FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I won some plants in May, and the one I was concerned about learning about was the Sarracenia x Popei because it’s my first Sarr. I had the bare root wrapped in wet paper towel inside for a few days and then potted it and got it back outside maybe too quickly because the LFSM I used as top dressing is even more sunburned than the LFSM I have my VFTs in. I was going on the same idea as my VFTs to not have a huge transition phase so that I’d hopefully end up with a stronger plant.

So it’s potted in 2/1 peat to perlite and like I said the top dressing of LFSM. I have it in a tray that is never dry and it’s in direct sunlight from almost dawn to dusk. It gets a bit of shade towards the end of the day.

The plant had been cut back a bit when I received it, and the tips of most of the cut points are brown and dead. I’m not sure if I should keep trimming the dead off just down to where it turns green or trim the entire leaf down to the bottom? And I do believe I see a potential point that might down the line become a pitcher but I’m not sure. There’s a spot that also I think was the growth point (it’s more curved in a hook where the one I’ve been eyeballing started out red, and it turned green and wavy), but that spot looks brown and maybe dead? It’s hard to tell because I read the thread the other day that said that brown was normal on growth points and that usually happens when a pitcher is about to grow in, but it’s very hard being new to these plants to figure out what is brown and dead and brown and alive. So here’s the picture from the first day I planted, and there’s a few pictures from today that I tried to get from the same angle (forgive the sunburned LFSM, I’m probably going to take it out.)

I wanted to fill the pot more with peat/perlite and maybe lift the rhizome out to plant it higher in the new soil, but I didn’t know if that was a good idea or if it would be too much of a shock. I also wanted to move the back of the rhizome to the edge of the pot and stake it because it obviously if nothing else needs staked. Anyhow thoughts about the health and the semi repot idea and do I trim and where?
Back when it was first potted. Same angle approximately today. Skinny green leaf I thought might eventually grow a pitcher? Probably wrong. Tried very hard to get the tip of what I believe was the first grow point in focus to see if the brown part is good or bad?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice anyone can give. I’m very in my head about not bugging everyone here every 5 minutes but also trying to get advice when I’m doing something completely wrong. I feel like I probably should have asked about this one sooner but maybe I’m overthinking it?

You're overthinking things, slow down.
You have it in what sounds like decent conditions, quit fussing with it so much. The constant picking at it will cause stress while it's trying to recover from the stress of having been recently uprooted, given a hair cut, shipped, then repotted in a new environment. The only thing I can see that may be an issue is that it's planted too deep. The rhizome should be halfway exposed, so maybe remove some or all of the top dressing to remedy that.

Okiedokie I will try that and thank you again for the patient advice. I think I tend to worry with new plants that I haven’t grown yet. I still feel really bad about killing my first VFT. So now I google a lot but I never seem to find anything definitive on my actual questions so I end up asking here.

I must have weird questions or my google searches are hinky. I do actually try to research. When I need an eyeball to tell me if it’s over that’s also kinda not something you can ask the search for lol.

When I pot up plants during the growing season, I always put them in the shade for a few days to let them get settled in. After that, I do a sunshine acclimation routine rather than toss them in all-day sun. There is a lot less stress on the plants this way.

Yeah I wasn’t sure which was better but I will say that doing the full sun with my Lowe’s VFTs right away paid off so far. They’re all doing really great. But obviously we’ll see if that is the case with my Sarr. I think maybe that’s not the best idea for every CP. I’m always learning for the next plant. I usually end up learning a lot from my mistakes. Typically I learn more than just how to do it right next time. I’m really crossing my fingers that this Sarr bounces back. Thank you though. Having a good schedule to try next time is really helpful. What is your acclimation schedule after the shade out of curiosity?

Jade wrote: ↑Sat Jun 22, 2024 4:18 am What is your acclimation schedule after the shade out of curiosity?

It's an accelerated schedule:

• For week two , about 3 hours of morning sun per day.
• For week three, about 6 hours of morning to early-afternoon sun per day.
• After this, the normal amount of sun per day.

Ooh I love the precision of this. Thank you very very much!

Just wanted to make an update about a new tendril I have that looks really good I think. And some new growth at the bottom of the plant

Ok I think I might be understanding this? Are the things that start out looking like a little thorn that grow up to look like the almost round kinda tendril thing from the last update that is now turning into a flat green leaf with red at the tip only called phyllodes? I swear trying to research what Sarracenia leaves are what and why they’re like that is not so easy on google. Here’s what the red one looks like now as well as the green curvy one that just I guess digs getting more curvy and then the little green thorn looking things at the base which I assume means there’s a growth point there?

Did I get all that right? And also if the formerly red, now green flat leaf is a phyllode is that bad? I have it basically dripping with sun all day next to my flytraps.
Formerly red above. A pic of these are also in the last post. Green curvy one. Little green thorny looking things that I’m guessing will turn into…something? Bonus- it looked like the end of this was gonna get long like the leaves that hold pitchers have that little tendril attachment thing. I just need a hookup on where to find pictures that name things and also tell what those things mean or turn into.

