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I need help with my pinguicula gigantea. It keeps putting out new leaves, but it won’t get any bigger. I’ve had it for about a year. It’s on a west windowsill with about 50% humidity with a 75/25% perlite/peat mix.

Needs more light which might help. You could also try feeding.

she is outside or inside .

your substrat is dry , may me you should keep the substrate wetter without being dewatered


since you have 2 small plants can you, perhaps, to put one in a more calcareous substrate.

I had the same issue - my giganteas seemed healthy enough but just didn’t get...giant. One friend added some lime and his took off. It didn’t work for me. Then I added some compost, about 20% I suppose, and plants that had just sat there for a couple years suddenly started taking off. (I used mushroom compost.) The front plant in this picture never even reached the edge of the pot for almost 3 years. It’s an alba so it may be a little smaller anyway, but still...

Please excuse the holes in the leaves. Slugs got into my trays!

Lime seems to work for some people, maybe it depends on what else is in the mix also. It can help nitrogen become more available, but in this case adding a little bit of gentle nutrients also seems to have helped as well.




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Bob Beer wrote:I had the same issue - my giganteas seemed healthy enough but just didn’t get...giant. One friend added some lime and his took off. It didn’t work for me. Then I added some compost, about 20% I suppose, and plants that had just sat there for a couple years suddenly started taking off. (I used mushroom compost.) The front plant in this picture never even reached the edge of the pot for almost 3 years. It’s an alba so it may be a little smaller anyway, but still...

Please excuse the holes in the leaves. Slugs got into my trays!

Lime seems to work for some people, maybe it depends on what else is in the mix also. It can help nitrogen become more available, but in this case adding a little bit of gentle nutrients also seems to have helped as well.




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That’s an easy thing to try. I’ll see what happens!

the largest (diameter 50 cm) I managed to grow in a limestone mixture, sheltered from the sun from May to October, outside ,with a substrat always wet .

jeff wrote:the largest (diameter 50 cm) I managed to grow in a limestone mixture, sheltered from the sun from May to October, outside ,with a substrat always wet .

That’s a masterpiece Jeff! Mine is indoors with what I suspect is a limestone mixture. Sitting in a windowsill and 3-4 hours of direct sunlight:




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jeff wrote:the largest (diameter 50 cm) I managed to grow in a limestone mixture, sheltered from the sun from May to October, outside ,with a substrat always wet .

That’s enormous! Other than limestone, what is in your mix?



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yardleyq1987

it's really a gigantea
yours takes insects, that's also very important ?

Bob

for most of my ping (temperate, mexican and others) I use this substrate :
-litter for cat, sometimes with additions of akadama 50%
-pouzzolane12.5%
-river sand 12.5%
-calcareous sand 12.5%
-vermiculite 12.5%

Jeff,

When i looked at pozzelan, wikipedia says it could contain various things, but if understand right its a source of calcium and aluminum. I don't find pozzelan available, seems more a European thing. So your mix seems high in calcium??

it is a volcanic rock rich in silicate and trace element , looking like the pumice.
I use it to aerate the substrate and for the conservation of moisture, since they are rock with alveoli , it is also a draining

here now for flower beds, we use this volcanic rock as a mineral mulch to replace pine bark .
it is also used for aisles.

twitcher wrote:Jeff,

When i looked at pozzelan, wikipedia says it could contain various things, but if understand right its a source of calcium and aluminum. I don't find pozzelan available, seems more a European thing. So your mix seems high in calcium??

Pozzelan/pouzzolane is basically the same material as the tephra we get broken up into larger chunks that is frequently used as mulch and sometimes top dressing for large houseplants in the US, but much finer. I believe you can get it from Bonsai supply places but it’s not cheap. If you have a mallet and a bag you can make your own.


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it is also used in construction so may be found in DIY stores

for bonzaï I prefer use akadama

Unfortunately it’s not widely available here unless you are willing to do some crushing with a mallet. :-/ I hear it’s not all the difficult actually! But crushed pumice is readily available. It holds a lot more water tho and some people say it leads to increased growth is carpet moss; I can’t say I’ve noticed a lot of difference.

I’m not a fan of vermiculite but many really good growers in Europe seem to use it and have no issue. For me it tends to hold a lot of water and leads to algae slime, and breaks down into sort of a sludge after a while. I wonder if the quality here is different?


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Bob Beer wrote:I had the same issue - my giganteas seemed healthy enough but just didn’t get...giant. One friend added some lime and his took off. It didn’t work for me. Then I added some compost, about 20% I suppose, and plants that had just sat there for a couple years suddenly started taking off. (I used mushroom compost.) The front plant in this picture never even reached the edge of the pot for almost 3 years. It’s an alba so it may be a little smaller anyway, but still...

Please excuse the holes in the leaves. Slugs got into my trays!

Lime seems to work for some people, maybe it depends on what else is in the mix also. It can help nitrogen become more available, but in this case adding a little bit of gentle nutrients also seems to have helped as well.




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Interesting. So could I try adding limestone and compost to the soil mixture?

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