10 replies to this topic

[flycatchers]

Despite the mild winter- well until last week plant losses continue to grow!
N. dubia, N. inermis,N. spectabilis, N. “thorelii” x trusmadiensis,H. pulchella (Amuri). And others stressed.
Found my big old 10 years H. neblinae (Cerro Neblina)reduced from this-







to this!



Rather put off going into the greenhouses at the moment!!


bill

Edited by flycatchers, 03 March 2012 - 20:48 PM.

[manders]

Winter sure is a depressing time for nep growing.  Sorry to hear of those losses.  Came back from a trip last week to find a panel had blown out of the greenhouse for the second time, had most of my heating bill for this year in the space of 4 or 5 days and my copelandii might have been frozen (it was in the corner that got exposed to the outside sub zero temps).

[mobile]

Sorry to read about your losses Bill. That  H. neblinae was a splendid plant too. I've never been tempted to grow temperature sensitive plants in a greenhouse, as I'd be gutted if I lost them to the cold weather. Plus the cost of heating and the risk of the heating failing.

[djh]

Very sorry to hear about your losses bill.
fingers crossed i haven't had any losses.

[flycatchers]

A couple more to add to the list

H. exappendicaulata (Chimanta) & H. hispida (Cerro Neblina). And a few more weeks for others to appear!!

bill

[James O'Neill]

That's some loss list. What is responsible for their deaths?

[alexa]

Like the above, sorry to hear of the losses Bill, a sad tale indeed. So far, tpuc wood, I've been quite lucky and have lost only a amall number of plants this year.

Alex

[Daniel G]

I'm sorry to hear about your losses, must be gutting to put all that work in.
I hope that there's nothing else to add to that list!

[flycatchers]

Thanks for your kind words.
I did find one piece of the H. neblinae that had not shrivelled or gone limp when I took the plant apart. It even had its own bit of rhizome and a few roots. But less than 24 hours after repotting it- found the plant all limp like the others! And despite cutting off the brown section of the rhizome which had appeared so quickly and them repotting it again and where it had actualy started to grow. Today more brown had spread up from the now totally dead rhizome. So the disease or whatever caused the plants demise was still lurking in its system! I am particulary sad as the plant had been a very robust almost woody growth and for me a fast grower.
I think Jim that certainly in the case of the Neps it is just the continued low light/cool temps of winter that stress some plants out and push them over the edge! I always look at January & Feb as being my "dead" months where plants suddenly keel over. If they get to March they are usually ok. In the Heli there does seem to be a sort of disease that is lurking in all the plants where again stress (usually caused by heat) can cause them to suddenly collapse and die. When I went to Kew last summer they had a lot of their plants suffering from that.    

Of the Neps all are now cuttings with hopefully some positive signs but like the Heli you cannot ever really tell for a month or more.

Here is a photo I took of my very young H. pulchella in January.



Two days after I took that photo all the growth at the rear shrivelled up. The main growing point remained healthy looking till 2 days ago. It now looks like this-



The roots are still healthy looking but rather like the neblinae the rhizome has gone brown and dead. The plant had been kept damp but not particulary wet over the winter. Again I can only guess that this diease struck this plant as well.  

bill

Edited by flycatchers, 24 February 2012 - 21:08 PM.

[gardenofeden]

only 1 loss so far, Brocchinia reducta, oviously needs more than 5C  minimum....

[manders]

My big old copellandii which was in the corner of the greehouse that blew out seems to be a be goner , i have a few cuttings though so not a complete loss.