FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I am pretty comfortable with Sarrs and Dionaea, but this is my first Mexican ping! It's a P. esseriana from Flytrapshop.com (Terraforums store).

This came to me bare root. I used 1 part sand, 1 part perlite and (slightly less than) 1 part peat. Currently keeping it outside in bright shade. I live in Northern CA zone 9b. Highs are in the mid-80s lately and lows in the mid-50s/low 60s.

I knew pings had pretty shallow roots, but it seemed to have barely any at all! A couple of really thin, wispy roots at best. I basically plopped it on top of the soil and tried to shove some soil under the leaves to anchor it down. Is this how potting Pings usually goes?

I also did not expect it to be so small! See photo below for comparison to my little girly hand.
I assume its current leaves are carnivorous, though they felt dry and not sticky with dew. I assume this is just from shipping stress and it will produce more as it settles?

I will be scouring this forum for more information, but if anyone can give me more tips I'd sure appreciate it!

Thanks!

Hi MrsMuscipula!

Though I am not a ping expert, I have a P. sethos and a P. gigantea. Both are doing great! Pings need really well draining media, and the media should dry out between waterings.

Here is what I did when I got my pings: Since they were shipped bareroot with very few roots, I put them in the pre-moistened media(approx. 45/45/10, lava rock/perlite/peat) and placed them on an east facing windowsill with the blinds open. When the top of the media is dry I tray water until the top is wet and get rid of the excess, I dump the rest of the water on some sphagnum moss I'm trying to grow.

I got them back in June and aside from a mishap, courtesy of my little Chihuahua mix, to the P. gigantea, both are doing awesome. And thanks to the mishap I now have two P. gigantea, one via pulling. And my P. sethos has already flowered once!

Hope this helps.

ironjaws wrote:Hi MrsMuscipula!

Though I am not a ping expert, I have a P. sethos and a P. gigantea. Both are doing great! Pings need really well draining media, and the media should dry out between waterings.

Here is what I did when I got my pings: Since they were shipped bareroot with very few roots, I put them in the pre-moistened media(approx. 45/45/10, lava rock/perlite/peat) and placed them on an east facing windowsill with the blinds open. When the top of the media is dry I tray water until the top is wet and get rid of the excess, I dump the rest of the water on some sphagnum moss I'm trying to grow.

I got them back in June and aside from a mishap, courtesy of my little Chihuahua mix, to the P. gigantea, both are doing awesome. And thanks to the mishap I now have two P. gigantea, one via pulling. And my P. sethos has already flowered once!

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice, ironjaws! My media was pre-moistened too. Were you able to really bury the roots, or just put the plant on top of the media?

I have a cat that dominates ALL the windowsills, so I'm hesitant to keep any plants inside. I'm glad yours have been doing awesome! I hope my little one will do well under the natural elements.

Hey there! That's a lovely ping you have. The potting media you're using should be absolutely fine, and yes it's normal for Pinguicula to have very short roots - especially Mexican species! I tend to just plop mine on top of the growing medium, too, and while I do my best to get some medium over the roots, it's not always possible. You'll find it'll grow slightly longer and more of an abundance of roots as it adapts to your growing conditions (as well as some air roots). It is also in its carnivorous state, and will start to develop mucus once it adapts.

The area you live in should provide a good outdoor growing environment for Mexican Pinguicula, although come the colder months it will likely need to be brought indoors to undergo its winter dry period, as well as to protect it from particularly chilly nights, frost and snow.

Pinguicula in general are typically on the smaller side when compared to other carnivorous plants such as Sarracenia and even fly traps. Mexican Pinguicula are typically the smallest of the pinguicula 'groups' (P. gigantea and subsequent hybrids aside); P. esseriana is one of the smaller species, yours looks to be a good size and may get a little bigger, but not much.

Is that definitely an esseriana? Mine looked nothing like that.

MrsMuscipula wrote: Thanks for the advice, ironjaws! My media was pre-moistened too. Were you able to really bury the roots, or just put the plant on top of the media?

I couldn't bury it completely for fear of damaging the roots. I just dug a hole, plopped in the plant and shoveled media underneath it.

Thanks for posting the pictures Hope that esseriana colors up for you. Grey grows pings in perlite, and based from her photo thread, they do great! Good growing!

ya my esseriana don't look like that either.

Perhaps its P. ehlersiae? The two look somewhat similar.

Since you are using peat-based media which holds more water, it would be good to water carefully and not let the plant encounter permanently wet conditions. Browning heart disease tends to set in rather quickly when the plant is kept too wet.

Nice plant, and good luck!

w03 wrote:Perhaps its P. ehlersiae? The two look somewhat similar.

Since you are using peat-based media which holds more water, it would be good to water carefully and not let the plant encounter permanently wet conditions. Browning heart disease tends to set in rather quickly when the plant is kept too wet.

Nice plant, and good luck!

Thanks, yes I've read much about not over-watering!

As for the identity, I am going by what flytrapshop.com called it. As it puts out new growth, I'll see if it may have mislabled.

MrsMuscipula wrote:As it puts out new growth, I'll see if it may have mislabled.

From what I understand the only way to correctly identify Pinguicula species is by their flowers.

Matt wrote:

MrsMuscipula wrote:As it puts out new growth, I'll see if it may have mislabled.

From what I understand the only way to correctly identify Pinguicula species is by their flowers.

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Matt wrote:

MrsMuscipula wrote:As it puts out new growth, I'll see if it may have mislabled.

From what I understand the only way to correctly identify Pinguicula species is by their flowers.

I didn't know that! Thank you, Matt!

No problem! I didn't know that either until last week when I went down to McKinleyville, California to visit Bob Ziemer. We were looking at his impressive collection of plants and a few of the Pinguicula caught my eye. I got a massive one from him that's a hybrid, I think, and unnamed. This thing is huge. I'll post a photo later.

But Bob told us a story about how his cats got into the part of his greenhouse where he grows pings and knocked every single one off the shelf and out of their labeled pots. The only way he could figure out which was which was by waiting for them to flower. I guess each species and hybrid has a unique flower morphology and color. I'm not sure if there exists any comprehensive library of photos, but I think Bob said he had a book or used his CPPhotoFinder.com, which has a ton of photos of Pinguicula flowers.

Once yours flowers, you can almost certainly identify it as P. esseriana or some other species or hybrid with all those photos to look through

It's entirely possible it could be a hybrid with esseriana in it; I had a look at some images (yay google) and there are a couple of esseriana plants that look like yours, MrsMuscipula, but most (including mine when I had them) show more compacted growth. You should get a definitive answer once it flowers, though I have no reason to doubt Flytrapshop, of course, but it's an interesting mystery.