FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all,

I got this Pinguicula Cyclosecta years ago and it's pretty much stayed tiny all this time. It just doesn't ever want to grow bigger.

Anything I can do to help it, or is this just as big at they get? Currently in winter dormancy succulent form, I think.

It's potted in a 1:1:1 mix of peat/perlite/vermiculite, under yescom225 growlights for 12 hours a day on a timer. Humidity is around 50% during Summer indoors.

I'm not seeing your pic so I don't know if your plant is simply in succulent mode, but I will say I'm not happy with your medium. In particular, vermiculite is known to break down over time. And I'm not too happy about the peat, either. Maybe consider repotting into a more ping-centric mix, like all mineral.

Edited my link, should work now. It's definitely succulent right now, but it's just always around that size, even when in its trapper phase.

What would you recommend for the media as a mix? I'm not happy with the vermiculite either. I was thinking something like 1:3 ratio of Peat to Perlite, as that's all I have on hand right now. I swear, everytime I do research on ping soil mixes it's so wildly different lol.

It's tough when you just have just one plant. Tough because to make a decent mineral mix requires buying several ingredients, each of which is basically only sold in large quantities. There are a couple of places (check Ebay) that sell small pre-mixed bags but the postage gets extreme. If you have LFS, I've had plants in pure sphagnum for years that did fine. Otherwise, you could try 1:3 but peat to perlite.

BTW, you said you are using 12 hours of light. Do you change it seasonally? I keep my lights on around 12 hours in the winter but go up to 15 or 16 in summer.

EDIT: I just saw that Rainbow Carnivores is selling Ping soil baggies containing perlite, peat moss, and vermiculite (2/1/1), so you could try using those ratios with what you've already got.

Nikson wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 8:51 pm Hey all,

I got this Pinguicula Cyclosecta years ago and it's pretty much stayed tiny all this time. It just doesn't ever want to grow bigger.

Anything I can do to help it, or is this just as big at they get? Currently in winter dormancy succulent form, I think.

It's potted in a 1:1:1 mix of peat/perlite/vermiculite, under yescom225 growlights for 12 hours a day on a timer. Humidity is around 50% during Summer indoors.

They grow a lot faster if you feed them. It may take a little while for them to get going once you start feeding and you have to keep at it but it can make a world of difference.

evenwind wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 6:35 pm It's tough when you just have just one plant. Tough because to make a decent mineral mix requires buying several ingredients, each of which is basically only sold in large quantities. There are a couple of places (check Ebay) that sell small pre-mixed bags but the postage gets extreme. If you have LFS, I've had plants in pure sphagnum for years that did fine. Otherwise, you could try 1:3 but peat to perlite.

BTW, you said you are using 12 hours of light. Do you change it seasonally? I keep my lights on around 12 hours in the winter but go up to 15 or 16 in summer.

EDIT: I just saw that Rainbow Carnivores is selling Ping soil baggies containing perlite, peat moss, and vermiculite (2/1/1), so you could try using those ratios with what you've already got.

I do change the photoperiod! I run it at 12 hours during winter, and then go up to 14 during the summer. The cyclosecta definitely goes into dormancy and grows succulent during this time.

But what's really weird to me is that I used to have 2 Cyclosecta, and during Fall one of them randomly died off, and this season they were both SUPER tiny, like smaller than last year. Last year they got around penny sized, but this year they were like finger nail sized. Just wondering if I did something wrong, or if the soil is just too bad for them?

Huntsmanshorn wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 9:41 pm

Nikson wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 8:51 pm Hey all,

I got this Pinguicula Cyclosecta years ago and it's pretty much stayed tiny all this time. It just doesn't ever want to grow bigger.

Anything I can do to help it, or is this just as big at they get? Currently in winter dormancy succulent form, I think.

It's potted in a 1:1:1 mix of peat/perlite/vermiculite, under yescom225 growlights for 12 hours a day on a timer. Humidity is around 50% during Summer indoors.

They grow a lot faster if you feed them. It may take a little while for them to get going once you start feeding and you have to keep at it but it can make a world of difference.

Yeah I feed them with dusted freeze dried bloodworms and MaxSea, and they get fungus gnats, but they just are stubborn and don't grow big. I know they aren't the biggest pings, but they just don't seem to want to grow to the size I see in pictures online.

it is a species mainly from limestone environments, I am not sure that an acidic environment is suitable for it

I second what jeff said.

You might try a mix that has limestone and/or crushed oyster shells, or some other calcium heavy inorganic material.

For ~$3 you can get a bag of oyster shell and limestone from RainbowCarnivorousPlants:

https://rainbowcarnivorousplants.com/pr ... s=e&_v=1.0

Or from CuriousPlant you can get their Deluxe Ping mix:

https://curiousplant.com/product/media- ... tting-mix/

The product description from RainbowCarnivorousPlants is helpful:

Oyster shell and limestone is recommended for some Pinguicula to thrive, we have seen that some plants do better when some calcium is added. We recommend that you mix this calcium with your preferred media for best results. Some of the plants that can benefit from adding calcium are: P. zamudioana, gigantea red, moctezumae, elizabethiae, gigantea, gypsicola, colimensis, cyclosecta, and numerous other. Make sure that you do NOT put them in the same tray with other plants to avoid calcium contamination.

in Mexico at the moment this plant is dormant (it is the dry period).
for my part they are also dormant at home

That sounds great, my other pinguicula are Gigantea so maybe I need to add limestone. How do you recommend I mix it in? Is there a ratio that I should do overall?

currently what is your ratio?

jeff wrote:currently what is your ratio?

I just got some silica sand, so I think my ratio is going to be Peat/Perlite/Sand with a 1:1:1 ratio.

Also I wasn't able to find limestone, so I got dolomitic lime, in powdered form, which I think is ok from what I've read?

Do I just mix everything, keep it moist by adding some water, then just add a small scoop of dolomitic lime into the moist mix and mix it in?

see here
http://pinguicula.org/pages/plantes/pin ... osecta.htm
replace the aqualit by this material
https://curiousplant.com/product/media- ... tting-mix/
in my opinion perlite, which decomposes over time with water, is not very useful
for me the use of peat for a plant in limestone environments is not adequate
​

jeff wrote:see here
http://pinguicula.org/pages/plantes/pin ... osecta.htm
replace the aqualit by this material
https://curiousplant.com/product/media- ... tting-mix/
in my opinion perlite, which decomposes over time with water, is not very useful
for me the use of peat for a plant in limestone environments is not adequate
​

What do I replace aqualit by? The curiousplant pinguicula mix? Or the dolomitic lime?

Also I was curious, for mixes without an peat at all, how do you keep the media moist for the pinguicula? Do I just keep it in a tray of water at all times, or do I top water when it looks dry?

Also FINALLY got image hosting to work, so here's what it looks like now: