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Help with Pinguicula setup


Fernando Rivadavia

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  • 3 weeks later...

I still cant believe, that all these plants are growing such well in the same conditions.

Neither can that pessimistic Will from Belgium, where is he now? LOL! :)

Anyway, how about another update? My Cephalotus is really taking off, here's a pic taken about a week ago:

20130514_152907_1337x1834_zpseb5c0a88.jpg

And here it is today:

20130517_170154_2448x1836_zps4d5a3bd1.jpg

The new pitcher is even bigger than the previous one! Not only is it ~5.5cm long (about .5cm longer than the the one on the left), but it is also wider. I can't wait to see how big that new pitcher on the left will turn out to be - especially after feeding some of the pill bugs I caught on the wall to those two large pitchers. :)

Also, I think I've been able to make a leaf cutting of the D.schizandra, there's a tiny Drosera bud showing up nearby.

I've got a few new Pings in flower and was hoping someone here could help me with IDs.

The first mystery Ping is this one:

IMG_0730_2448x1836_zps5709599d.jpg

IMG_0741_zps4268d0dc.jpg

I'm suspecting this must be some kind of cross between P.moranensis (or P.hemiepiphytica?) and P.ehlersiae/ esseriana.

And here's the 2nd mystery Ping. I think it's a cross between emarginata and maybe agnata/ pilosa/ ibarrae (look at that short spur):

IMG_0737_zps88f32156.jpg

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And here's the last mystery Ping, I suspect this may be emarginata X cyclosecta:

IMG_0721_1836x2448_zpsbb74da1b.jpg

20130519_104507_zps04ea9e62.jpg

So what do you guys think these 3 Pings are?

Another Ping is in flower right now, a pink P.rectifolia:

IMG_0733_zps941d85a6.jpg

Yesterday I went to California Carnivores, where I bought a few new plants for my wall, it's becoming quite diverse. :)

D.paradoxa(?):

IMG_0725_1807x1346_zpsa0b64f5d.jpg

VFT green dragon (green? really?):

IMG_0727_2448x1836_zps501886b9.jpg

And this one will surprise many of you I'm sure... N.singalana X aristolochioides:

IMG_0729_2448x1836_zpsd30b3fe5.jpg

Might be nice to have a Nep vine hanging from the wall, we'll see. :) I also added leaf cuttings of several new Pings, U.reniformis, & 2 forms of U.livida.

Anyway, here's a panorama that my friend Stephen Davis took yesterday of my ~2.5m (~8ft) CP wall (before I added the new plants):

IMG_6727_8088x1749_6066x1312_zps13d403e9.jpg

Hope you enjoyed it! ;)

All the best

Fernando Rivadavia

P.S. Next, I'll be updating the post on the CP wall at California Carnivores, where Steve & I planted ~60 Pings + another ~10 CPs yesterday: http://www.cpukforum...showtopic=49298

Edited by Fernando Rivadavia
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Hello Fernando,

Here you can see my old wall:

http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36398&hl=wall

As I didn't have time to take care of this one during my thesis, it aged very badly and I nearly lost all my plants. I decided to change it and I made a new one this automn. As a consequence, I don't have many flowers this year. Here is a picture:

It is closer to Jurg Steiger system. Also it seems to demand less maintenance than the previous one.

Edited by kisscool_38
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Neither can that pessimistic Will from Belgium, where is he now? LOL! :)

Pessimistic Will from Belgium here :coffee: ,i still think you give the pings the wrong treatment,and i think the D paradoxa proof this.Pings like it to go in rest in winter,colder and totally dry for a few months ,not give a rest periode is meaby not good for long term?

So you see still a bit pessimistic and mostly realistisch and not a bit of jelousy,plants look nice but not like in nature,some are to big .

Can you tell honnestly how many plants or species you lost in this year?Not all species of pings go grow like this some dying off, i can say honnestly i lost not one Mexican ping in the last 2 year after i chanced my groundmix and treatment,and i have them all wat you can find in cultivation,and thats wat count for me, :chiffa:

cheers will

Cheers Will

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Ah, welcome back Will! :)

Thanks for your input, I'm sure I still have a lot to adjust on my CP wall and it's only a guess which plants will do well in the long run -- or even if the wall concept will be viable in the long run. It's a learning process, which is the big reason why I'm sharing it here.

Regarding D.paradoxa, I've just added this one last week, so it's not an indicater that my place is too hot - yet. I actually see this as a huge gamble, since I honestly think it'll get too cold for this plant in the winter time.

