FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,
I got a Pinguicula Tina in the summer. It was doing good until winter. I kept watering it and it started dying. At the moment it has a few tiny leaves. It has been like this for 2-3 months. What can I do to save it?

Hey there and welcome to the forums! I'm sorry you're having problems with your plant, I'm sure we can find a solution. Thanks for the photo, it helps a lot!

P. 'Tina' is a Mexican Pinguicula, so they are highly drought resistant and, therefore, somewhat sensitive to over-watering. The soil in the pot looks quite dense with little in the way of aeration (in the form of perlite or silica sand), which could be causing water to not drain away quickly enough, as well as reducing the amount of oxygen able to get to the roots of the plant. Both of these factors can cause root rot, especially in Mexican Pinguicula who are more sensitive to it than many other carnivorous plants.

The plant also looks like it's potted quite deeply into the plant pot, which may restrict the light that can reach the leaves, which will inhibit its long-term growth.

Please could you answer a couple of questions for me, to help me better understand the conditions the plant is kept in? Thank you!

* What soil mix is it in?
* How often do you water it and what do you water it with?
* How much light is it receiving and what type?
* Generally speaking, what kind of conditions did you give it over winter?

My immediate advice would be to cut watering for a few days, let the surface of the soil dry a bit before watering again. If you can re-pot it into something a bit airier (more perlite and/or silica sand), that'd be a good opportunity to check the roots for rot, you can also remove the dead leaves, which will reduce the risk of fungus and mould attacking.

- I am not familiar with soil components but during winter it was in a pot of turf+perlite. I recently put it in a smaller pot (1 hour ago to be precise).
- Whole winter it was in a windowsill. no direct sunlight. the window is looking to north. so i can say it didn't get the best daylight it could get.
- Normally I only watered them to keep the soil damp. The photo i sent was recently watered.
- As for water type, here the tap water is rich in minerals so i use bottled water.

I cleaned the withered leaves. I can't see much of a root on the plant unfortunately.

You definitely want to get that plant more light and less water. Soil mixes very high in (or 100%) minerals are usually recommended for Mexican pings to reduce the risk of overwatering. Lately I've started using 100% Turface, but there's plenty of other materials you can use as well.