cut down to where the tube closes off, so I wouldn't be putting half digested bugs in a closed, no light situation. A recipe for mold.

I hope this helps guide you to your answer.

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/board ... 30434.html
http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/board ... 31990.html

The last 3 look OK. They should bounce back as sarrs are tough plants

Thank you you both. maybe I just got unlucky with that one. All my traps are fine, white rhizome and still produce leaves at a much slower rate and yes, the last 3 rhizome I posted they are sending out new shoots too so maybe it was that I threw the other one out to test too early. Just check the place where I put it, heated at noon and afternoon so perhaps thats where the problem is

i just sprayed all plants in my cooler again with neem oil solution just to be caution. Maybe next time I put sarra in zip lock. I was just trying to mimic the real nature for them, cool air blow and low light, thats why I didnt put them into a zip lock bag since my fridge has temp control and glass door and facing west, so a bit of noon and afternoon light reflect to them. Temp in my place is going weird this year, over 28C this time, whereas last year this time was 24C and much brighter light instead of a lot of heat like now.

Guess I will adjust temp up gradually then put them into new pot with new media later and acclimate with morning sunlight first. I have indoor LED light grow rack too so perhaps I should use it to fully wake these plants up before putting out the sun?

The 3 other rhizomes look fine, but the next time you do a fridge dormancy, you should use a fungicide and you shouldn't water too much. In the wild, when sarrs go into dormancy, they don't usually get that much water. Also, i'd recommend giving them natural dormancy if that's possible, I leave all of mine outside year round and they do very well, they get battered with freezing temps and snow during the winter but then in the spring they grow back twice as big. Note that this is not possible in warmer areas.

MichaelGuardian wrote:The 3 other rhizomes look fine, but the next time you do a fridge dormancy, you should use a fungicide and you shouldn't water too much. In the wild, when sarrs go into dormancy, they don't usually get that much water. Also, i'd recommend giving them natural dormancy if that's possible, I leave all of mine outside year round and they do very well, they get battered with freezing temps and snow during the winter but then in the spring they grow back twice as big. Note that this is not possible in warmer areas.

Tell that to the growers here in Miami lol (Sunbelle is only an hour north)