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Heli sudden death


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Hi there. I grow some Helis, all of them easy hybrids. Heterodoxa x minor, ionasii x heterodoxa, glabra x nutans and nutas x heterodoxa.

They are with me for more than a year without any issue. (All of them are adult plants). They grow in a terrarium ventilated with two fans, and lighted with LED lights (white red and blue 3watts LEDs lights I mounted in heatsinks and so... a DIY proyect) and some CFL (6500K). Light is not an issue because all of them have been growing nice until today, with very well developed nectar spoon and nice redish colours.

The thigs is two or three days ago some pitchers of my heterodoxa x minor started to wrinkle and dry, as if the plant were running out of water. (But it isnt). Some pitchers are flawlessly perfec. But other, next to the healthy ones, are dehydrated, drying. The other Helis are OK.

I think there is some fungus issue in the roots, and I am not sure how to proceed. Tomorow I m pretending to take out the plant from the pot and submerg it iunder water, for a day or so, to try to rehydrate the wrinkled parts. And latter give the plant a fungicide bath hoping it works.... Any suggestions?

PS: Last year this Heli was growing outside, but I put ir under lights in winther because of the lack of light, and now I runned out of space outside, so I growing all my Helis inside. Until today, all of them were very happy. And now, except for de heterodoxa x minor, the other are very healthy. (also the heterodoxa x minor was very healthy and growing like a beast until this week)

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Forgot to say the plant is growing in live sphagnum... I thought sphagnum is not prone to be infected with fungus...

Sounds like same thing I had with Heterodoxa x minor. Everyday more pitchers dried out and eventually the plant just crashed and died. I coulnd't find a solution for it either. Tried repotting it but didn't help at all. Hope you can fix yours!

Greetings Rick

Edited by Madball
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I pulled out the dried parts of the plant and submerged the healthy ones in fungicide. Hope this helps....

Uh oh.... I have find this topic in Terraforum.... I think is the same disease that my plant have..

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?126426-Heli-Sudden-Death

And similar to this shick Heli, but no so brown:

http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=41391

Edited by The body snatcher pod
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Here you have some pics if they can help. The first ones are from the whole plant with its healthy pitchers and the drying ones. Later you have pictures of the plant beeing splitted and pulled out from its infected and necrotic parts. And apparently healthy parts beeing rinsed.

Click to enlarge!

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Edited by The body snatcher pod
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I had what I think is the same happen to my plant over the winter. Once I managed to source some fungicide (hard to find most civilised things here in Ireland) I removed all the old potting media which wasn't suitable for it, removed all infected material, sprayed with Fungus Clear and repotted it in 50/50 sphagnum moss (dead) & perlite. If I had live moss I would have used that instead of the dead stuff. I now have the pot in a short-ish vase with the top section of a lemonade bottle (no cap) over it to keep it humid. I also put it out the back a couple of times a week when it's raining just to fill the pitchers and flush the moss (like with Darlingtonia) through.

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Is that tin foil on the pot sides? If so that mite be your problem the pot will get very hot for them helis.

This reflecting foil on the pot sides is for reflecting the light in the terrarium. I doesn´t add heat to the pot. The pot is black and doesn´t not reflect much light, so I wrap it with this foil, so I waste less light beeing absorbed by the pot, and the are a bit more useable light for the plants to use. My terrarium has its walls with mirrors on to.

Edited by The body snatcher pod
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Ho it's not heat then... I find that my plants in the greenhouse grows very slow winter/summer but the two in my window sill grows bigger and better all year and flowers each year too.

But that doesn't help you...

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What is your watering regimen? quality and frequency? these symptoms look to me like root rot caused by anaerobic Media conditions, Heli's dislike overly wet conditions especially during non favorable times during the year such as hot summers or very cold winters, this could also be caused by the Media breaking down as Long fiber Sphagnum has a tendency to do. Did you mix some aggregate in to the medium? it looks to me like you are using straight LFS which might be too dense and hold too much moisture for too long. I mix in quite a bit of Perlite or some such aggregate to allow some air to get to the roots. I am by no means an expert Heliamphora grower, but I have seen similar symptoms on Both Nepenthes and Sarracenia suffering from root rot caused by Anaerobic Media. all my Heli's are potted in live Sphagnum and Perlite mix and they survive very much neglected in standard cool house conditions winter and summer.

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Ho it's not heat then... I find that my plants in the greenhouse grows very slow winter/summer but the two in my window sill grows bigger and better all year and flowers each year too.

But that doesn't help you...

Temperatures in my terrarium are not very high, but obiously, higer than in winter. The rest of my helis are OK. I think it was a combination of overcrowded pot, overwatering, and a little heat. :-(

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What is your watering regimen? quality and frequency? these symptoms look to me like root rot caused by anaerobic Media conditions, Heli's dislike overly wet conditions especially during non favorable times during the year such as hot summers or very cold winters, this could also be caused by the Media breaking down as Long fiber Sphagnum has a tendency to do. Did you mix some aggregate in to the medium? it looks to me like you are using straight LFS which might be too dense and hold too much moisture for too long. I mix in quite a bit of Perlite or some such aggregate to allow some air to get to the roots. I am by no means an expert Heliamphora grower, but I have seen similar symptoms on Both Nepenthes and Sarracenia suffering from root rot caused by Anaerobic Media. all my Heli's are potted in live Sphagnum and Perlite mix and they survive very much neglected in standard cool house conditions winter and summer.

