FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello guys and girls,

This is the problem that puzzles me some time now.

Every time I try to grow terrestrial utricularias (last attempt was with sandersonii and welwitschii) their green color is fading slowly until the whole plant disappears. They usually last about 10-15 days.

Growing Conditions:
The temperatures never dropped below 14 degrees C at night (October) and never exceeded 24-25 C , I watered them with distilled water and kept them in a tray with water up to the middle of the pot. I watered again when the tray emptied.
I used the same substrate as my flytraps and nepenthes, peat with perlite which I have read that can be used for utricularias too.
They were receiving direct sun from noon to evening (the hotter days I put them in shade) and humidity was between 40% and 80% (at night).

I uploaded some photos for sandersonii and welwitschii which show the plants' state as the days were passing.

Maybe your better experience can help me find out what happened so I wouldn't repeat the same mistake...


Some sandersonii photos:


When received it.


After some days.


Few days before the inevitable.

Welwitschii photos.

The day I received it.

After some days.

After some more days.

After some more days.

Before the end of its days.

Thank you for your time!

The only thing I could think of is maybe too much sun? How much water do you give them? I think they do better with more water than vfts

Hello SFLguy,

I had them sitting in a tray full of water. The water covered half the pot.
They were receiving about 4 hours of sun from noon to afternoon.
I had them in a western balcony and there was partial shade at noon and full sun from 15.00 to 17.00.

If you look at the photo below you can get an idea. Imagine that is full of water up to the top.


(Maybe I shouldn't have kept them constantly in the water during the fall?)

Hmm, I'm not sure then, I've just started with Sandersonii, so I couldn't exactly tell you the best conditions for it yet :/ sorry

Thank you for your time to help.

I hope you have better luck with yours!

Maybe, the next time I order a sandersonii I will order a peat/sand substrate and see if it likes it better than peat/perlite.

I uploaded some bonus pictures from first time I had a sandersonii in my hands and I was learning to grow it (I continue to learn though). Maybe they would be useful to someone.
The only difference was that I grew it in flytrap conditions: there was no flooding. Also, I hadn't exposed it to direct sunlight.

This was the result:

20-10-2013


18-11-2013


29-11-2013


15-12-2013

I mean here's mine today, it's in a peat perlite mix, it's sitting indoors in an undrained... bottle

SFLGuy,

Very nice!

How do you water it? I mean do you water when the soil start to dry a bit or do you keep it flooded constantly?

I have another question: it is receiving direct sunlight from the window?

Thanks!

I noticed that the soil in my photos in the first post, looks very mushy compared to yours. Maybe I managed to make them rot away.

I water it whenever it seems only moist but I don't flood it too often although I know some people grow it constantly flooded and yeah it gets direct sunlight there

Seems to be rotting. When I first got my sandersonni it was a small plug, I divided it into about 3-4 smaller ones. The ones in peat didn't do so great as the ones in pure sphagnum. I used live sphagnum, and I found it quickly grew runners or whatever they are called beneath the sureface, and leaves popped up everywhere. The key is that the sphagnum provided moisture and airflow, since there was space between the heads of the sphagnum for the plant to grow. Good luck with yours next time.

Pics of mine:

It seems that my problem was that I was keeping them flooded for too long....
So, what I understand after your posts guys is that:
1) if I use peat/perlite I shouldn't flood them (or flood them occasionally but NOT constantly)
and
2)if I use pure sphagnum ( <-it's the same as live sphagnum? ) I can keep them flooded constantly. Is that right?

I haven't grown U. sandersonii, but I have grown U. livida and a few others. They seemed to do fine in peat/perlite flooded occasionally as you said, and otherwise kept wet. The only thing I keep constantly flooded is G. hispidula.

I think that some of the smaller terrestrials (e.g. U. pubescens) don't like sphagnum because it is too big and chunky. U. sandersonii would probably be fine though. Even with just sphagnum, I wouldn't keep it constantly flooded, just very wet.

I 'll give utric. sandersonii another try following your advice and I 'll let you know how it will go.
Thank you all for your time and advice!!

(The funny thing is that I read savage garden book as well as some other online guides, but I believed I didn't do something wrong!)