I don't heat my small studio apartment, as this is really not necessary here in SF. Therefore, there is certainly a temperature variation inside the apartment -- mostly around 20C in the summer, and 15C in winter would be my guess. Although it probably gets down to ~10C on many winter nights, I'm not sure this is "low enough" for dormancy of some species I put up there. But I guess we'll find out.

One thing I definitely want to investigate better is the possibility of letting the wall dry out more during the winter months, especially near the top. This was the initial plan after all: having the dry-loving plants near the top. But don't forget that some people grow their Mexican Pings wet year-round and claim this has no negative side effects(!!).

In fact, regarding Ping dormancy, I'm actually having the opposite problem of what you suggest: too many species are still in dormancy in late May!! I was thinking about this while looking at all the beautiful Pings in flower at California Carnivores the other day. I don't know why this is happening. Any ideas?

As for some plants being "too big", this sounds like a good thing to me. :) Unless they're etiolated of course. The only one that is currently "too big" in my opinion is P. 'A.Lau #13' - which seems to have true hybrid vigor. I even gave some away recently, to open up space for new species.

In my opinion the biggest issue I've had with the CP wall is the accumulation of salts near the top, which killed a few adult plants as well as numerous leaf cuttings. Soaking from the top seems to have helped, but I think I will need to address this further in the future.

You asked which species I have lost. Well as I mentioned above, thanks to salt accumulation I know I lost a few individual plants at the top, but I had extras near the bottom where they are still alive. I also lost tons of leaf cuttings which simply didn't "catch" for one mysterious reason or another throughout my wall (salt was to blame near the top for sure).

But the only species/ hybrid PLANTS (not leaf cuttings) I am absolutey sure I lost on my wall were a Drosera nidiformis and a D.madagascariensis. Both of these were planted near the top of the wall during the worst of the salt problem. I may also have lost either U.endresii or U.asplundii, maybe the former (I can see lots of long leaves, but I can't tell which species they belong to). I am actually astounded that even U.quelchii is still alive on the wall!

Therefore, overall my assessment is: so far so good! :) Like any CP collection, I'll just have to keep making small tweaks to the system in hopes that I can put as many different CPs as possible -- while keeping them healthy. Think of it as a long-term science experiment. :)

Best wishes and thanks for your input!

Fernando Rivadavia

Edited by Fernando Rivadavia
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everyone,

A short update, mostly a question. When I first set up the wall last year, P.moctezumae seemed t have started off well. It even flowered a few times, see below:

IMGP1087_3216x2412.jpg

Pmoctezumae3.jpg

But for several months my P.moctezumae have not fared very well. One of the two original plants died, and the remaining one has very narrow leaves, as do the small plants that struck from leaf cuttings, see below:

20130603_200311_2448x1836_zps22e869f2.jpg

Any ideas why P.moctezumae is not doing so well? It is growing near the bottom of the wall, where I thought it would like the extra humidity. I've tried putting leaf cuttings higher up, but these died.

My D.schizandra is still looking nice but is worrying me a little bit. It has stopped pumping out new leaves and the existing leaves have lost their dew. I'm wondering if the warmer weather is making it too hot up on the wall, especially around sunset when the wall gets a little bit of direct sunlight at this time of year.

On the good side, my Cephalotus now has three mature pitchers:

20130603_193905_zpsb3190f2d.jpg

I've also got several Pings in flower, including the AL #13 hybrid, P.rectifolia, another flower of the mystery cross between emarginata and maybe agnata/ pilosa/ ibarrae, and a different plant of emarginata X cyclosecta (?).

Last of all, D.paradoxa, other Drosera, VFTs, the Nep hybrid, and the Utrics are all doing well. Not sure if U.reniformis has been established successfully or not, there are no leaves yet.

Best wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia

Edited by Fernando Rivadavia
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Hello Fernando,

Your Pinguicula moctezumae is simply lacking of light. At home, it is by far the species that most requires sunlight. Your plants are etiolated. Combined with high humidity, they try to survive but tend to rot.

Edited by kisscool_38
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There is enough light for most species you grow, so don't add more LEDs, that would be for nothing. But this species really needs much more light than all the others. Maybe you should grow it on a rock (there are great example in this forum) or in a batch with cat litter on a south-facing windowsill.

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I think your schizandra is probably absorbing too much dissolved solids. Not much you can do about it in those conditions...

Edited by Dave Evans
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Hmmm, I've been soaking the top of the wall to try and dissolve the salts that accumulated there, then removing the water from the gutter. One of the worst hit spots was right above the D.schizandra, so you could be right.

I will keep soaking and removing water, hoping that eventually it will come down to "acceptable" levels by most plants.

Thanks,

F

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