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maoril

New Sarracenia psittacina. Need help

maoril
15 years ago

Hi all,

It has been over a year since i bought my first carnivor plat - Nep alata and it is doing great. On the other hand, my VFT died pretty quickly. Now, i got a new one - Sarracenia psittacina and This one i want to keep alive.

Currently, I give it the same treatment as the nep - Distilled water, 40 watt spiral florescent and a dish of water around it for humidity.

I wanted to ask if there is anything else I should do for it so it'll be in the best shape possible. Also, should i feed it (since it is inside my room)?

I should point out that I live in Israel and it is summer so it can get to 40 degrees Celsius during the day and it is very dry outside.

And finally, another question: My nep is very grown now (14 leaves floors - about 11 centimeters and a lot of pitches) and it is still in a small pot. I want to change it t a bigger one but I'm not sure about the soil. Does it have to be special one or would simple one you get from the nursery would be enough? after moving, would it die a little like when moving it from city to city?

Thanks very much,

Maor

Comments (5)

  • hiddenjungle
    15 years ago

    All right, first off your Sarracenia is a slower growing pitcher plant. I have no expierence growing that particular Sarracenia but i do have a small collection of them that i have succesfully overwintered in zone 5. As for growing it Sarracenia like full sun, so it would be best for you to grow it outdoors, humidity right now my plants are in a pool bog and has about 2-3 inches of water that has been collected. I have no idea how much humidity they are getting but they seem to be growing fine. we have been getting temperatures that range from 60F at night and lower 90sF during the day every now and then, usually upper 70s mid 80sF. Im not sure what zone you are in but temperatures here can get down to 0 on a mild winter, which we had this past year. When temperatures go below 25F if you need help overwintering ask me, i did loose one plant though. S. fledgling. Just keep your plant in moist soil and full sun to get best results and make sure if you do this to make sure you slowly bring it into full sun, start out partial sun for about a week or so then go to full sun. Acclimadate your plant. Many people think they need high humidity and perfect conditions, my Sarracenia and vfts are outside no greenhouse or terrarium.
    For your nepenthes... if you got it from a store in a hanging pot your plant was probably miss labeled and is more correctly identified as an N. ventrata (ventricosa x alata) doesn't mean you havn't correctly identified it, but a picture would help. When you repot them you can choose from a variety of mixes but stick to non nutrient rich soil. some examples would be peat moss, perlite mix 1:1, it is best to buy the peat by the bale because many of the small bags contain fertilizers. Other things you can use are orchid bark, live sphagnum moss, coconut bark, vermiculite, etc. Any mix that is low in nutrients retains water with fast drainage. When you move from city to city it might face a little shock, but it will recover once it has adapted to its new environment. Hope this helps and you should check this forum out.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Carnivorous plant forum

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    15 years ago

    The Parrot pitcher plant needs to go OUTSIDE in full sun. Sit in a tray of rain or distilled water about 2" deep.

  • maoril
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Ok thanks guys.
    Still, i'm not sure i get it - outside is very very hot (can get to ~110 F) wouldn't it kill the plant? Isn't the 23 watt spirall florecent balb is enough? it worked great for the nep. Also, now it has a dish of water around it so there will be humidity. did you mean i should actually put the pot in water? wouldn't it make the plant's roots to raught?

    Few more clear ups I need pleas:
    * How moist should the Sarracenia's soil be?
    * Is there a good long balb that i can buy for both plants together or should i just stay with the current state (each one got its own)
    * In my nep i found that cutting deat parts help stopping the raughting to spread. On the other hand, with my VFT I found that cutting a dead part makes another one die instead of him while kipping it lets the other part grow. What should i so about the dried out and dead parts of my Sarracenia?

    THanks for eerything,
    Maor

  • hiddenjungle
    15 years ago

    All right, your Sarracenia should be kept in at least 2 inches of standing water or no more than half way up the pot. Just keep it moist, don't let it completely dry out, Nepenthes are a tropical species of carnivorous plant, Sarracenias are temperates, so your nepenthes might grow great under artificial lighting but your sarracenia wont do its best under artificial lighting, any cp wont do its best under artificial lighting, but they will still grow. As for root rotting, don't worry, sarracenia originate in bogs which are constantly wet, when a pitcher dries out on a sarracenia you can either leave it or cut it off, it might brown and not dry out but thats just because the bugs inside the pitcher are breaking down, if you don't like that you can cut the pitchers off, many people think its necessary for cps to eat bugs, they don't. They can use there leaves and make there own food aka photosynthesis hopefully this link helps, you can find how to grow both sarracenia and nepenthes and many others from a nursery i trust, and if you need more help they are part of allexperts.com, just scroll to the bottom and click on ask the experts, Most of what i learned was through SNW. Hope this helps.

    Here is a link that might be useful: care sheets at SNW

  • corymbosa
    15 years ago

    >All right, your Sarracenia should be kept in at
    >least 2 inches of standing water or no more than
    >half way up the pot.

    I find psittacina does well with more water than the other Sarracenia species. I keep the water level to 1/2 way up the pot minimum with higher levels not causing a problem. As per Slack's recommendation I've tried raising the water level so that it's just submerged and it thrives under these conditions. I have only run into problems when trying to grow it in the shallower water levels you normally grow Sarras in.

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