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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#411697
Hey all,

I posted here about my pinguicula cyclosecta a while ago, about a year I think, back when they came in the mail and I was shocked at how tiny they were!

Back last summer:
Image

They look like this now:
Image

Ironically, the bigger of the two was the one that was smaller when I got them. For some reason, the one that was originally bigger just got stunted in growth and slowed down vs the small one. They actually went through dormancy during winter by themselves even though I didn't do anything with the lighting, they just straight up turned into the little succulent form.

They're now out of the succulent form and are growing carnivorous leaves now, but they still look pretty small to me, especially the one on the right. They're starting to catch some fungus gnats though which should give them a boost, but I was wondering if there's anything else I can do for them? Should I change them out of the potting mix they came in originally? It's starting to grow some moss. Does that impact their growth at all? I can make a perlite, peat, vermuculite, sand mix that I've been growing my Gigantea in to great success. Would that be better for them?

Or does none of this really matter and I should just let them go about their own business?
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By nimbulan
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Posts:  2395
Joined:  Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:03 pm
#411701
Personally I've found Pinguicula extremely picky about the soil mix (completely counter to most people's experiences it seems) and they'll hardly grow at all when they aren't planted in something optimal. I've tried many things and only gotten them to start growing properly (and very quickly at that) when I started using akadama.

On the topic of moss, yes carpet moss can be quite bad for Pinguicula, strangling their roots. It's not generally a problem unless it gets really out of hand though.
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By evenwind
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Posts:  2160
Joined:  Sun Jul 07, 2013 4:16 pm
#411703
And then, there's this: After carefully researching the absolute best possible all-mineral medium for pings, I planted this Yucca Doo 1713. At some point, I decreased my watering schedule. At some other point, the plant was shifted to the rear of an above eye-level shelf. What you see in the pic is a seemingly healthy Ping Yucca Doo 1713 happily growing on an island of dried out carpet moss. I don't think the roots reach my carefully prepared all-mineral medium at all. So there's that. I'm wondering why I bothered..
ping.jpg
ping.jpg (195.27 KiB) Viewed 7751 times
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#411887
Dug up both the pings and moved them into a peat/perlite/sand/vermiculite mix that my gigantea are growing in super well.

I noticed the larger ping had a pretty deep root system, whereas the smaller one barely had any roots at all. I'm guessing maybe it had difficulty penetrating the rocks and sand that formed the original mix.

I couldn't really bury its tiny roots so I pushed it up against the surface and I hope it manages to figure out what to do next lol.
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By nimbulan
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Joined:  Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:03 pm
#411896
Nikson wrote:I couldn't really bury its tiny roots so I pushed it up against the surface and I hope it manages to figure out what to do next lol.
Yeah don't worry about that, Pings are good at getting established in new media. Last year my cyclosecta had the entire bottom of the plant chewed off by fungus gnat larvae so there was just a stump, no roots at all. All I did was press it down onto the media a bit and it started growing normally again in a couple weeks.
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#411977
evenwind wrote: Fri May 20, 2022 8:33 pm And then, there's this: After carefully researching the absolute best possible all-mineral medium for pings, I planted this Yucca Doo 1713. At some point, I decreased my watering schedule. At some other point, the plant was shifted to the rear of an above eye-level shelf. What you see in the pic is a seemingly healthy Ping Yucca Doo 1713 happily growing on an island of dried out carpet moss. I don't think the roots reach my carefully prepared all-mineral medium at all. So there's that. I'm wondering why I bothered.. ping.jpg
Dude that's hilarious. Your ping is living like a king up there lmao. I guess this is another example of growing through neglect, where the plants you barely keep an eye on are the ones that grow better compared to when you put in a lot of time and effort into researching lmao.
nimbulan wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 2:19 am
Nikson wrote:I couldn't really bury its tiny roots so I pushed it up against the surface and I hope it manages to figure out what to do next lol.
Yeah don't worry about that, Pings are good at getting established in new media. Last year my cyclosecta had the entire bottom of the plant chewed off by fungus gnat larvae so there was just a stump, no roots at all. All I did was press it down onto the media a bit and it started growing normally again in a couple weeks.
Here's hoping it grows! It's so weird, the small one used to be the BIG one, then it just kind of stalled out and the tiny one outgrew it, all in the same medium.
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By Panman
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Joined:  Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:41 pm
#411978
Nikson wrote:Here's hoping it grows! It's so weird, the small one used to be the BIG one, then it just kind of stalled out and the tiny one outgrew it, all in the same medium.
It may have gotten an extra springtail or two.
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By Apollyon
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Posts:  1663
Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#411983
@evenwind That one's relatable. I just dropped all my plants to below eye level after almost drying out some utrics. I'll probably never grow up there without humidity enclosures.

