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Dead

All my plants that I've potted last year except two have died.  I lost 5 VFTs, a pot of donated sundews, some sundew seedlings, and looks like my sar is dying too.

Apparently 50/50 peat and perlite doesn't work.  And no neither the peat nor perlite had added chemicals.

Two venus fly traps side by side recieving the same light, heat and water, two bare root, the other came in a pot.  Potted is fine, bare roots are dead. My dingley's giant, my vigorous, my low giant and my fine tooth x red are dead. They aren't wintering, they are dead.

What a waste.  
mad.gif
 
Sounds like maybe you've had fungus or some other disease sweep through your collection.
I'm sorry to hear about them.
 
Nope, they have all have been sprayed with fungicide that arrived with the plants. Why would all the plants I potted die and all the plants that arrived potted not die? I think I just have the cursed black thumb.
 
Don't be so hard on yourself. It could be several things. Repotting always stresses plants out, that is probubly a big part right there. The other thing is... did you flush the pots of new soil real well before you put the plants in? All my seedlings in non-flushed pots died, but the new ones in the flushed out mix don't have a single sign of health problems.
 
Darcie, could you describe the "flushing" process for us newbies? Thanks.
 
I not only rinse my peat thoroughly, I microwave the heck out of it before I do anything. This process makes it MUCH cleaner in my experience, and I'm growing lots of stuff in peat treated this way with perlite now, without any problems. For rinsing I just put a bunch of peat in water, swirl, and then manually scoop the peat out, squeezing out the water, and putting it in another bowl. Repeat a couple of times. Rinse the perlite too!

If you don't do this, you'll have far more problems with fungus and algae.

Capslock
 
i had a few problems growing some of my vft and i was told by very successfull growers to use Ro watter
i wonder if maybe the watter you are using has trace elements of salts or other minerals in it that could slowly/quickly be killing your plants also i was told perenialite isnt best because its not natural to there growing conditions and washed horticultural grade sand 50% to 50% peat is best. other guys sugestion to microwave an wash it seems to be a popular and good method, but im very novice so just telling you what other good growers have told me hope there wisdom helps u as it has me.
 
Hi folks;
I don't like Perlite at all; some commercial perlite has added chemicals, and I know ferns do not like it. I have used 100% Canadian peat on occasion, and mostly use 50/50 peat sand. Best sand is the very fine "playground" sand, or "horticultural", but I have used construction sand from when they were putting a foundation under my house, and they do fine. Playground sand is occasionally from a beach, and can have a high salt content, so needs to be washed. Put it in a fine mesh bag and run fresh water over it for at least 30 minutes.
RO water is good. Here we have very low mineral water, and tap water works OK; rain water usually washes out my bogs every few weeks, but tap water is usually bad juju...
 
I, too, dislike perlite. It always seems to make more problems than it is worth, and I use it rarely. I prefer silica sand with the addition of some LFS to keep the mix loose. Sorry to hear about your plant loss, it's never fun to lose a newly acquired plant. Good CPer's have to take these things in stride, alas. Sometimes despite doing everything right, things just go bad. Hang in there, and hopefully in the spring someone will help you replace the losses.
 
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