pinguicula rotundiflora light too close?

[Kaila]

Hi guys!

I just this little ping like a week or so. I normally keep track on my new plants and noticed that the leaves of this particular ping is getting brown. I'm wondering if its because of the the lights being too close? I'm using an artificial light that's around 8 inches from the plant. Or possibly due to transplant stress? Any help or recommendation that you can give me would really be appreciated! I really want this little guy to survive.

 

[ScatterPants]

Hi Kaila! I am new to Pings too so not really sure what's going on with your plants but I was wondering what type of lights do you have (T12? T8? T5? CFL? LED?) and how many bulbs? My Pinguicula haven't seemed to get much stress from transplanting - I hear they're pretty tough in the regard. In case you care to compare, the plants in my thread are under a 4 bulb T5 fixture sitting about 2ft away. I have heard of others with 2 bulb T5s putting them closer and if it's T8 or T12 they may need to be quite close. Also what are the temperatures like where the plants are sitting? If you have strong lights sitting close they can put off a lot of heat and fry plants.

They are so tiny and cute I hope they pull through for you! I'm sure somebody will be able to help you around here.

 

[gill_za]

I should not be the transplant stress. Pings are surprisingly tough when it comes to shipping and transplanting. I agree with Scatter - what lights do you have? 8" might be too close if the lights are strong. I would pull one of the more mature and healthier leaves carefully off an lay in on some wet substrate (in a separate container maybe, and cover it to increase humidity). Just make sure that the petiole end of the leaf is making direct contact with the substrate. Keep substrate wet and you will see plantlets in a week or so.

P.S. Also the photos are grainy but it looks like the plant is going dormant. If the small leaves look more rounder and thicker - your plant is going dormant due to decreased light and temperatures. In this case lights are not an issue. Do not water the plant much. Keep the soil moist but not wet and let the tray dry out between watering. Instead increase humidity around the plant a bit (no death cubes).

 

[Kaila]

Hi Kaila! I am new to Pings too so not really sure what's going on with your plants but I was wondering what type of lights do you have (T12? T8? T5? CFL? LED?) and how many bulbs? My Pinguicula haven't seemed to get much stress from transplanting - I hear they're pretty tough in the regard. In case you care to compare, the plants in my thread are under a 4 bulb T5 fixture sitting about 2ft away. I have heard of others with 2 bulb T5s putting them closer and if it's T8 or T12 they may need to be quite close. Also what are the temperatures like where the plants are sitting? If you have strong lights sitting close they can put off a lot of heat and fry plants.

They are so tiny and cute I hope they pull through for you! I'm sure somebody will be able to help you around here.

Hello! I'm currently just using a desk lamp with a 60 watts CFL light bulb. Temperature based on my humidity device is 70F. Right now I just rearranged the tray so that the little ping doesn't get the light as intensely as my last setup. (it was right in front of the lamp) I just find it so odd because I have a p. esserina that I bought at the same time as this one and it seems to be doing ok with the light. I actually saw your thread yesterday! The snail was so cute. A question on your setup, does your ping still come out as pink or violent under artificial light? I've heard that you can get the pings their pink/violet color on natural sunlight and not under artificial light.

- - - Updated - - -

I should not be the transplant stress. Pings are surprisingly tough when it comes to shipping and transplanting. I agree with Scatter - what lights do you have? 8" might be too close if the lights are strong. I would pull one of the more mature and healthier leaves carefully off an lay in on some wet substrate (in a separate container maybe, and cover it to increase humidity). Just make sure that the petiole end of the leaf is making direct contact with the substrate. Keep substrate wet and you will see plantlets in a week or so.

P.S. Also the photos are grainy but it looks like the plant is going dormant. If the small leaves look more rounder and thicker - your plant is going dormant due to decreased light and temperatures. In this case lights are not an issue. Do not water the plant much. Keep the soil moist but not wet and let the tray dry out between watering. Instead increase humidity around the plant a bit (no death cubes).

Sorry for the grainy picture. The ping is really tiny, like a size of a dime. Would it be ok to get a leaflet even if it's that small? if so, then getting a leaflet is a pretty good idea, just in case the ping doesn't survive and maybe I'll place it on a ziplock.

 

[ScatterPants]

Hm if you're using CFL I'd assume 8" should not be harming plants...wonder what is going on with your plants. As for the coloration you don't need natural light to get them red/pink/etc but it does need to be strong light. Here's my intro thread where I posted my pings before they'd grown under my lights. They've gained lots of color under lights.

