Bad pics for diseased plants

Two plants.
One from cobra plants, did well for about 6 months, grew, lots of pitchers. Now, some leaves turned black, the others are pale with some orange discoloration.
Plant 2 from Home depot, was in poor shape but started to pitcher and grow. Now brown and orange blotches and it looks awful.
Is this rust? Excuse poor picture quality. If they are truely diseased I might just toss them and not take them home to infect other plants.
On a happy note, the sundew they are with in my classroom is regrowing and has lots of babies.

still plant one

plant one again

still one

plant 2

2

ok this is just a headache and the pics are bad, sorry for this post.
C

still trying to show leaves.

They don't look that bad to me. I would spray them thoroughly with Neem and take them home. I would say some of it is cold damage. If you're going to throw them away, I would happily send you money for shipping, rather than tossing them. They certainly don't need to be tossed. Take them home. If they are highland put them in a sunny window sill at home. If they are intermediate or lowland hang them in a tree outside for dappled light.

Are they in the sun? they sort of look yellowing from sunburn.

No all are indoors. It is too cold in the winter here for them outside and too hot in the summer for them. They have been growing under artificial lights in my classroom and were doing quite well until recently. I am bringing them home today but still don't have a set up for them yet. Maybe it is a light and or change in temp. issue and I have decided its just wrong to toss them now.
C

Are they doing any better at home? Glad you didn't toss them. :)

No not better just sort of barely hanging on right now, any advice?
C

DId you give them a good dose of Neem? I would put them in a sunny warm window sill. Are they all highlands? If they are intermediates of lowland, I would put them in dappled light outside.

One I don't know as I bought it from Home Depot the other is a sanguinea (spelling?) which is a highland species. What do you think about repotting them? I hate to admit this but the one from home depot is still in the same mix it came from and it probably isn't good.
C

Yes id repot them into a peat moss(not coco peat), perlite, sand mix (soak the mix with water as the peat will suck it up) or you can add bark but i find mine dry out to quick in it. Spray them with a pesticide/fungicide, keep moist and keep in bright light but not sun. Oh they love humidity, whats that like where they are? This is a purple sanguinea...whos newest pitchers aren't as purple as they should be due to lower light (moving it inside).

This message was edited Jun 17, 2010 5:58 AM

That's not the mix the seller recomends? Most of them are grown in the bark type mix. I am not sure what to do with them to be honest.
C

You can use a bark mix but you need to water them more often. This mix is what i use for most of my cp's and they have been doing great for years. Neps have pretty fine roots. I just leave out the perlite for sarras and sundews and add more sand to the mix.

Can I add some orchid mix? It has lots of bark. I am going to repot today and probably need to find an artifical light to place over them as I think the window sill is not bright enough. Thanks for the advice.
C

Be careful the orchid mix will probly have fertilizer in it and will kill the nep.

Ok, I will avoid the orchid mix. Can you tell me roughly what the proportions are? Is it equal parts of all 3?
C

50% peat moss, 30% bark, 20% sand maybe. I use about 60% peat moss, 30% sand and 10% perlite. There is alot of different mixes you can make up. Just make sure it stays moist and doesnt dry out.

Are your plants doing better?

Somewhat, they have greened up some. I did not replant them as I was afraid it would be too much stress. Right now they need more light than they are getting in the window sill. I am pretty sure what happened is the temps here heated up and my school turns off the AC at night and on weekends so they suffered from high temperatures this spring. My house is cool all the time and they are better.
C

I find the high Nepenthes difficult for warm weather places. I grow intermediate and hybrids the easiest.

Do you have any favorites as far as those which seem to grow best for you?
Cheryl

The ones I have no problems growing are N. ventrata and miranda. Both hybrids. Grow like wild fire and do well when the temps drops to 40. Certainly not the most spectacular N., but certainly worth growing just for their ease. I also have a "Red Dragon" that pitchers like mad and is very pretty. And I have "Red Beauty that did beautifully until the last winter just destroyed them. Sigh! THey were in the house, but I can't keep them watered enough in winter.

starsplitter- i use a mix of peat moss, sand and perlite for my neps as its hot here and they dry out to quick in bark.