You are here:
- Home
- Home/Garden
- Gardening
- Carnivorous Plants
- Sarracenia purpurea - large green pitchers?
Carnivorous Plants/Sarracenia purpurea - large green pitchers?
Advertisement
Question
Greetings,
)
1) Sarracenia purpurea
2) When I acquired this Sarracenia, it had three small red pitchers. The new growth are these massive green pitchers, is this normal, a mutant, or something else?
3) 5-8 hrs of sunlight (brightest spot I have in my home). Using distilled water. 1 part peat moss, 2 parts perlite. I've been adding water to the pitchers as well, they didn't seem to be producing much if any of their own fluids.
4) Indoors, zone 6B.
5) Photo attached!
Love your videos! Thanks!
Hi Lindi,
Thank you for providing all the information and photo. It helps me out a lot. Your plant has the classic signs of insufficient light. The plant really need lots of intense sunlight to bring out the deep red colors. When grown properly, the pitchers are stout and richly colored. You'll also feel lots of rigidity in the pitcher. When grown in low light, the pitchers are elongated and poorly colored. They'll also feel soft to the touch. Your plant is a perfect example of before and after.
This happens a lot when growing Sarracenia in the home. It's not always possible to give these plants the type of sunlight they require during the growing season. The rule of thumb is this, if you can successfully grow a tomato plant, you can successfully grow a Sarracenia. That's how much light they need.
Since you've seen our videos, you probably already know that we grow all Sarracenia strictly outdoors. Only in rare instances when we want to force plants out of dormancy early for an upcoming show would we grow them in a greenhouse. But 99.99% of our Sarracenia are strictly grown outdoors. Right now the plants are dormant. In the height of summer, our plants will typically get 10+ hours of direct sunlight.
Since you have your plant indoors, you'll need to wait until you're past the risk of frost before acclimating your plant to outdoor growing. For you, it may be mid May.
I recommend taking a a look at our Sarracenia in our photo gallery for an idea of how we grow these plants:
http://www.cobraplant.com/gallery
I also recommend reading our care sheet on Sarracenia:
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets
For a step-by-step guide on how to acclimate your plant to outdoor growing, watch Volume 1 of the Grow Carnivorous Plants DVD series:
http://www.cobraplant.com/DVD
Good growing!
Jacob Farin
- Ask a Question
| Rating(1-10) | Knowledgeability = 10 | Clarity of Response = 10 | Politeness = 10 |
| Comment | Thanks for the help! | ||
Related Articles
Answers by Expert:
Sarracenia Northwest
Expertise
If your plant is showing poor growth, discoloration, abnormal leaves or possible infestation, the growers at Sarracenia Northwest can help! Carnivorous plant experts Jeff Dallas and Jacob Farin will help you diagnose the problem and get your plants on the right track. Their no nonsense approach has helped thousands of growers all over the world. They can help you too!
Experience
With over 40 years of combined experience, Jeff and Jacob has definitely taken a straight forward approach to growing carnivorous plants. They have encountered many types of diseases, abnormal growth and infestations related to carnivorous plants, and they know what it takes to get plants looking beautiful and healthy again.
Education/Credentials
Authors of Secrets to Growing Beautiful Carnivorous Plants for Your Home and Garden and producers of the Grow Carnivorous Plants! DVD Series. They also produce a monthly video podcast to illustrate how plants cycle through the seasons.
No terrariums. No myths. No nonsense.
Just the straight facts from guys who grow and propagate
thousands of carnivorous plants each 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?) For general plant care, please read our care sheets on our main website: http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets For business questions: http://www.cobraplant.com/contact |
Follow us on Youtube and Facebook!
©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.