FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone,
I'm hoping someone can help me work or why all my Sarras look absolutely miserable and deformed this year. I've been growing them for a few years and they've never looked anywhere near this bad. The traps are deformed, bent and sparse. They should be looking at their very best coming into mid autumn here. They are grown in full sun, in a Sphagnum moss, peat moss and perlite mix and kept in rainwater. If anyone can help work or what's going on I would really appreciate it.

My sarracenia were all growing deformed pitchers like that for the majority of the year before last. I have no idea what caused it. Most of the plants grew back healthy the next year and didn't have those problems even though I left them in the same place with the same soil and water as before. They look healthy this year also with the same conditions.

Also what is the hybrid in the background?

Looks like S. Umlauftiana or S. 'Sky Watcher'

Sometimes they just grow warped pitchers. Often early or late season.

I believe it to be a S. leucophylla 'Red Veins' x. But its exact hybridization i am not 100% on.

... at 3 o'clock, are those mealy bugs/scale my friend ?

- look close.

I have a few, very few, that bend but we will get deformed new pitchers but this one in the pic does not look healthy and looks like it has scale/mealy bugs.

Pitchers usually bend towards the offenders as that damage they cause shrinks that pitcher at that point of injury; pitcher grows around the injury.

I would remove it at the base in any event.

Doesn't look like mealy bugs/scale to me. Zoomed in... all i see is the white residue which looks like it was either sprayed with something or waxy flakes produced by the pitcher itself.

Was this plant already treated with some sort of insecticide before the photo?

What is the brown oval above the white residue ?

I am looking at it, looks like scale. Or Not.

That pitcher looks like it needs to be removed.

Good Luck!