On that note, I've personally had a lot better experience growing cyclosecta in higher humidity environments. Relative works but the rate of growth enclosed was MUCH faster. IIRC, I had two small ones I got and burned the crown of one of them with Maxsea which ultimately led to the humidity thing. Like you, my smaller one outgrew the larger one. Since then, I've propagated tons of them from that enclosed plant. I ended up keeping it in there. Soil mix for me is mostly aggregates and about 25% peat moss.
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#412094
Apollyon wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 9:44 pm @evenwind That one's relatable. I just dropped all my plants to below eye level after almost drying out some utrics. I'll probably never grow up there without humidity enclosures.

On that note, I've personally had a lot better experience growing cyclosecta in higher humidity environments. Relative works but the rate of growth enclosed was MUCH faster. IIRC, I had two small ones I got and burned the crown of one of them with Maxsea which ultimately led to the humidity thing. Like you, my smaller one outgrew the larger one. Since then, I've propagated tons of them from that enclosed plant. I ended up keeping it in there. Soil mix for me is mostly aggregates and about 25% peat moss.
Do you think it'll grow faster if I stick like a clear plastic cup over the plants as a humidity dome then? I could see myself setting that up, since the plastic cups I have are the same size as the pot lol.
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By Apollyon
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Posts:  1663
Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#412109
Hard to say. That was just my personal experience with it. I believe nimbulan has the right of it too. Certain plants seem to do better in different soil comps . Sometimes its a light factor and sometimes certain props just sit idle with no real way to explain it. For instance, I'll have 40 cyclosecta and about 8 will grow rapidly whereas a couple of them will stagnate and some barely create a system growing side by side. Make sure they have good light and water, feed them regularly and if you want to try enclosing the plant, it couldn't hurt. I actually having a goofy setup on my eden black since I messed it's day up and broke it apart. At the end I put it in a very large 9x9x13 inch pot to grow into a specimen but I didn't have a way to close it off so I threw a tupperware piece on top of the plant itself and even that worked. Having a little air circulation definitely doesn't hurt.
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By madrone
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Posts:  328
Joined:  Sat May 16, 2020 10:44 pm
#412121
I second a few of these comments - some is luck, some culture!

I've had a small plant and leaf pulling arrive from the same mother plant (so same genetics). In my conditions (at the time ..season has something to do with it), the pulling developed the stronger plant. Now...I wouldn't advocate that across the board, but I had a good outcome at the time.

The challenge is, with a bit of experience, and trial by fire, you can learn to read the plant...and then you will experiment with cures when things are developing sub-par. Needs more humidity (or less), ready for some fert (or not), etc...

You are right in the mix with your young plant - and I wish you 'good observation' with targeting what would benefit with adjustment and what was a wash. The good thing is you have a duplicate to experiment with...and as you noted from nimbulan's experience...neglect is relative. I can grow something in my conditions and say I don't try and do anything special...you could grow the same thing, but have to work HARD to get to my neglectful conditions... b/c your ambient conditions differ from mine so much.

We'll all try and help to offer suggestions and our experience, but reflecting that back to your conditions will be key. Good luck - cyclosecta is a ping that I personally struggle with even though I grow 100+ pings with ease. It's a journey..enjoy the path!!
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By Huntsmanshorn
Posts:  947
Joined:  Wed Sep 03, 2014 6:32 am
#421104
nimbulan wrote: Fri May 20, 2022 7:49 pm Personally I've found Pinguicula extremely picky about the soil mix (completely counter to most people's experiences it seems) and they'll hardly grow at all when they aren't planted in something optimal. I've tried many things and only gotten them to start growing properly (and very quickly at that) when I started using akadama.
I've been meaning to try akadama for a while now, but it's hard to find around here. May I ask what brand you use?

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