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Cleaning off the dust?


Avi

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I live in a really dusty part of town and my Pinguicula got covered in it and I'm wondering if there is any method for cleaning off all that dust. I've been thinking about letting the plant sit in the rain for a few minutes, since they live in the wilderness naturally, so there's no cover from rain water, but I don't want to damage the plant. Any ideas for cleaning are welcome :happy:

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Hi! Untill 2 weeks ago I lived near the Volcano Etna, in Italy... it makes a lot of vulcanic dust, that cover pinguicula leaves (I had gigantea, gypsicola, Tina, poldinii, corsica, alpina, grandiflora, chilensis, lusitanica e hirtiflora)... there wasn't a method to clean the leaves... water can damnage it because there is the risk of rot...

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The rain won't be a problem. A wet paintbrush could probably also do the trick. Either way, the plant will have to lose its dew for a day.

3 hours ago, Argo88 said:

Hi! Untill 2 weeks ago I lived near the Volcano Etna, in Italy... it makes a lot of vulcanic dust, that cover pinguicula leaves (I had gigantea, gypsicola, Tina, poldinii, corsica, alpina, grandiflora, chilensis, lusitanica e hirtiflora)... there wasn't a method to clean the leaves... water can damnage it because there is the risk of rot...

Pinguicula, just like any other plant, do receive rainfall in nature.

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42 minutes ago, carambola said:

The rain won't be a problem. A wet paintbrush could probably also do the trick. Either way, the plant will have to lose its dew for a day.

Pinguicula, just like any other plant, do receive rainfall in nature.

I tried with paintbrush but volcanic dust grain were too small and they didn't go away...

yes, in wild they love rainwater and sometimes p. Planifolia and p. Lusitanica are totally submerged by water... but in artificial conditions it is different.. I say that basing on my own growing conditions: I lost a p. Crystallina hirtiflora, a young p. Poldinii, Two chilensis, one Young alpina, one Young gigantea and a lusitanica after an error in wetting them... the center has became brown and the plants died... It could be also because I lived in a hotter place, so it encourage fungous and mould attacks 

Edited by Argo88
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Hi Avi, that's very unfortunate.  Whenever I accidentally spill water on my Ping I soak it up with kitchen paper towel and the plants are always OK.  So if you have a plant you're prepared to experiment with, how about you allow some water to get on the leaves and then using the soak it up with the kitchen paper towel.  Hopefully the dust will be absorbed with the water, you may need to repeat the process to get all the dust off.  As I said start with a plant you're prepared to experiment with first.

Good luck.

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Just to provide a few more information, not all Pinguicula are as rain lovers in nature as you may imagine. In fact, many of the epiphytic or lithophytic species clearly prefer places rather protected from rain. I mean, they love a humid substrate, often with running water, but keeping the leaves relatively dry and protected from rain. This is obviously not applicable to the several species that often grow in exposed places, such as meadows and bogs. High variation for a highly diverse genus!

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  • 3 weeks later...

P. chilensis and the European Pinguicula live in a lot of water in nature. I suspect that they were already dying from other reasons, and the water simply sped up the process (as when Pinguicula die, they rot). I have poured water on all of my Pinguicula in various conditions both indoors and outdoors, the only time I had issues was with a Pinguicula in improper conditions (terrarium, even with good airflow). That was my P. chuquisacensis, which typically grows very wet in nature but I believe that a terrarium is simply too stuffy to allow leaves to get wet. If conditions are good, some water on the leaves should not harm them.

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  • 4 years later...
1 hour ago, Siripont said:

Is it possible to wipe Pinguicula with a damp towel from dust?

No, don't think so. If you wipe a leaf the goo won't come back. Pinguicula usually produce many leaves so I'd just wait for the fresh ones and keep it out of a dusty environment.

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