Sarracenia flava question. drooping old pitchers, cut them off?

[ijason]

greetings!

i've had a Sarracenia flava plant for almost two years now, and this is my second summer. this spring the plant put up many more pitchers than before (due to improved placement, i think. more sun!), and they are upright compared to the floppy low-light ones from last year. i have four wooden stakes attached to the pot, and string tied in a ring around the stakes to help give the previously droopy pitchers some support.

now, my first spring pitchers have started to brown out along the top of the pitcher-cover... lip... thing, and new bright green pitchers are opening up in the center of the plant. when i cut the strings loose the browning pitchers promptly flopped sadly over and the new ones remain firmly upright. i've since tied a looser ring of string around the stakes so that the old pitchers are upright but canted out away from the pot to not crowd the new ones. should i do that? or should i cut off the older browning pitchers since they'd just flop over in nature and get broken off soon enough?

all the plants i've seen in the wild have about half as many pitchers as mine currently does, so that tells me the pitchers naturally brown out and break off and are continually replaced during the growing season. yes?

[Alexis]

Hi Jason

Whereabouts in Florida are you? What is your plant potted up in?

Generally, anything brown can be cut off. In the wild old pitchers just turn brown, become bleached by the sun and rot off in the undergrowth.

Photos of plants in the wild are often taken at their peak. Flava grows strong pitchers in spring and then weaker, more phyllodiform pitchers later on. They look at their best in May and June, so people tend to take photos of them then. They'll look tatty later on.

Where did you buy your flava by the way?

[ijason]

thank you for your reply. :)

do you think it would be better to cut off the older pitchers, so that the newly sprouted get more direct sunlight? i wasn't entirely accurate, the old pitchers are not browning out entirely, the top of the trap browns out and the rest of the pitcher looks really beleaguered and just generally in poor shape. i assume that without the string holding them up, they would droop all the way and then fully brown out.

i actually got the plant from a road-side vendor down near Orlando. i live in northern florida, and had only seen this plant whizzing by as i drove down coastal highways. The guy sold a weird mix of bonsai trees and various carnivorous plants.

i'll include a picture of my Sarracenia to give you a more informed opinion about the condition of the first and second sprouted pitchers (the shorter ones, that are cut off are LAST years leaves. the tops browned off during the winter, but the rest of the leaf stayed green so i left them on)

(http://www.jasongoes.com/!/pitcher.jpg) don't know why it wouldn't post?

it looks like i'll need to re-pot this winter!

[Alexis]

Your plant look fine. Old pitchers brown at the edges, but they're still photosynthesising for the plant. I'd leave them on.

The pitchers can blow over in heavy rain and strong wind unfortunately. It's the just the way they are.

Individual clones can perform better than others though. Out of a bunch of flavas, certain individuals will last longer and be sturdier than others. It's all down to genetics.

Give some other species a go. You've got ideal conditions.