partisangardener

In the end I found out it was even -18 C° for one night. They were frozen solid. Old leafs had dead ends after thawing younger ones just grew on. I was weeding a bit between the other plants an even accidentally ripped out the smallest Drosophyllum there. It had only a root stump of one inch left. I put it back into the wet ground. It has still dew on after more than a week. Maybe it survives which would be impossible under normal conditions. Since we can`t reproduce hydrological circumstances deep in the ground and regular mist clouds from the sea; a hydroponic system like mine might be the solution for many problems this species provides for growers. I do have substrate layers on these islands of only 1-3 cm thickness. The older ones which did not have to endure deep frost are now about 6 inches high. They should flower soon.

First year seedlings do have usually more distance than the clumps after another year of growth. I have seeds practically everywhere on my Hydroponics. They germinate after the frost outdoor and grow quite fast. Flowering is usually in the following year. On my islands they are always moist but never drowning, because the substrate level is always above the waterline. I have not had them for now almost a century. The Botrytis problem occurred in the past always in older clumps. Inside and outside. But as long I had my old fashioned habitats I had this issue not every winter but quite often. At least somewhere. My new ones I have now in the third year and never a problem yet.

Maybe its not the wetness. Which form do you have? I have only D. filiformis filiformis. In years past I had sometimes Botrytis over the winter. If not treated it spreads very fast to adjoining hibernacle. When I treated them at once just with a little heap of wood-ashes, it stopped and none affected hibernacle stayed healthy. Nowadays I have them in a unheated studio and outside, all in a hydroponic floating island always moist but never drowned. I had not to treat them yet. Maybe I give them this year some ashes just in case. Some potassium is not harmful in my experience, and most carnivores benefit from fires. I do not overdo it because fires occur only every other year 😉 .

Even most plastic will crack with this steep form and small volume.

This displayed pot and tray will not withstand a good frost. Both will crack. That´s why I asked.

Do you want to keep it all year round on the balcony? Your setting will have problems with frost. You might try another approach for your bog. Less substrate, one tray, less maintenance and less weight for transportation. https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18726.0

I forgot some Drosophyllum seedlings last December outside. -15 for several nights and finally thawing after two weeks. I have them growing on floating islands with only a few centimeters of substrate. After thawing I put them in my frost-free studio. Light level in winter is quite low. I put some aluminum foil behind to increase the light. Now they start again to grow. First picture is after the thawing, second from today.

Fred has them probably in a greenhouse. At the window is probably much less light than there. LED should help. Mine are usually outside until frost. Inside in my cold studio over the winter and most often with some aluminiumfoil behind or some LED now. Is yours still alive? They tend to die after the first flower. I had a variation with bigger flowers and red tips on the seed capsules from Los Barrios. 2018/19 I gave all my plants to my local Botanical Garden. Last year I started again. Got still lots of seeds from Los Barrios, but I do not know which one from the actual ones are from this variety. I probably have both. I will see it when they set seed. https://forum.carnivoren.org/forums/topic/44887-riesenblüten-von-los-barrios/

My answer comes a bit late. I had a fungal attack which looked like yours. It was in an outside bog with different species of Sphagnum. An area of about a square meter had symptoms. At first it looked like every Sphagnum plant in this area would die or being already dead. More than 90% was gone there in the end. Surprisingly it regrew within a year to its former strength out of this dead pads ( no replanting on my side). The symptoms did not spread to the other adjacent Sphagnum moss pads while the infection killed the mosses in this patch. The fungus did fruit, but no new event occurred in following years. I do not know why it did happen and also not why it went. I think fungi of different species helped to protect the healthy areas. I usually use living Sphagnum to propagate plants without mold attacks (seeds and cuttings). Which is due to helpful fungi living in symbiosis with Sphagnum.

https://forum.carnivoren.org/forums/topic/54655-problem-with-nepenthes-xkinabulensis/ Here the last post got the answer. It is not a pest. Too much and too often water on the leafs, can cause edema with certain Nepenthes species. Try too keep the leafs dry for longer periods.