The plant looks like it is recovering from stress, give it full sun and plenty of water and it will grow out of it.
Cheers
Steve

Did I get what the leaves are and stuff right? I’m trying to learn what is what on my plants, but the red/green leaf was hard to find. Couldn’t figure out the right words to search.

So I’m not sure if those are phyllodes if it’s still a good sign. I have new growth in those so I feel like it’s definitely getting better.

It gets full sun almost all day and I have the pot in a tray of water that I don’t let fully dry out, so it’s getting good stuff.

Your plant is light starved (not necessarily by you) thats why its doing what its doing, and it will take a few weeks of normalisation to its conditions to sort itself out.
Your first photo is a new pitcher which may turn out into a phyllodia, depending on how much light the plant needs. New pitchers often start out with soft red new growth (as the forming pitchers on that leaf's growth point) that changes colour as it grows, dependant on environmental conditions.
The second picture is a leaf that has gone 'blind' due to poor conditions and is now acting to photosynthesize for the plant.
The third picture looks to be a new growth point, but difficult to say from the picture resolution.
Your fourth picture has a damaged top so it could have been a pitcher but it does look like a phyllodia, again difficult to be sure because of the picture resolution. But whatever it is it is increasing the photosynthetic area, so is fulfilling a useful purpose while the plant reestablishes itself.

Keep it wet, warm, and in full sun, and you should get a healthy, vibrant and colourful plant by the end of the year. It's difficult to stress how much light these plants need.

Cheers
Steve

steve booth wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 8:38 am Your plant is light starved (not necessarily by you) thats why its doing what its doing, and it will take a few weeks of normalisation to its conditions to sort itself out.
Your first photo is a new pitcher which may turn out into a phyllodia, depending on how much light the plant needs. New pitchers often start out with soft red new growth (as the forming pitchers on that leaf's growth point) that changes colour as it grows, dependant on environmental conditions.
The second picture is a leaf that has gone 'blind' due to poor conditions and is now acting to photosynthesize for the plant.
The third picture looks to be a new growth point, but difficult to say from the picture resolution.
Your fourth picture has a damaged top so it could have been a pitcher but it does look like a phyllodia, again difficult to be sure because of the picture resolution. But whatever it is it is increasing the photosynthetic area, so is fulfilling a useful purpose while the plant reestablishes itself.

Keep it wet, warm, and in full sun, and you should get a healthy, vibrant and colourful plant by the end of the year. It's difficult to stress how much light these plants need.

Cheers
Steve

1. So even though this is a flat leaf at the moment it could become a pitcher? It’s probably easier with everything in the picture to just circle what I’m talking about because you might be talking about the right thing while I’m looking at something totally different.
2. Yeah that green curvy twisty one in pic 2 did look better when I got it for sure unfortunately.

3. The picture resolution here is blurry? Are we talking about the top area where the new red “hooks” are or the circle I made under that one where the green hooks are potentially being a growth point?
Am I correct in thinking a growth point is just an area that has growth coming out of it? I tried to look up what it was and what it looked like, but I couldn’t really find anything that wasn’t circular. The words growth point were present in all the “hits”, but nothing to suggest what the heck one was or where I should look for it. I was expecting it to be a more complex answer.

4. That has been there and only gotten slightly crispy on top since I’ve had it, so I’m guessing that will be a no. Unfortunately, I can’t ever seem to get it without it blurring that particular leaf. It’s frustrating.

As a short aside, I have had this plant since late May. I have had it on the same table of my back patio as my VFTs. It starts getting direct light decently early in the morning and doesn’t get some shade because the sun is setting behind the house next door until maybe 7 or 8pm? It’s not close to any structures that would give it shade during the day because our patio is split in half by a chainlink fence, so I put it against the fence to give the most amount of direct sunlight for the longest period of time. I also didn’t acclimate it which I thought was basically the same as letting my LOWEs VFTs get sunburned to lose the light starved growth faster and basically make them stronger. That’s why they are slightly sunburned at the haircut points and the top of what might have been a pitcher in progress before sent.

There’s also a spot where she had a pitcher already that she cut off before sending that still has the tube. My assumption thus far has been not to cut off anything green, but maybe that weakens it leaving it there. The first page of this thread has a pic before given haircut and shipped bareroot and a picture with pristine looking LFSM which was the first pic I took when I potted it. The LFSM was completely sunburned a few days to maybe a week later. We’ve had a lot of sunny dry heat and sunny humid heat weather. More of the humid than dry probably.

Oh and photos 1 and 3 both show small red hook a little larger than the rest?
Which looks like this today,
So the plant is just now starting to grow again I’m just not understanding why if it wasn’t growing and was getting a lot of direct light every day (I don’t move it), it would be light starved. If so I would need to have it in the middle of the front yard to get a decent amount more maybe. And I can stick it there and maybe just get a stronger grow light for it after dormancy and scrap being able to have pitchers. Unless this is all normal? My VFTs took a few weeks, but there were no signs of light starvation. Old traps got sunburned, new ones grew slowly for a bit and now look really good. To me at least, but maybe they’re struggling too.