FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

hi, this is my first time getting a pinguicula, i am an amateur, i have vft, nepenthes, drosera in my care and those are still alive, but this ping just came about 2 days ago with about 3-4 days in shipping it came bareroot with a bit of lfs surrounding the roots, i think they use paper towel to wrap it and ziplock it. so yesterday it looks like this, its like it slowly rotting. i know about shipping stress but the thing is even the center small leaf seems to be blackened . any advice? thanks in advance

Michael

Hey! i also have a p. primuliflora! it was also my first carnivorous plant. Mine did take a lot of trial an error because these guys are a little picky. One big thing that ive noticed a lot of primuliflora owners dont realize is these guys LOVE water. like drown these boys theyll thank you. I have my guy in a peat/sand/pearlite mix and i constantly have it standing in 3/4 in of water. they also like bright indirect light not direct sun. Mine took a month of recovery once i figured out what he liked. the bag method was a godsend for me. sorry for the scattered advice but these guys can bounce back really well!



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I'm not sure of your growing conditions but I'll give you an idea based off how I keep mine. This ping grows in the wild here in Florida. They like more heat and high humidity. For media, I have them in a majority peat based soil. I keep it full sun and it grows fine and divides on its own. It's possible it needs to acclimate some, but I'd definitely suggest getting the humidity up for a bit if you have it out in the open. That's where it's comfortable and it's struggling. I'd work on it more after it's out of the woods. If you have a heat pad or some place warm and bright, I'm sure it'd appreciate it. Hopefully someone who grows them indoors can give some good tips.

Edit: Apparently someone else indeed posted in the time I wrote this lol.

@mallowallow
nice ping there it looks very good. This is my first ping but my first CP is a VFT once the first survives comes the next one with different species haha until i hit the ping. thanks for the tip i will try to apply it in my condition.

@apollyon
ok so i live in a tropical country, so high humidity and full sun is a given, the ping is still being acclimated to my place i heard they said 4days indirect sun then i can go full outdoor.

i think i will try giving it more water for now and hope for the best. thanks

best of luck to you! ik the water issue was the biggest obstacle in care for my buddie. i was afraid of root rot but these specific ping dont seem to get it and sometimes theyll even be underwater for short times in their natural habitat


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Please note that this variety does go dormant for me during the winter months. It can die completely back and look dead, but in the spring starts growing again, often with new pups emerging as well. Since yours is new, it may not do that dormancy thing, so try to keep it going. Top watering is very helpful with this one. If you determine that it is going dormant, keep the media slightly moist (stop the top watering) and just forget about it for a couple of months, then start increasing the water again. It should start growing again. I grow mine in lfsm. I would not use a mineral mix with this variety.

@twitcher
im in tropical country tho, can it really go dormant? it is rainy season nowadays. yea i also keep mine in lfs, i dont know why but i trust sphagnum more than other media just because it requires no mix and has pretty good rep with CP. the only one i kept with other mix is nepenthes just because the seller kept it in that mix.

@twitcher

why do you recommend lfsm over a minersl mix for p. primuliflora? im just curious because i use to have mine in lfsm but then was told by someone it wouldnt do well in it


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@mallowallow
i remember reading a post about live sphagnum here, they basically worshipping lfs, its amusing and convincing.

It is a warm temperate pinguicula and to the best of my knowledge the warm temperates do better in environments that have more moisture than the typical mexican pings. Both primuliflora and planifolia enjoy a lot of water. I have only been able to keep my planifolia, for example, alive indoors sitting in a couple inches of water. There is documentation of primuliflora surviving underwater. All mineral mixes can be drier than lfsm, in my experience.

As a growing technique, I raise my ping strikes as small plants in lfsm so they have higher humidity and more moisture available. The reason is that smaller pings can dry out easier than older pings. Once the ping reaches about 1", I then I transfer to all mineral. I am careful to spray the surface of the mineral mix (not necessarily the plant itself) for newly transplanted pings and smaller pings in mineral whenever I see the surface is dry, (My media includes an absorbent fired clay that changes color when it is dry, making that easier to determine)

Note that the height of the pot you are using can have a lot of impact on your growing conditions. LFSM wicks the water much more than my mineral mix does. If my pots containing a mineral mix are too tall, then the short roots of the pings don't get enough water through the media. That caused me some early failures with mexican pings. Your conditions may vary. Pings are very forgiving but we all hear about people with problems keeping pings and I wonder about pot size and height as a factor in that, among other things like media, light and watering.

I agree, there's a host of factors always present that make growing conditions unique to the individual. Cephalotus for example. I have mine growing in conditions that people claim murder their cephalotus. I didn't compensate the tray watering with tall pots in the beginning. Pinguicula is the same. I don't use tall pots (unless I run out of others), in fact I have a 1020 tray I recently made as a "bog garden" of sorts. With moisture wicking, the media is a factor but the density is also a factor. For instance, if the media is packed too loosely, the moisture will not adequately wick to the top. Hence why people (such as FTS) recommend your bottom 1/3-1/2 of a pot be packed very tight, in order to allow it to wick enough moisture to create a habitable environment.

Another difference would be my media as opposed to yours. I use a primarily peat based soil, probably 75/25 with some sand for my primuliflora. I don't submerge or even really keep it tray watered anymore. I have it next to my VFTs outside and I top water it everyday in the summer. The peat in combination with my climate's humidity keep the plant from drying out.

There are different ways to reach the goal. I believe LFS would be a good choice for the plant. I believe you're also right about a lot of warm temperates. I tend to keep them in more boggy conditions. This particular plant I don't because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it tbh lol. Pot is too small to comfortably sit with my Drosera. Might have a giveaway with its offshoots. Since it grows wild here, I've just tried to adapt it's natural conditions (to an extent) and keep it peat based because it's cheaper. I didn't like the plant at first (it was a *gift*) but I've grown attached. It is actually pretty tough. I really believe the critical factors here are probably temperature and humidity, but I'm definitely not a primuliflora expert. This thread reminded me that I need to repot it though lol. It is in a comically small starter pot with 5 plants.

@apollyon
tbh i got my ping primuliflora just because it is cheap abt 1usd and that i need to exceed certain threshold for free shipping.

update on my ping, the black stuff doesnt seems to be spreading, it doesnt seems to be growing anything too so im confused about the fate of my ping here is hoping there will be signs soon

mhal408 wrote:@apollyon
tbh i got my ping primuliflora just because it is cheap abt 1usd and that i need to exceed certain threshold for free shipping.

update on my ping, the black stuff doesnt seems to be spreading, it doesnt seems to be growing anything too so im confused about the fate of my ping here is hoping there will be signs soon

Well if it isn't getting worse, it could possibly be recovering now. One thing interesting about them as opposed to mexican butterworts is how they self-propagate. They will grow pups on the tips of their leaves and when the leaf starts breaking down and falls to the soil, they will latch down and root where it lands. Curious stuff. That's why I want to repot it, so I can give it more space to act a fool.

Rejoice! New growth spotted, i hope this is the sign it survived

just saw the little green prickly needle growing out of the center.

@Apollyon
yeah, i read abt how ping propagate from leaves touching the media, it is quite unique and also means i dont have to do anything special like leaf cutting or pulling to propagate

oh nvm the new tips gone black too, ultimately it died. waited for few weeks to see if it grows back but no its really dead. i guess ping is just not my thing.