Post by joey on Nov 12, 2020 16:16:10 GMT -5
Tropical storm Eta just passed through last night, and it has been cool and rainy for a couple days. I brought all of my leucos, mooreis, and fancy hybrids in my small garage because I know they are especially susceptible to rot. I left the flavas and minor okees out, however, because I understand they have a higher tolerance to wet conditions.
Now, I have a prized Liberty County Flava Rugelii from Mike Wang, which has quadrupled in size in a single season. What I liked about this particular one was how lignified it is, the foliage has a very thick and resilient feel to it. So imagine my disbelief when I found the main crown showing the symptoms of rhizome rot. It started this year as a medium sized crown, at its peak it was a large crown (splitting into 2), 2 medium crowns, and 3 tiny offshoots coming from underneath, so nearly 7 growth points. It is all phyllodia atm, but when I checked the main crown today, some of the leaves were turning brown. I started pulling off dead growth to see what was going on, and then the live bases started falling off very easily. Touching around in there, some of em felt squishy. One of em had that foul smell I have smelled on other sarrs that ended up rotting. Up until the storm this week, this pot of flavas has been near bone dry, and I assumed a bit of water would have been welcome (evidently not). So I have a dilemma on what to do. My main concern is that dormancy is right around the corner. I have 3 potential options:
A. Uproot the whole plant, cut off the main crown, replant, and pray. I have never had a single successful rot surgery, they have all perished in the weeks after. My procedure is uproot the plant, wash off the soil, remove dead growth, start cutting with a sterilized razor and sterilize between cuts until only white is left, replant and keep protected. Sometimes I add a thin dusting of cinnamon powder on the open wound as a "bandage" and an antifungal, but it does not seem to have made any difference in mortality.
B. Second option is to pull off the 2 side crowns as divisions, and pot them up. While this may seem like the most viable option to save it, I am worried because soon cold weather will arrive and I do not know if it can heal and make roots while dormant. Perhaps I could keep one outside, and bring the other indoors under lights until spring?
C. Leave it alone, let it dry out, and hope it recovers. Surprisingly, I had a few cases this year when we had unseasonably long bouts of rainy weather where juvenile sarrs would lose all of their foliage and seemingly succumb to fungus. I would remove this brown, prematurely killed, foliage and often all that would be left is a little potato looking thing of a rhizome. I assumed they would die soon after, but to my surprise, a few have fully recovered since. I did keep these "potato" patients much drier, almost cactus dry throughout the season (it is very humid here, not sure if that should be noted.)
A strange observation I have made with all of my rotten sarracenia is that the root systems always seem to be in good health, white and crisp. But the rhizomes themselves had ended up kicking the bucket for some reason. I do not bury them, most of them stay above the soil line. The pots are in trays but are never allowed to sit in water, as I drain the trays whenever rain fills them up. In a few rot cases this season, the rhizomes had grown so much in so little time that a crown would start growing on top of another forcing it down or other crowns would just start diving into the soil for some reason.
Pictures of the plant in question:
Top view of the whole plant after removing the dead growth:
20201112_160125 by Joey, on Flickr
Close up pictures of the suspect crown:
20201112_150523 by Joey, on Flickr
20201112_150136 by Joey, on Flickr
The original crown on receiving in January:
Screenshot_20201112-160410_Gallery by Joey, on Flickr
The plant at its best in the spring:
Screenshot_20201112-160800_Gallery by Joey, on Flickr
Anyways, any information anyone can suggest or provide would be much appreciated. If it is in fact rot, I do not have much time and must act today if I am to save any bit of this awesome plant.
Now, I have a prized Liberty County Flava Rugelii from Mike Wang, which has quadrupled in size in a single season. What I liked about this particular one was how lignified it is, the foliage has a very thick and resilient feel to it. So imagine my disbelief when I found the main crown showing the symptoms of rhizome rot. It started this year as a medium sized crown, at its peak it was a large crown (splitting into 2), 2 medium crowns, and 3 tiny offshoots coming from underneath, so nearly 7 growth points. It is all phyllodia atm, but when I checked the main crown today, some of the leaves were turning brown. I started pulling off dead growth to see what was going on, and then the live bases started falling off very easily. Touching around in there, some of em felt squishy. One of em had that foul smell I have smelled on other sarrs that ended up rotting. Up until the storm this week, this pot of flavas has been near bone dry, and I assumed a bit of water would have been welcome (evidently not). So I have a dilemma on what to do. My main concern is that dormancy is right around the corner. I have 3 potential options:
A. Uproot the whole plant, cut off the main crown, replant, and pray. I have never had a single successful rot surgery, they have all perished in the weeks after. My procedure is uproot the plant, wash off the soil, remove dead growth, start cutting with a sterilized razor and sterilize between cuts until only white is left, replant and keep protected. Sometimes I add a thin dusting of cinnamon powder on the open wound as a "bandage" and an antifungal, but it does not seem to have made any difference in mortality.
B. Second option is to pull off the 2 side crowns as divisions, and pot them up. While this may seem like the most viable option to save it, I am worried because soon cold weather will arrive and I do not know if it can heal and make roots while dormant. Perhaps I could keep one outside, and bring the other indoors under lights until spring?
C. Leave it alone, let it dry out, and hope it recovers. Surprisingly, I had a few cases this year when we had unseasonably long bouts of rainy weather where juvenile sarrs would lose all of their foliage and seemingly succumb to fungus. I would remove this brown, prematurely killed, foliage and often all that would be left is a little potato looking thing of a rhizome. I assumed they would die soon after, but to my surprise, a few have fully recovered since. I did keep these "potato" patients much drier, almost cactus dry throughout the season (it is very humid here, not sure if that should be noted.)
A strange observation I have made with all of my rotten sarracenia is that the root systems always seem to be in good health, white and crisp. But the rhizomes themselves had ended up kicking the bucket for some reason. I do not bury them, most of them stay above the soil line. The pots are in trays but are never allowed to sit in water, as I drain the trays whenever rain fills them up. In a few rot cases this season, the rhizomes had grown so much in so little time that a crown would start growing on top of another forcing it down or other crowns would just start diving into the soil for some reason.
Pictures of the plant in question:
Top view of the whole plant after removing the dead growth:
20201112_160125 by Joey, on Flickr
Close up pictures of the suspect crown:
20201112_150523 by Joey, on Flickr
20201112_150136 by Joey, on Flickr
The original crown on receiving in January:
Screenshot_20201112-160410_Gallery by Joey, on Flickr
The plant at its best in the spring:
Screenshot_20201112-160800_Gallery by Joey, on Flickr
Anyways, any information anyone can suggest or provide would be much appreciated. If it is in fact rot, I do not have much time and must act today if I am to save any bit of this awesome plant.