FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey everyone, for those of you with good memory, you might have remembered a brief period where I was posting about my attempt to grow P. elongata (would have been from around Dec 2016 through March 2017). The one plant that survived for those months (I received three initially, two died fast) died once spring started to come around. So far, the only diagnosis I can make for that failure is that it was due to night temps getting too high. So, this time around, I have done something to remedy that: a chest freezer.

With the chest freezer, I am able to drop nights into the low 40s (thermostat is set to 42, I need to get one that will let me go below 40 though; I received the plants right before I left on vacation, as I had forgot they were coming, and so had to setup the whole grow area in a few hours, which meant a last minute run to a grow shop). So far, the plants have only been looking better and better. I received them towards the end of June, around the 22nd I believe. They do well, and have plenty of dew and steady growth, but do not color up well. I will have to either try to increase the light output (currently I am using a 2 ft 4 bulb T5HO fixture), or perhaps simply drop the temps closer to freezing at night. The leaves still have deformities from when they were more curled in on each other, as the curled-in leaves cause each consecutive leaf to form that way in a positive feedback loop. I don't actually have a recent pic of the highly-curled plant; I had taken one earlier but it is rather blurry and so I'll get a better one tomorrow.

Plants from late September/early October Healthy roots Plants now This one appears to have a double flower, but unfortunately is still obscured by leaves I was half expecting this one to not make it for a long time since it looked so unwell, but it seems to have pulled through

Good luck with them. Your earlier post is what intrigued me to acquire a longleaf ping. I now have a P. Montezuma and love it.

Bonjour

it's a very big success

here in europe it seems to me that a lot of people try without much success

what substrate use you , perlite with other thing ?

jeff wrote:Bonjour

it's a very big success

here in europe it seems to me that a lot of people try without much success

what substrate use you , perlite with other thing ?

I use pure perlite. The plants form long roots and do not seem to like a lot of wetness.

Here are some more pictures:

It appears that the two flowers are from a fused flower stalk. Unravelled elongata (this is the one that looked like a ball).

Bonjour

this fusion stem and flower is called a fasciation, sometimes visible 'in situ' or in culture.

the development of tissues is in a direction other than that of growth,horizontally for example.
The origin of the phenomenon is unknown but probably due to mutationsof the meristem cells because it is sometimes transmitted to the offspring of the plant. External phenomena can also cause fasciations:
bacterial infections, insect attacks, chemical damage or shocks.

on the cacti we can sometimes see phenomena of the same style called: cristation.

on the ping this phenomenon is transient and not reproducible at least on the temperate who had this phenomenon.


you will put us I hope the photos of open flowers

jeff

I will for sure post pictures of the flowers when they open! Also, apologies for the sideways photos. It seems that they get turned when posted from my phone.

Flowers have opened, I will be getting some photos today to share.