New heli... sad looking. Any tips?

[jbradt]

Hey folks,

I got this little guy today, and it's not looking so good. I sent an email to the vendor shortly after I opened it. I'm not hopeful for it. Any suggestions to bring it back would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Heli]

I would say bag it and give it a little ferts in the pitchers as well as trichoderma. What type of heli is it?

 

[amphirion]

oh dear....looks like a trich bath might be needed....looks like it's the sudden death fungus that helis are suspected to be victim to...looks pretty advanced---not going to lie, you might lose it...

that being said,
1) do keep the temps low, the norm is nothing above 80F, but for this plant i would say peak at 75F
2) high humidity
3) night time drops to 50F
4) trich bath....
5) bag the plant if possible...

best of luck---i hope you get the situation resolved.
of course, and advice given by the heli gods take precedence over mine.

 

[Heli]

Yea, Jon, now that I look at the pic again it really looks like that bad fungus.

 

[Av8tor1]

Any good looking new growth anywhere? If not, I wouldn't give it good odds.
How did the roots look?

Hard to believe someone sent that out, it obviously had to look rough when they packed it up.... I would request a replacement or refund.

foreign or domestic vendor?

 

[jbradt]

I gave it a trichoderma bath the moment I opened it. It's in my heli terrarium, is there any risk to the other plants in there? thanks for the quick resonses, it's really appreciated. I'll bag it immediately.

It's a heli minor, btw... sorry for leaving that out. I just hope the vendor makes it right. I've wanted one of these for a while, and was totally disappointed when I saw it.

 

[Av8tor1]

I gave it a trichoderma bath the moment I opened it. It's in my heli terrarium, is there any risk to the other plants in there? thanks for the quick resonses, it's really appreciated. I'll bag it immediately.

It's a heli minor, btw... sorry for leaving that out. I just hope the vendor makes it right. I've wanted one of these for a while, and was totally disappointed when I saw it.

yes, I would isolate just to be safe.

 

[Heli]

Tell you what Brad, If it doesnt pull through I will send you a heli.

 

[jbradt]

Any good looking new growth anywhere? If not, I wouldn't give it good odds.
How did the roots look?

Hard to believe someone sent that out, it obviously had to look rough when they packed it up.... I would request a replacement or refund.

foreign or domestic vendor?

There are a couple of tiny (<1/2") pitchers that are still green, but not enough that I really hold out much hope. It was a domestic vendor. I had never used them before, and probably won't again unless they make this right... in a pretty big way.

I actually paid a bit extra to have it shipped potted, so I can't really speak to the root structure.

 

[Av8tor1]

unpot it, remove the dead/dying material... repot in nice fresh mix, bag

dump the old substrate and dont reuse the pot

that should have never been shipped out to someone

 

[jbradt]

unpot it, remove the dead/dying material... repot in nice fresh mix, bag

dump the old substrate and dont reuse the pot

I'll do that right now. Thanks, Butch.

 

[Av8tor1]

In a way, it doesnt really look like heli sudden death, but hard to tell from pic. HSD typically gets mushy from the base up.

 

[jbradt]

Well, I got it repotted. I soaked the new media in trichoderma, and gave the bare rooted plant a bath in it for a few minutes. Here's some pics of the roots, etc.

 

[Av8tor1]

It will definitely need TLC for a while but looks like it will make it.

Still sad that some vendor sent it out like that.

 

[amphirion]

you might be in the clear! doesnt look like HSD. the root area looks good.

 

[jbradt]

I'd be stoked if it made it! I guess it's a waiting game at this point...

Thanks again for the advice and support, all. I'll keep updates coming.

---------- Post added at 10:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 PM ----------

I just got an email from the vendor. He was totally cool about it. They're going to send a replacement...

 

[mobile]

Still looks green at the base and roots look white, so might well pull through.

 

[PaulJ69]

Well it's good the vendor is sending a new one out. Lets hope its not in that bad of shape.

 

[jbradt]

The news with this little guy just seems to keep getting worse. I looked in on it really closely today, and found that it was nearly covered in some kind of web-like substance. It's also all over the substrate. The only thing I've ever heard of like this is spider mites, and I'm really not pleased with that possibility. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? A bit of guidance would be awesome here... honestly, I'm freaking out a little bit. Here's the best pic I could get.

 

[amphirion]

web substance could be trich....on the otherhand...your potting mix looks very broken down....either that or the quality of your sphagnum is poor?