I received a 'Creeping Death' VFT the other day and planted it up like any other VFT in my collection, but each day it looks like the sides of the leaves are slowly curling down, and the green isn't so solid anymore. What would be a typical cause of signs like this? or maybe just shock?
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Leaf edges curling down...
- Thread starter Vertigo
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So would you say death is creeping appon it? Sorry, bad joke.
Curling leaves with discoloration like that are usually from a sudden drop in humidity. If it came from a greenhouse and you suddenly moved it to a free standing pot, it's probubly just reacting to that. I like to call this effect, slow motion burn.
Curling leaves with discoloration like that are usually from a sudden drop in humidity. If it came from a greenhouse and you suddenly moved it to a free standing pot, it's probubly just reacting to that. I like to call this effect, slow motion burn.
Yea,
you need to slowly 'harden' your plant. I would move it further than 8 inches; twelve to start with, anyway.
You will need to remove the cover from time to time to acclimate the plant; progressing to longer periods of not having the lid on to eventual leaving it off. Then, you can creep it closer to your lights again. VFT'S don't need a whole lot of humidity, but they will at first when the nursery is that way, and they always are.
you need to slowly 'harden' your plant. I would move it further than 8 inches; twelve to start with, anyway.
You will need to remove the cover from time to time to acclimate the plant; progressing to longer periods of not having the lid on to eventual leaving it off. Then, you can creep it closer to your lights again. VFT'S don't need a whole lot of humidity, but they will at first when the nursery is that way, and they always are.
Update guys:
Well, I thought it was really really weird when a forming trap started to look like it was kicked in the jaw. Also, when they were unfolding, they started dying off at the tips of the traps before they got even close to opening. My diagnosis? Maybe it has to do with being taken out of a pot, boxed, shipped in the dark, potted in a new climate, then flowering.
Apparently it hasn't been doing much, i'm assuming, because I found a little shoot starting to push it's way up through the sphagnum. It was about a half inch up, so I snipped it.
There would be no way that I could see this flytrap flowering and surving before the flower even opened. A new leaf was coming in, so I guess now we can find out how fast it actually knows it doesn't have a flower anymore.
Well, I thought it was really really weird when a forming trap started to look like it was kicked in the jaw. Also, when they were unfolding, they started dying off at the tips of the traps before they got even close to opening. My diagnosis? Maybe it has to do with being taken out of a pot, boxed, shipped in the dark, potted in a new climate, then flowering.
There would be no way that I could see this flytrap flowering and surving before the flower even opened. A new leaf was coming in, so I guess now we can find out how fast it actually knows it doesn't have a flower anymore.
Well, I think we found a culprit. The last leaf finally started rotting off at the base and fell over. The leaf looked strong, but the base was mush. I dug up the leftovers and the rhizome was kind of weird looking. I put it in clean distilled water to wash it off to see if there was anything to salvage.
As soon as it was submerged I found really tiny white worms basically coming out of the rhizome. They almost looked like micro worms, but I really have no clue. I'm worried that they might move onto other plants, but only seemed centered in the rhizome, not really the substrate.
What are these white worms?
As soon as it was submerged I found really tiny white worms basically coming out of the rhizome. They almost looked like micro worms, but I really have no clue. I'm worried that they might move onto other plants, but only seemed centered in the rhizome, not really the substrate.
What are these white worms?
Fungus gnat larvae most likely. They are mostly feeding on the decaying material caused by some disease that has infected the plant. Although in large enough numbers they can damage plants root systems and rhizomes directly.
Darcie was correct that leaf curling is often caused by a drop in humidity. More correctly it would be to say leaf curl is caused by moisture stress caused by either sudden drastic drops in humidity followed by the plants inability to replace leaf moisture through it's root system. In this case because the root system was unhealthy. Another situation would be too dry soil. So a good rule of thumb would be when moisture levels in the soil are acceptable and moisture stress is apparent in the leaves then suspect a problem with the roots. Which could turn out to be nothing more than reestablishing after repotting or something as bad as root disease.
For your plant I would clean it up as best you can and treat with fungicide. You might save it or at least get some leaf pieces to sprout.
Tony
Darcie was correct that leaf curling is often caused by a drop in humidity. More correctly it would be to say leaf curl is caused by moisture stress caused by either sudden drastic drops in humidity followed by the plants inability to replace leaf moisture through it's root system. In this case because the root system was unhealthy. Another situation would be too dry soil. So a good rule of thumb would be when moisture levels in the soil are acceptable and moisture stress is apparent in the leaves then suspect a problem with the roots. Which could turn out to be nothing more than reestablishing after repotting or something as bad as root disease.
For your plant I would clean it up as best you can and treat with fungicide. You might save it or at least get some leaf pieces to sprout.
Tony
I thought fungus gnat larvae were the clearish ones that left snail trail looking things on the surface of the pot?
Thanks Tony. I already had a leaf trying to root, now I have two, so we'll see how that goes. I soaked the rhizome in superthrive, then sprayed it down with cleary's before repotting. Wish me luck people.
Thanks Tony. I already had a leaf trying to root, now I have two, so we'll see how that goes. I soaked the rhizome in superthrive, then sprayed it down with cleary's before repotting. Wish me luck people.
Perhaps some sort of Nematode then?? Were you able to irradicate the pest also? If they are directly causing the problem or making it worse then they need to be eliminated also.
T
T
Tony,
From what I saw I drowned the little buggers out when I soaked the rhizome in superthrive. I changed the water 5 or 6 times until I saw no more exiting the tissue of the rhizome, then I coated it in cleary's 3336. New media completely and destroyed the old. I haven't seen signs of them in any other pots, although I do now see fungus gnat larvae in a few others, but those pots are pretty far away from this one. Btw, can we actually get rid of fungus gnat larvae as well?
From what I saw I drowned the little buggers out when I soaked the rhizome in superthrive. I changed the water 5 or 6 times until I saw no more exiting the tissue of the rhizome, then I coated it in cleary's 3336. New media completely and destroyed the old. I haven't seen signs of them in any other pots, although I do now see fungus gnat larvae in a few others, but those pots are pretty far away from this one. Btw, can we actually get rid of fungus gnat larvae as well?
The closest thing I could find that looked like it in the CP FAQ was black vine weevil larvae. I'm just not sure how small they are, these little white worms were tiny, almost like micro worms.
Do black vine weevil eat orchid flowers btw? I had a phal that I found a beetle munching on flower petals...hmmm.
Do black vine weevil eat orchid flowers btw? I had a phal that I found a beetle munching on flower petals...hmmm.