FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

this is why small pots work well.!

hungry carnivores wrote:this is why small pots work well.!

I'm inclined to agree with this. This is how most plants develop stronger root systems in pots. I feel like larger pots was an idea someone had to try to deter "sudden death" and it just stuck. My Hummer's giants are in 3.5x3.5x5 tall pots and they're not responding anything close. I'm just happy the plant is doing well. It has me reconsidering sphagnum moss as a media with cephs going forward. I was happy to see that my other cephs have acclimated already to their new conditions and are starting to grow again. I've decided to grow them the same and have been filling their pitchers with Maxsea. I'm very surprised to see that the pitchers don't show any burn no matter how often I'm doing it (2+ times per week usually). The first new one died off after doing it twice but the new ones don't seem to care at all. I've backed off on foliar feeding them as much since I've done this. Usually once every two weeks now. The real test for if this is doing anything will be the HG's that are just kinda chillin. It grows a pitcher to replace one but not a lot of movement on them.

Great observation on the maxsea. People claim osmocote kills ceph pitchers but I found if you soak the osmocote for a couple hours in hot water which removes some of the plastic outer layer than it won’t kill the pitcher...

That's an interesting idea with the outer coating. My other plants were too immature but I might try that out when it gets old filling them up. It's given me a chance to observe new growth on them. I've done osmocote with Neps. Usually when I can tell a pitcher is about to starting dying I throw it in there to get some extra use from it before it goes.

I'm just too impatient to allow the plants a natural growing cycle lol. I've seen my cephs get one insect (surprisingly large for it which was pretty cool) in months. My byblis snatch all the stray insects these days.

I've had very mixed results with osmocote and cephs. I've tried several times now, and I've had some pitchers straight up die the next day while others (even tiny ones) do fine with a large pellet.

I think the variables for pitcher death are:

1. age of pitchers, I've tried pellets on super new pitchers and they died. Maybe the pitcher needs a week or so of hardening?

2. temperature. I only have a handful of sample sizes, but it seems the cephs kept in my cooler temps (15-23C) do not die when given pellets compared to at 30C. Maybe at higher temps the fertilizer dissolves faster and burns the plant? Also the super new pitchers that died were at higher temps.

3. the coating on the pellet. If the coating is chipped at all, the pitcher insta dies. This includes nep and heli pitchers which otherwise seem to do fine with the pellets (but then again, all my neps and helis are in cooler temperatures too)

What I have also found is that after a month, scooping out the pellet and dissecting it leaves a mostly empty plastic shell, so whatever is in the pellet has been dissolved into the pitcher fluid. So the plant must be getting something.

And to add to that, I usually fill my ceph pitchers with maxsea, but the couple times I filled my nep pitchers past the "glands" portion on the bottom cause the nep pitcher to burn and die the next day.

Those are all interesting observations. I've been murdering my Sarracenia pitchers by filling them up too high. I'll see portions of the pitchers burned out along a sidewall while the rest of the pitcher is alive. I've seen it happen with my cephs too from time to time (I've had portions of the lids die back I'm unsure if it's contact or what). Whenever I try to fill Nep pitchers they just die. It's part of why I target the pitchers lowest on the plant when I do it. However, if it has to do with the level then that's very helpful. For the most part though, I foliar feed my Neps because they're relatively small. If they were large I'd probably change my technique. Thanks for the info.

Looking at my cephs today, I noticed some new movement with my HGs. I'm hoping it's the start to some explosive growth My typical is also putting out more mature pitchers from a different crown. Exciting stuff. I believe they have been working under the soil because their media jumped up dramatically in volume. I can't wait to have some cephs I can show off lol. In the future I think I'm going to keep them in smaller pots though, especially since I'm top watering most of the time. I keep a small pool underneath the tall pots mainly to justify using the pots in the first place.

If sarrs are struggling with maxsea doses than your concentration is too high. Just 1/2 tsp per gallon is good

jose wrote:If sarrs are struggling with maxsea doses than your concentration is too high. Just 1/2 tsp per gallon is good

It was 1/2 tsp per gallon but I was foliar spraying as well and maybe I was doing too frequently. During the summer I was getting away with doing it every week but I started doing every 2 weeks in the fall. The only ones really growing right now are the alata and leucos. Have a strange flava still growing pitchers right now but it's the only one.

This is definitely making me want to try this genus! Gorgeous plants!!

When I "juice" my Sarracenia pitchers, I use MaxSea at 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. I only feed 2 pitcher per plant, and I try not to fill them past 3/4. It worked very well with my flava seedlings this past spring.

madrone wrote:This is definitely making me want to try this genus! Gorgeous plants!!

May be able to get a mature division off my typical when springtime rolls around. It's pushing out mature growth from different points right now and I think it may do something like this here soon. I keep these things jacked now lol.

MikeB wrote:When I "juice" my Sarracenia pitchers, I use MaxSea at 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. I only feed 2 pitcher per plant, and I try not to fill them past 3/4. It worked very well with my flava seedlings this past spring.

Thanks for the info! When I started burning them out I started thinking about dropping it to 1/4 or dosing less. I was doing about 3/4, or around the point where it'd start weighing them down. It could've easily been from too many pitchers though. I got a little carried away, especially when I could feed the smaller ones with a syringe.

Was inspired to take another picture to give an idea of how fast this thing has been growing. Its been under higher intensity light and is getting progressively darker. The new pitchers are coming through with more color now. Hoping to see that get better as the new pitchers swell up

Looks great, thanks for the update!!

Those peristome a are so nice and toothy!

Yours is looking good! I'm still waiting on mine to express some thick peristomes.

Are you putting yours into dormancy? I think I'm about to move mine to a lower photoperiod and slightly cooler temps for a few months.