So, the story:
I got S. xFormosa and S. purpurea ssp purpurea x courtii in winter this year (June-ish) by mail order. They arrived in fairly good condition and dormant. I potted them and sat them in a north facing window. Formosa went off like a rocket and was visibly growing every day. The purp. sulked for a month or so. They both tried to flower, but I nipped them in bud.
Once they seemed relatively established I shifted them outside. EVERYTHING seems to want to eat the formosa. It's growth stalled about a month ago - something was eating the trap tips and making cuts in the trap sides. I sprayed it with systemic insecticide. It got mites. I sprayed it with miticide. AND during this whole fiasco, the tips have been drying out and dying. At no point has it suffered from water stress, nor has the weather been terribly unreasonable.
It had aphids. They're gone now. It came with fungus (phytosanitary certificate my a***). That was dealt with. It had slugs. They've been dealt with with iron slug pellets. It currently has a fungus eating those pellets, but from experience that's pretty benign and the traps were drying out before the pellets were colonised.
And to add insult to injury, the purp is perfectly happy and growing well in the exact same conditions.
Any ideas on the tip death?
I got S. xFormosa and S. purpurea ssp purpurea x courtii in winter this year (June-ish) by mail order. They arrived in fairly good condition and dormant. I potted them and sat them in a north facing window. Formosa went off like a rocket and was visibly growing every day. The purp. sulked for a month or so. They both tried to flower, but I nipped them in bud.
Once they seemed relatively established I shifted them outside. EVERYTHING seems to want to eat the formosa. It's growth stalled about a month ago - something was eating the trap tips and making cuts in the trap sides. I sprayed it with systemic insecticide. It got mites. I sprayed it with miticide. AND during this whole fiasco, the tips have been drying out and dying. At no point has it suffered from water stress, nor has the weather been terribly unreasonable.
It had aphids. They're gone now. It came with fungus (phytosanitary certificate my a***). That was dealt with. It had slugs. They've been dealt with with iron slug pellets. It currently has a fungus eating those pellets, but from experience that's pretty benign and the traps were drying out before the pellets were colonised.
And to add insult to injury, the purp is perfectly happy and growing well in the exact same conditions.
Any ideas on the tip death?