Pure perlite has no organic matter to feed prey and beneficial fungi. That's maybe the reason for better growth in the mixture.. Perlite crumbles all the time if moved mechanically, so maybe if this dust accumulates anaerobic situations might occur, if some little organic matter from the plants feed it. To feed anaerobic bacteria need elements like sulphur to get their energy, if no organic matter is available. I do not know what perlite offers in this respect.

A friend here in Germany who is a carpenter uses wood shavings from oak with success . For seedlings sawdust might be more fitting. On my floating devices nearly everything is working, because moisture is always the same so no concentration of unhealthy substances. https://forum.carnivoren.org/forums/topic/52443-eiche-substrat/#comment-296000

Beforehand I never grew Heliamphora. The water on the Tepuis is always moving and probably always saturated with oxygen. There is the same issue with Darlingtonia which nearly always grow alongside seeps. Stagnant water is always dangerous if plant are not able to use the oxygen in the air in such environments to help their roots. The carnivores I know don't. To create such oxygenated moist substrate without pumps and suchlike I have this method. https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18726.0 It works for a great variety of plants even some from very dry habitats. Maybe it helps to read through and try to adapt your own regime.

This was in November the same year, just half a year later.

A bit late Possibly soft skin mites. They are very tiny. Very dangerous and you need a potent acaricid.

White mold is quite often some ordinary mushroom mycel. Probably there is no common answer. It depends. In non carnovorous plants it helps sometimes even to germinate(break dormancy). In some its absolutely necessary like many of the orchids. Different plants interact with different mycel. I had germination in some hardy Drosera and some Sarracenia which had white mold on them. With drosera only little germination. Under controlled conditions mold starts with me on dead or empty seeds.

It is likely that you will have more fungus. If there are new sprouts humidity is enough. If the fungus is Botrytis you could use a spray. But I think it will pull through at any rate.

This is some kind of Hybrid. Nobody will be able to tell whats in it.

The roots did not grow out of the planter jet. But there must be roots. 5 weeks now without any is absolutely impossible. I would have left it longer attached to the mother. It was an accident, while taking it out of the car trunk. The little stump in the pot is the rest of the old stem that was alive at the time it was ripped off, now completely dry. They are quite easy under my conditions. Just above Drosera capensis level.

I started this attempt late spring this year. It seems to work http://www.carnivorousplantsociety.ca/index.php?threads/drosophyllum-layer-propagation.356/#post-2536

Instant death (within a few days) is a fungus infection of the roots. There are other issues but they are usually slower. Crow rot (usually ended through repotting) is maybe a Boron deficiency. It seems to be quite common. I never had any problems apart from a few aphids the first year, which really did no damage. I hope it stays that way. I have now quite a few and own seedlings too.

My oldest ones are growing since winter 2014/15 and always water in the tray. It’s the natural rainy season. With keeping them on the dry side they usually die after the first flowering season. Mine flower three to four times a year with no ill effect. One pot even survived repotting this spring. The water in the tray has sometimes ice on top in the winter. http://sarracenia.proboards.com/thread/608/drosophyllum-lusitanicum-dewy-pine

I have Cephalotus only for a few years. When it gets colder, they slow down their growth, but if the temperature rises above 5 C° during the day, they grow through all the winter. In the wild there will be no dormancy at all then. They slow down a bit. A cooler period with shorter days is the trigger for normal leafs and flowering the next Spring/Summer.

Cephalotus tends to get more and better with age. You will never later being accused of harassment for looking at a Cephalotus.

Looks good your setup. It is dangerous to keep them in the sunshine with covering. Boiled are all plants dead. Shading is good. The pots are my own creation; the first ones are out of a special mixture. But I have now some out of normal lime free ceramic working well. Make a lot of holes in the side with a stick for aeration. Structure it with a fork. With normal clay I use something to suck up the water into the substrate. Works good and you can leave it in a tray with water. With the waterline below the substrate.