FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have no idea why but during this winter I started watering my utricularia- with very hard tap water. (Idiot) I have watched it's steady demise all winter and it now just looks like a pile of wet moss! I finally twigged yesterday what I had done. I'm really annoyed with myself!!!

Anyway the question. If I put new soil in the pot after cleaning and rinse the top layer of moss in rainwater a few times. Do you think it might grow back or it's totally a goner?

I've had it for years so no idea why I turned into an idiot this winter.

What kind of Utricularia?

I would not disturb the plants themselves, just flush with fresh water daily for a few days and keep using good water. Not an utric expert but know that messing with the media tends to set mine back a bit. Since yours are already in bad shape, I would just give them the best conditions possible.

You mentioned moss. You might want to carefully try to remove the moss, as long as it does not damage the utrics. Some mosses will come out one plant at a time, others come out in clumps that could bring utrics with it. Mosses on top can reduce the light to the utrics, so it helps the utric to limit moss growth. Depends on the moss and how dense.

Hang in there. Give it time, but try to control the moss.

Hi thanks for the reply.

It's a sandersonii. It was in a large cup so I have no way of flushing without removing the media.

I've given it a go. I found 1 teeny utric leaf within some moss so flushed it gently and put that section in new media. If not I'll have to order a new plant, but worth a go.

Sandersonii are very vigorous but mostly surface dwellers that need to always be invading new territory. I have two kinds, the blue and the typical/white. The blue seems to be sensitive to running out of space. Mine seem to go into decline, so I usually start a new container. Haven't had that happen to the typical yet.

If yours does not recover, please PM me and I'll get you another start.

It's the typical white so fingers crossed it can bounce back.

One more thing. If in a container without drainage, you could always submerse the whole container. Or also just flood the container to the top, let sit a couple of hours, then pour off and repeat. Might take a little longer but works. I had a similar issue to your when my ro filter failed and flushed my utrics that way.

Ah good idea I didn't think of that. Unfortunately I'm very low on rain water, so had to be careful how much I used. I shall remember that if I have to do that again, but hopefully I won't!