Guy

Email sent, Dennis, about the Dorset visit. Guy

As the others have said, keep the plant in open fresh air as much as possible to discourage mould. This will also allow insects to get to the plant to feed it. Cut off any dead or mouldy parts of the leaves. Repot, if you haven't done already. Give this a go and let us know if it recovers. Guy

Interesting. Not seen this before. Will it be positive or negative for the VFT? Will the snail provide nutrients or toxins? Guy Doc1.docx

Could it be the broad leaf form of D. capensis? It certainly looks like one I have. Guy

Hi John Excellent start. Where are you keeping your collection of plants? Guy

Goodness! Which Droseras have you tried, and what goes wrong? Guy

No one got any thoughts on this? Guy

Your S.smoorii won't need to have its traps filled with water. It'll sort it out for itself. As to feeding, you'll be surprised how much it catches without any help. If it's in a sunny position it will get energy from photosynthesis. Any flies which tumble into it will just add to its nutrition. Winter? A long way off yet! But have a read of this. There's plenty of other information on the web, and especially on this forum, but this was the first thing which came up when I Googled your plant. Happy growing! Guy

Nice healthy looking VFTs, and some lovely colours in the traps. Guy

A friend of mine grows orchids as well as a few CPs in his greenhouse. He's just bought himself a usb ultrasonic fogger and usb fan. The fogger continuously produces a fair amount of, well, fog! The fan moves it round the greenhouse in a leisurely way. Would this be a good idea for the CPs in my greenhouse, and does anyone do this? Thanks. Guy

Goodness, that water's amazingly low in hardness. Well, low in everything, actually! It's not tap water is it? If it is you're a lucky person. It'll be fine for Sarracenia. Have fun growing it. Guy

Why do you have soil in your mix? Nutrient free peat and sand or vermiculite should be OK. Guy

I've found a quick spray with 'Bugclear Ultra' gets rid of them without damaging the plant. Don't know if you can get it in Holland. Guy

The red rim on the outside of the traps is lovely. I hope you bought it!! Guy

Lovely! How are you keeping it? Temperature, light etc. Guy

The pygmy sundews in the greenhouse are all forming tiny gemmae. And I mean tiny!! Can they be left to do their own thing, or will the gemmae need removing and planting? Thanks. Guy

Interesting thought. And you're right. The pitchers which had red tops had no Thrip damage on the red bits at all. Just the green bits. Hadn't thought about that until you pointed it out. Guy

Thanks Greg, you are absolutely right. Thrips. The link you gave shows exactly the same damage as on my plants. I went out to the dustbin where I'd put the leaves I'd cut off and very quickly found a couple of Thrips wandering about. Perhaps putting the leaves in a completely dark place encouraged them to come out. As soon as the light hit them they whizzed off and, to my eyes, just disappeared! The plants have been sprayed with Provado now. Hopefully that'll stop it getting any worse. Will I need to spray again? Interesting they don't attack other species and, clearly, not all Sarracenia species. The purps and psitticina are definitely clear. Thanks again. Guy

In that case I'll also spray with Provado. I couldn't see any Thrips when I cut the leaves off, but a bug spray will give double protection. None of the other plants; VFTs, Drosera, Pinguicula, Cephalotus, or the S.purpurea, S, psitticina have been affected. Do Thrips usually affect these plants? Guy

Job done, but what a massacre! Loads of leaves to cut off and most of the Sarracenia are looking really sad. The S.purpurea showed absolutely no sign of the problem, but others; S.tygo, S.minor (1 pot only), S.purple haze and an unnamed pot have disappeared completely. I just hope whatever is below the surface is strong enough to grow back. Doubt it somehow. Some ferns had taken up residence in the pots, they were all affected as well. Plus there were several empty snail shells. Any of these bits of information suggest what the problem is? Guy

Finally got round to having a close look at the affected pitchers. There is no sign of Thrips and even the worst affected pitchers are still green on the inside. This is only affecting the Sarracenia, everything else is OK and now I've turned the fan back on, it's stopped spreading. Suggests to me it's a fungal infection. Would it be best to cut off all the infected pitchers , or should I leave things as they are now the infection has stopped spreading? Guy

Thanks for the replies. So, it might be thrips or a fungus. I'll cut off one of the affected leaves and have a good look for thrips. Guy

Thanks. The outside plants are not showing any signs of these black spots. Until about a month ago I had a fan going in the greenhouse 24 hours a day. When the weather warmed up I left the door open all the time, with the two roof windows opening and closing automatically. I thought that would give enough air circulation, but perhaps not. So I've turned the fan back on now. What should I do about the infected plants? Just leave them, or cut the pitchers off. Hopefully I won't have to throw them all away, there's quite a lot there! Guy

My Sarracenia are all developing black spots. They've got considerably worse in the last week or so. Looking through here it seems thrips are most usually suggested as the reason. If so, then I'm happy to spray with Provado. But what else could it be, please? Thanks. Guy

Ebay is your friend--try here. Guy