Question
QUESTION: Some of my plants sat in the the winter California rains and the rhizome browned up and the dead pitched easily separated from the rhizome. I didn't check on my plants and some of them don't have growth points like my other plants...

Does this mean the rhizome has rotted? The plants in 4" pots are doing fine, mostly the S. Rubra and S. Flava I bought from SNW last season...

I may have lost half my stock to root rot in this case.

ANSWER: Hi Chris,

Unfortunately, it probably does.  Unpot the plants and examine the rhizome.  If it looks brown all the way through, and the roots look brown, it's dead.  If you have some parts that look good still try to cut away the dead material, spray liberally with a sulfur fungicide, and repot.  Since all of your plants were in the same conditions I recommend repotting all of them.

Sitting in the rain for the winter is usually no problem, but the water level in trays should be no more than 1/4 of the way up the pot.  If rhizomes crowns are under water, that is when you have problems.  Also, even during the winter the plants should be out in the open getting sun exposure.  It helps to keep fungal spores at bay.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks guys, yeah some of the soil smells funky, but they sat outside all winter. Fortunately only a few of the plants are 100 percent dead. They had such a good season last year that I can make about 3-4 divisions from one plant. The main rhizome is just dead.

Do you guys have any more of the "Hank" Hybrid available? I wanted one but I was too caught up in summer school to order a couple

Answer
Hi Chris,

That's good to hear.  Sarracenia are quite resilient.  It's also not uncommon for a very large plant to develop rot in the middle of a rhizome mass, but it sounds like yours are not quite that big.

I also wanted to stress that your plants being outside all winter is not problematic.  If you had brought them inside for the winter, your problems would be twofold.  All of our Sarracenia, a couple thousand, are outside the whole winter in shallow pools.  We have few problems with the plants unless a pool has its drain holes clog, and they flood.  It's also colder here.  

We see the sulfury smell and breakdown in the peat more in the summer from heat and anoxic conditions especially in deeper stagnant water.  They always seem to do best when the water table on the pot is lower.

Check back in late April on the website to see if we have any Hanks available.  We will begin our Sarracenia division next week.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com