Well, I think you have the key here. I installed a pump two month ago to water my plants the week I spent in England. Pump waters once a day, more water than I normaly do by hand. That´s why I took of the trays below the pots, to allow the pot to drain properly. The media is pure sphagnum, but the botton third part of the pot is full with very gross sand. (almost little peebles) for draining. My other Heli are in similar conditions and seem to enjoy it.

I am thinking this pot was extremely overcrowded. Thar could allow the water to remain in between the traps and close to the trap´s base and the rizomes. Adding this to the no very favorable conditions (summer heat, more watering than usual, dense sphagnum, etc) could cause this anaerobic roting. :-( The other helis are not so overcrowded by far, and the seem to be happy. Terrarium is well ventilated with two 12V fan. So, I think the dense overcrowding in my heterodoxa x minor pot could prevent the plant to dry out properly in spite of the fan, and thats the way the issue started. Thatñs my theory at least.

By the way, thank you all for your kind answers! :thumbsup:

Let´s see if I can save anything!

Edited by The body snatcher pod
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  • 1 month later...

Nooope. Anything has survived. And I have lost some Sarrs and another Heli because of the same problem. Phytium fungus... Have to say the most of my plants look great because of this great and sunny summer we are having here (not very usual here, I live in a very rainy zone). And very hot summer, rare here. But It´s strange this year I lost some plants so badly while the rest grow so happily...

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Yep. It was my biggest Heli. I wonder why I didn´t split it before this desease in orther to have some back up plants...

Thanks!

We all make that mistake! :wall3:

bill

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Ahhh, yes... we all read about another grower´s plants deaths but we think: "Well, that is not happening to my plants!!". Oh, so wrong... :negative:

Well! I´ve just got some Trichoderma powder. I am using it in the next watering! I was reading some info in this forum about it´s use on CPs and seems to work. So, I think I am watering all my collection with Trichoderma, so I can get rid off the "bad fungus".

(Well, anyway I hand´t got any more death, but just in case....) I think I am doing it now, at the begining of the autum and in Srping, when plants start to wake up! :dance4:

Edited by The body snatcher pod
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  • 6 months later...

I lost quite a few big heli this winter despite regular doses of Trichoderma. :( Even sections divided and repotted and at the time looking ok shrivel up or go limp a few weeks later. And it always strikes clones you can't replace!

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  • 1 month later...

Hello guys.

From my experience, if one of my heliamphora became too compact, like your heli on the picture, you can have fungus in the center. I think its the problem here. Even with air flow in the tank, no air reach the center of the plant, and everything rot.

We have to understand that we cannot grow our plant like 'insitu' because we cannot have the same conditions in a closed collection. So for me, avoiding this problem is very simple; if your plant have 20+ pitchers, its time to split the plant into 2 or 3 plants for much better ventilation in the center.

For this reason, i split all my heli each year, or each two year maximum.

Same thing for a big sarracenia if you grow it inside.

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I cannot edit with the mobile version of this forum, so i will post one more thing, some of my friends have 30, 40 even 50+ pitchers on a single plant without any problem, but its a chance to take.

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Yes, I think an overcrowded plant could be prone to get fungus attack... I didn´t have anymore losses until now, but my Helis are growing bigger and bigger and some of them are getting too big, jut like the one on the pics...

The wise solution would be to split them in several pots, but the bad nwe is I don´t have any more room in my terraria for more pots...

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This pic is from two month ago more or less... Now this red Heli has more pitchers...

Thanks for your kind replies! :thanks:

Edited by The body snatcher pod
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You can split and givaway/trade on the forum, you will make ppl happy, and this will resolve your problem :)

On another forum, i give away 15 heliamphora last month :)

You have a nice helis collection by the way!

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  • 1 month later...

Sudden death syndrome of Heliamphora . SDS

It happens usually when a change in a grow area temps happen , usually !! here in AU its usually a sudden spike in temps from cool to a very hot day , and it sets of that fungal bug at the bast of the pitchers root ball area. that sits dormant in normal growth temps,

Have heard of other events setting of this happening or tragic event with helis .

When it happened to me first time some 10 year ago I had no clue what it was or what to do ,got this massive nutans from EP and a week late it was dead, the sudden change in temps climate what ever just set the SDS off !!., now its rather simple to spot and fix for me , first knowing its coming, hot day suddenly upon us , so my huge cooler in the G/H goes on full , then a heavy treatment of Fongarid at full strength applied to the usual suspects that are nutans , nutans giant and minor x hetro , others do seem to be affected as much.

and apply several times every 2 days , or if the first signs appear as pitchers drying out or looking very dehydrated /shriveling , apply on first signs. this suits our climate any how

the use of Tricherdemas is not so affective as they only work at temps constant above 20c so its not working in winter or cooler climates as well as temperate and above climates . a micro climate temp stable at 20c will work

spelling hopefully fixed !

Edited by snapperhead51
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