Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 8/23/2011

Question
Dear Sarracenia Northwest,
  I have had a sarracenia rubra canebrake sweet pitcher plant for two years now. When the time came for me to repot the plant, the only things that all of the department stores in my area had regarding peat moss and perlite was this MiracleGro enriched with fertilizer. At first everything seemed fine, but I did notice that the perlite was beginning to yellow. Come fall and cooler. wetter weather, my plant became weak and then suddenly died. I am not sure whether the culprit was fungi or the cause of the fertilizer. Unfortunately, I haven't evolved enough to download pictures onto the computer, but I noticed that the plant crown was brown and mushy. Please help me! I don't want this to happen to my other plants!          Sincerely,
         James

Answer
Hi James,

The fertilizer in those potting soils was most likely the culprit.  It creates root death, then a slow decline and finally the plant dies.  You may have had some other growing issues going on, but you didn't mention how you were caring for your plant, or what part of the country you were from.  Even if the fertilizer wasn't the direct cause of your problems, it would have complicated any other issues helping push the plant over the edge.  If you can't find the proper soil ingredients consider ordering premixed soil from a cp nursery.  Also consider taking a look at our volume #1 DVD: http://www.cobraplant.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38&products_id=  Helping people to avoid these kind of mistakes is exactly why we produced the DVD.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com