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Not too good a winter so far with a mix of young and old Heli collapsing quickly over night. Lost my two H. purpurascens, a younger H. exappendiculata went today. And a couple of H. hispida & H. pulchella a week or so back. With more to follow I expect!

Typical symtoms are of pitcher growth going soft and limp very quickly. No recovery and rhizome brown and dead on inspection. Roots healthy and intact. All plants dosed with Trichoderma atroviride and watered with RO and clean rain water. Some plants under lights indoors, others in the greenhouse with reduced natural light. Temps from 45 to 60f.
I so far have only had sudden death in winter and so the suggestion of too hot a temperature bringing it on does not apply. So far the winter here has been quite benign with the worse yet to come I fear!

With no obvious cause cannot do anything to help the rest apart from treat them as I always have. Won't bother replacing the losses- too expensive.

Hate winter!

bill
 
Maybe they would like slighly higher day temps. 60 is really low for the high day temp, if you know what I mean. Try to get them to 70?
 
sadness.....

No idea Bill, doesnt seem to conform to the standard model as I know it, youve got ahold of something wicked and highly contagious
 
could it also be that excessive wetness can help contribute to sudden heli death, especially in cold weather? i can imagine quite possibly so--this occurs among south american drosera.
 
I flood mine every two days, and when I say flood, I mean flood...
They flood to soil surface level then slowly drain.... with the automated cycle taking a couple hours to complete.
The slow drain allows a complete gas exchange in the root zone, So not only do they flood every two days... the roots also get bathed in fresh air every two days
(In my way of thinking, this should more closely replicate the effects of a drenching rain)
FWIW, I also constantly aerate the water reservoir...

But your system has worked will up till now, has anything changed that you can point to?

Bill, when you uproot the plant... do you notice any foul smell?
 
or changes in water source. We have that issue with our domestic water supply. Or some times they add one thing then others was something else.
 
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