FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

My Darlingtonia had no problems of growing form me ever since I bought it last year until now. New pitchers were growing nicely and getting bigger from what it was before. I've haven't done anything special recently to it except making sure the soil was moist and removing dead pitchers for new ones to grow. BUT I did sprayed MaxSea fertilizer on it (with the correct measuring and dilution), but that was three weeks ago. Last week on Thursday I started acclimating my plants outside so I can have them outside once night temps stay above 50. What I was doing was having my Darlingtonia and VFTs outside for an hour in the morning between 9 - 10, in which the sunlight shouldn't be this strong and the morning temp really isn't that hot. This morning I found my Darlingtonia looking droopy and the healthy new pitchers now look dried and dying. Did I do something wrong with the acclimating or could it be something else? I'm more leading to the soil being too warm, but it grew nicely until just now with the soil temp staying at a constant 65-75 degrees. Any help is appreciated! I hope there's time to save my Darlingtonia, out of all the plants I have this one is my favorite and special to me.

Whats your humidity like? Outside and inside.

Huntsmanshorn wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 2:58 am Whats your humidity like? Outside and inside.

Well, I hadn't check the humidity levels for outside, but I did right now and as I type this is 79%. My plants are at an east facing window and I have a hygrometer around them and the humidity is between 50-80%, it doesn't stay constant throughout the days/nights.

I've seen a similar thing many times in Darlingtonia... it looks like the rot that infects vascular (stem) tissue and causes the plants to suddenly collapse because they can't get water to the leaves. I can't say I've been able to effectively treat it once symptoms start on a growth point in Darlingtonia. It's usually caused by some environmental stress, whether that be the roots remain too warm, the soil too soggy, or something else.

Nepenthes0260 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:50 pm I've seen a similar thing many times in Darlingtonia... it looks like the rot that infects vascular (stem) tissue and causes the plants to suddenly collapse because they can't get water to the leaves. I can't say I've been able to effectively treat it once symptoms start on a growth point in Darlingtonia. It's usually caused by some environmental stress, whether that be the roots remain too warm, the soil too soggy, or something else.

Can anything be done at this point to treat it such as repotting it in fresh soil? Thinking the roots were too warm I watered it with chilled distilled yesterday, the soil is moist but it's not soggy or stagnant. However, this morning I found a little shiny black beetle looking bug on the stolone part and I tried to get it but it hopped. I later found it on the window and a pic of it is below. Never saw this bug.

septembersapphire21 wrote:

Nepenthes0260 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:50 pm I've seen a similar thing many times in Darlingtonia... it looks like the rot that infects vascular (stem) tissue and causes the plants to suddenly collapse because they can't get water to the leaves. I can't say I've been able to effectively treat it once symptoms start on a growth point in Darlingtonia. It's usually caused by some environmental stress, whether that be the roots remain too warm, the soil too soggy, or something else.

Can anything be done at this point to treat it such as repotting it in fresh soil? Thinking the roots were too warm I watered it with chilled distilled yesterday, the soil is moist but it's not soggy or stagnant. However, this morning I found a little shiny black beetle looking bug on the stolone part and I tried to get it but it hopped. I later found it on the window and a pic of it is below. Never saw this bug.

Repotting into fresh soil is worth a shot, but once symptoms have appeared for me nothing I've done has been able to fix it. That little beetle is completely unrelated and it was probably just a coincidence that it happened to be around at the same time.

Nepenthes0260 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 3:48 pm

septembersapphire21 wrote:

Nepenthes0260 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:50 pm I've seen a similar thing many times in Darlingtonia... it looks like the rot that infects vascular (stem) tissue and causes the plants to suddenly collapse because they can't get water to the leaves. I can't say I've been able to effectively treat it once symptoms start on a growth point in Darlingtonia. It's usually caused by some environmental stress, whether that be the roots remain too warm, the soil too soggy, or something else.

Can anything be done at this point to treat it such as repotting it in fresh soil? Thinking the roots were too warm I watered it with chilled distilled yesterday, the soil is moist but it's not soggy or stagnant. However, this morning I found a little shiny black beetle looking bug on the stolone part and I tried to get it but it hopped. I later found it on the window and a pic of it is below. Never saw this bug.

Repotting into fresh soil is worth a shot, but once symptoms have appeared for me nothing I've done has been able to fix it. That little beetle is completely unrelated and it was probably just a coincidence that it happened to be around at the same time.

That beetle is a hitchhiker then
Ok, I don't have enough peat moss to repot, but I have a pot of sphagnum moss/perlite that I'll use Glad Darlingtonia can also like growing in moss. After that, I'm keeping it at the window and monitor it.

Edit: I just finished repotting it in the moss/perlite and by looking at the root system, I didn't expect it to be three times the size of the plant! It's a reddish brown with the end points being lighter in color. Since I don't have much experience on rot in plants, its hard to tell what's rotting away. As of now, I'll keep the moss moist but water it less. I'm also freezing distilled into ice cubes so I can keep the soil cool, I think I should've did that earlier this month. Fingers cross!

Hi my plants look like they have similar symptoms (dried up, weak pitchers) though under different conditions. My plant is outside and we now had a few days of freezing, -6°C at night and max. -1°C during the day. It rained a lot last week, so its not dryness. The pot is now frozen solid. Might that have been too much for it? I bought it in october. Can it be saved?