 

[gill_za]

One of the carnivorous leaves should be fine. The ping does look like it is going into dormancy.

To prevent pings from loosing color or staying green to pale green (chlorosis) all the time even under strong lights, you would need to switch to inorganic media and use a bit of Iron Oxide (Fe2O3) as soil additive. If you search TF you will find a lot of info on that topic

 

[Kaila]

One of the carnivorous leaves should be fine. The ping does look like it is going into dormancy.

I did what you recommended. Pulled 2 leaf pullings from the ping. Let's hope that they would propagate. I just laid them on top of the pot and just made sure that the white part touches the soil.

 

[jeff 2]

Bonjour

for me too much light , this pink colour is not natural .

see here P.rotundiflora 'in situ' Postcard_26

it is a gypsum specie then use a mineral substrate .

for me iron is not necessary for all the ping ( mexican-andin-caraibes-temperate- subtropical US )

jeff

 

[flyinthetrap]

70 degrees is nothing! I would definitely put the light closer. Just keep it under 90 degrees.

This plant grows naturally in Mexico, so the temperature and intensity of the light is not a problem.

I assume your CFL is just around 13W producing the same amount of light as a 60W bulb with only 1/4 of the heat.

Not sure what the room temperature is, but it seems that the plant is receiving only negligible warming from the light 8 inches away.

 

[cwatson1414]

Like jeff said a mineral media is better. I notice my pings react to transplanting sometimes, but that one doesn't look great. It's got a good looking growth point though.
I would go with a mineral media, raise humidity, and lower soil moisture. Not DRY though.

When you repotted it, were you rough on the leaves? Did you touch them a lot with your fingers? Did they get ground against the sand? If so that may be the cause of their die-off.

 

[jeff 2]

Bonjour

if you see 'in situ' the natural colour is green yellow , the pink colour indicates too much light .

artificial light is really needed ?

 

[Kaila]

I actually had go use twizers when i placed the ping on its new habitat. Sorry this may sound stupid but whats a mineral based medium?

So far I've changed my light setup to 2x t8, let the soil dry up a bit and placed a ziplock on it.

Checking on it today, it definitely looks so much better. I'll observe the ping for a couple more next few days. *cross fingers*

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I was pretty clueless when I posted this topic.

 

[curtisconners]

Sorry this may sound stupid but whats a mineral based medium?

The only stupid questions are the ones not asked.

A mineral based medium is simply a medium that consists of Rocky material with very little organic matter. I do not grow pings, but I believe that common materials include turface, lava rock and a few others. Mexican pings have been seen growing on soilless cliff faces in the wild, in case you were wondering why Mexican pings would like such soils.

 

[Kaila]

Would perlite be considered as mineral based ?

 

[curtisconners]

Here's the recommended soil mix for Mexican and tropical pings from the savage garden revised.

One part perlite, one part sand, one part lava rock/pumice and one part peat. But I don't grow pings, so I do not speak from experience.

 

[gill_za]

[MENTION=12205]Kaila[/MENTION] lookup Aquatic Planting Media in a nursery nearby or at walmart or simply go with Turface.

Both can be used as is or add sand and perlite in 1:1:1 ratios. However, before replanting your ping wait for it to gain some strength.

 

[cwatson1414]

Would perlite be considered as mineral based ?

I think I've seen some pictures of jeff2's pings in mostly perlite. Joseph Clemens also recommended a media consisting mostly of perlite. The latter is contained in a sticky at the top of this sub-forum.

 

[jeff 2]

my mineral substrate for mexican,caraibes,a lot of temperate .

- cat litter 50% ( with some time akadama)
- river sand 12.5%
- oolithe calcareous sand 12.5%
- pouzzolane 12.5%
- vermiculite - perlite 12.5%

for the gypsum species

just pur gypsum + river sand 50/50

rotundiflora

jeff

 

[gill_za]

Kaila,

How is your ping doing?

 

[Kaila]

Hi gill!

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't see your message. It's still alive (thank gosh!) and getting better. Though its still very small. The initial lighting change and increase humidity seemed to help acclimatize the ping to it's new environment. It's growing slowly but at least I'm not losing any leaves. My leaf pulling-s however didn't do so well. One of it just shrank and withered away but the other one seems to still looks the same as the day I pulled it but no strike yet. I don't know how long I'm suppose to wait to see if it would grow into a new rosette.

I also bought 2 new pinguiculas that had drying up leaves on the bottom part as a problem as well so they're both currently in a Ziploc treatment right now. Makes me wonder if maybe I have to acclimatize all CP plants that I buy online from now on.