FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm looking to put together a couple of ping rocks. One is a nice black lava rock I want to try to cover in moss and pings, and one is a piece of coral skeleton (limestone rock full of holes) I want to try some pings in.
I'd like to set the rocks in trays of water inside open-lid terrariums and not have to worry about anything more specific than keeping some amount of water in the trays, so I need pings that don't mind higher humidity and don't need a dry period. I don't mind if they go non-carnivorous as long as they can stay damp during that stage. Smaller plants would be better, under 4", but I could try to work with anything under 6" or with very narrow-leafed varieties of any size.
I have P. emarginata and P. moctezumae already.

I've been reading around. These two threads https://terraforums.com/forums/threads/ ... es.136228/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SavageGarden/c ... _dormancy/ got me a list of plants that at least one person has successfully grown with no dry period. I've quickly Googled them all and added the first reputable-looking result I got for size. If any of those sizes are wildly incorrect, or represent only exceptional plants, please do let me know.
P. moranensis (three recs) (up to 8" for some varieties, 2-4" for others)
P. esseriana (1"!)
P. laueana (2-3")
P. gigantea (two recommendations) (big)
P. 'Aphrodite' (up to 10")
P. hemiepiphytica (up to 5")
P. emarginata (2" max)
P. moctezumae (5-7")
P. weser (2-3")
P. 'pirouette' (2")
P. 'John Rizzi' (up to 6")

Are any of these species definitely a bad idea for this sort of setup? I'm particularly interested in P. laueana, P. 'pirouette', P. esseriana, and P. moranensis f. orchidioides.

Of the viable species, are there any that don't require calcium and would therefore be fine on the lava rock next to my P. emarginata? And which ones require calcium (i.e.the limestone coral rock) to do well?

Any help greatly appreciated. A lot of these seem somewhat unusual in cultivation, making it hard to read up on what they like.

Primuliflora is a warm temperate and may require a cooler dormancy.

Since you don't seem to have any particular ping in mind, I'd stick to hybrids. They're likely to be cheaper, stronger and more forgiving ("hybrid vigor") and at least as colorful as the species. There's also a huge number of them currently available.

Panman wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 5:17 pm Primuliflora is a warm temperate and may require a cooler dormancy.

Good to know, I've removed it from the list. It does have nice flowers, so maybe I'll get a potted one to keep separate.

evenwind wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 7:53 pm Since you don't seem to have any particular ping in mind, I'd stick to hybrids. They're likely to be cheaper, stronger and more forgiving ("hybrid vigor") and at least as colorful as the species. There's also a huge number of them currently available.

There is an absolutely enormous number, which is part of my problem. A hybrid of two plants that don't require a dry period, like the P. emarginata x P. gigantea I've seen in a few places, is easy enough to work out. Same for two that both require a dry period. But if one parent does and one parent doesn't, where does the hybrid wind up?

I know there's a few that need a complete dry period (eg. gypsicola, heterophylla, macrophylla) although I'm equally sure there's somebody out there who's successfully grown them under water. But my gypsicola hybrids seem to do fine being treated as typical heterophyllous pings - at least for me, in my setup and in my conditions. Maybe just avoid hybrids that one parent needs complete winter dryness and give the heterophyllus ones a try. I find that when I seasonally reduce the light duration and increase the time between refilling my trays, the plants are happy to accept that as their winter rest. Some form winter succulent leaves, some don't. (Some form succulent leaves mid summer. I've kinda given up trying to discover all the reasons.) Anyhow, I think the only way your going to find out if a particular ping is going to work is to try it.

look here, good idea for ping culture
http://pinguicula.org/pages/pages_princ ... ctures.htm