AboutSarracenia Northwest Expertise Got a carnivorous plant problem? The growers at Sarracenia Northwest can help! Carnivorous plant experts Jeff Dallas and Jacob Farin have helped thousands of growers around the world, and they can help you too. When you submit your question, they will diagnose your situation and offer a solution to help you get your carnivorous plant back on track.
Experience With over 40 years of combined experience, Jeff and Jacob has definitely taken a straight forward approach to growing carnivorous plants. Get the straight facts from the guys who grow and propagate thousands of these plants every year.
PLEASE READ BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR QUESTION:
We no longer answer how-to questions (i.e. How do I propagate...?; How do I grow...?).
Instead, we help growers by diagnosing a specific plant problem and offering solutions (i.e. Why is my sundew not producing dew?; Is now a good time to divide my Sarracenia?; Why are the traps turning black?; What's a good substitute for perlite?; Why didn't my seeds germinate?; Can you identify this carnivorous plant for me?)
QUESTION: It is the end of June and my sarracenia are still making weak leafy like pitchers or very small pitchers. The few small pitchers that are produced seem to have overall good color except scarlet belle which is staying greener then usual. I also bought a flava that had nice pitchers but it to is starting to produce smaller picthers then when I bought it.
Here in Iowa it just finally got to where it is in the 80 and 90's. I have yet had a plant except for the purpera produce a good pitcher. Is this most likely not from enough sunlight. I just dont understand as I had the bog in the same place last year and it was producing nice pitchers. From what I can tell it is getting about 4.5 to 5 hrs of direct sunlight from 9:30 to about 2:30 then for rest of the day it gets some sun off and on. Or could it be we have just had a really cool spring with alot of rain and little sun and know that things are warming up it may do better. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also my venus flytrap seem to be growing well in the same area. I have also sprayed for aphids so I dont believe that this is the problems. I am unable to provide pictures as I am having issue with the camera.
Thanks
Chad
ANSWER: Hi Chad,
Your cool spring could definitely part of the problem. From your description it makes me wonder if if you are having minerals or nutrients build up in the bog. Has it been watered with tap water? Is there any chance any fertilizer could have gotten into it from surrounding soil? Both of these would cause a slow degradation of the plants. Since your plants were doing well last year, hard water mineral build-up would cause symptoms like this. If neither of these things have happened, give them a chance to grow in the warmer weather. In the meantime, see if you can get a hold of a digital camera to get some photos. That will help me on this end immensely to understand what the problem may be here.
QUESTION: All my plants are watered with RO or rain water. The RO has 12-17 PPM on the TDS reading and the rain I am not sure as it has been raining often so I have not collected any. As far as fertilzer goes I dont believe there is a chance it got onto the plants but I do have a company do some of the chemicals for the yard but I asked them to be careful around the area where my plants are. Also here are a few pictures hope they help.
Thanks so much for sending a photo. That nailed it.
Whenever I coach people on growing carnivorous plants, especially Sarracenia, I always say that you should be able to grow a tomato plant in the spot your thinking of growing a pitcher plant. If you couldn't, then it's not bright enough for pitcher plants. From looking at your plants, and from the fact I see you are growing Hostas in that spot, your spot isn't very bright. Your plants need more sun. For the amount of sun they are getting, they look healthy, it's just not enough. You said your flytrap and S. purpurea look good, but are they bright red? Are the inner surface of your flytrap traps red? Your Daina's delights are pure green. They need more sun.
Try moving your plants to a spot that gets sun for most of the day. Again, you should be able to grow vegetables in such a place. You want a hot, sunny location. You should see a dramatic change in your plants.
I've included a photo of our nursery to illustrate how much sun our plants get.
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