- Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:23 pm
#321742
Thanks Jeeper! You're too kind!
The plants do all the hard work. Haha. I'm sorry to hear that about your first Heliamphora. I encourage you not to give up on them just yet. I do know how discouraging it can be when a plant you really want to grow gives you trouble and can't figure out why. I have trouble with Cephalotus. They grew beautifully in San Jose but since I have brought them down to Socal they have collapsed one by one. White sugary fungus. Makes the plant look like frosted flakes. I treat with fungicide, repot and nurse them back only to have it re-emerge once the plant is established again. I have only a handful left untouched. It's aggravating to say the least.
If I had to guess I say it was the daytime high and too little light that did your Heliamphora in. Probably more the temps than anything. Also it can take quite some time to harden them off fully. Longer than any other plant I grow. The Heterodoxa x Minor in the last picture took almost 3 months before I felt comfortable completely removing the clear plastic cup I had over it. I just taped it to the pot and kept cutting little holes in it every few days or a week. I did this until it had put out and fully opened an adult trap. Even then I think I just removed the the bottom of the cup and left it taped to the pot so it had a cone hat on it until another pitcher formed and opened. If a plant isn't quite ready to be unbagged, temps are higher than 76F and light is low, failure is likely just around the bend.
According to Wistuba there is a fungi that lies dormant in the roots of Heliamphora and is activated by temps above 76F. Monthly soil treatment with Trichoderma such as Great White can combat this but it is still ideal to keep the temps below 76F.
The specific species may have had a lot to do with your unsuccessful experience as well. H. Minor for instance is much picker than Heterodoxa or any of its hybrids.
You want to check out this page. This guy is a wizard with Heliamphora. He's pretty awesome with Cephalotus and orchidiodes section Utricularia as well but you have to dig around on terraforms for that stuff.
http://bluegrasscarnivores.com/helipage ... ation.html
The next link is the same page posted here on FTC with a discussion on the Trichoderma between the author and Snapperhead - another wizard.
my-techniques-for-the-care-of-new-heli- ... 14407.html
I hope some of this helps and maybe convinces you to give them another shot. They are very rewarding to grow. If you do try again I would suggest either Heterodoxa x Ionasii or Heterodoxa x Minor, in that order. Also pure Heterodoxa is known for being more tolerant of warm temps than any other species except Ciliata which is sometimes referred to as "the lowland heli" although that is a little misleading as they are not found below 1500 m as far as I know. I don't grow Heterodoxa yet but Ciliata only took a week or two to harden off.
May I ask which Heliamphora you tried?
Happy growing!
-@.
The plants do all the hard work. Haha. I'm sorry to hear that about your first Heliamphora. I encourage you not to give up on them just yet. I do know how discouraging it can be when a plant you really want to grow gives you trouble and can't figure out why. I have trouble with Cephalotus. They grew beautifully in San Jose but since I have brought them down to Socal they have collapsed one by one. White sugary fungus. Makes the plant look like frosted flakes. I treat with fungicide, repot and nurse them back only to have it re-emerge once the plant is established again. I have only a handful left untouched. It's aggravating to say the least.
If I had to guess I say it was the daytime high and too little light that did your Heliamphora in. Probably more the temps than anything. Also it can take quite some time to harden them off fully. Longer than any other plant I grow. The Heterodoxa x Minor in the last picture took almost 3 months before I felt comfortable completely removing the clear plastic cup I had over it. I just taped it to the pot and kept cutting little holes in it every few days or a week. I did this until it had put out and fully opened an adult trap. Even then I think I just removed the the bottom of the cup and left it taped to the pot so it had a cone hat on it until another pitcher formed and opened. If a plant isn't quite ready to be unbagged, temps are higher than 76F and light is low, failure is likely just around the bend.
According to Wistuba there is a fungi that lies dormant in the roots of Heliamphora and is activated by temps above 76F. Monthly soil treatment with Trichoderma such as Great White can combat this but it is still ideal to keep the temps below 76F.
The specific species may have had a lot to do with your unsuccessful experience as well. H. Minor for instance is much picker than Heterodoxa or any of its hybrids.
You want to check out this page. This guy is a wizard with Heliamphora. He's pretty awesome with Cephalotus and orchidiodes section Utricularia as well but you have to dig around on terraforms for that stuff.
http://bluegrasscarnivores.com/helipage ... ation.html
The next link is the same page posted here on FTC with a discussion on the Trichoderma between the author and Snapperhead - another wizard.
my-techniques-for-the-care-of-new-heli- ... 14407.html
I hope some of this helps and maybe convinces you to give them another shot. They are very rewarding to grow. If you do try again I would suggest either Heterodoxa x Ionasii or Heterodoxa x Minor, in that order. Also pure Heterodoxa is known for being more tolerant of warm temps than any other species except Ciliata which is sometimes referred to as "the lowland heli" although that is a little misleading as they are not found below 1500 m as far as I know. I don't grow Heterodoxa yet but Ciliata only took a week or two to harden off.
May I ask which Heliamphora you tried?
Happy growing!
-@.
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