My New Mexican Pinguicula Set-Up

Pinguicula in a box!

Recently, my small collection of Pings underwent a major change, baseboard heating! Last winter, my Pings were happy to sit in trays of water alongside my tropical and subtropical Drosera, but as soon as I turned on the heat for winter they started shriveling and dying! In fact, about half my collection died off before I narrowed down the source of the great die off, the baseboard heating. Unlike my old apartment, which had a heater that constantly pumped out steam, the heat in my new apartment is dry, dry, dry.

Another shot of the Pings!

In summer, the relative humidity in the room the Pings were in was about 40%, which wasn't terribly high, but high enough. In winter, it drops to 30% or below. Considering most Mexican Pings get most of their water from the humid air, this isn't enough to sustain them. As a consequence, the tray method alone was insufficient, and I had to upgrade to a terrarium, where the plants are all looking quite happy, now. 

Pinguicula "Sethos"

In the attempt to figure out what was going wrong with my entire Ping collection, I repotted nearly all of them into a mix of one part turface, one part perlite, one part horticultural pumice, and one part sphagnum peat moss. Because my options for potting media are limited to Home Depot and the internet, I ended up ordering the turface and pumice from Eastern Leaf, a Bonsai shop, which was the best price I could find online.

Pinguicula cyclosecta

After a repotting and move to somewhere more humid, the Pings are really coming back! I've actually never seen them so happy! The growth is astonishing!

Pinguicula sp. "Guatemala 3100 m" 

You wouldn't believe it, but this plant was practically dead a month ago. I was worried that I wouldn't have any Pings in my collection at all! And, in fact, lost of few of my favorites :(

Pinguicula "John Rizzi"

As you can see from the blurry little guy on the right, my attempts at leaf pullings are taking, again, although I lost the entire earlier crop. Hopefully, I'll have some extras to spread around in the spring. (And, hopefully, I get a bigger tank before then, since my collection has all but filled this one already!).

Pinguicula. moranensis

I only wish that I could get some gnats to feed these guys. I'm really not sure of the best feeding method for them. And, of course, I'd like to up the light a bit to get some better color on some of these plants, which are used to the "shadier" portions of Mexico.

Pinguicula gigantea

Unfortunately, the whole host of changes as drastically reduced the size of my P. gigantea. A few months ago, it was popping over the sides of this 6" pot, stretching nearly 8" in diameter. Now, it's been reduced to about half that size, but I'm hopeful that it'll start putting on some good growth again!