Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For some reason, the tips of some of my leaves are turning into mush. It's not like they're being eaten, they're just..receding into mush land.

If you need a picture, say so.

A picture would help. Maybe add a picture of your thumb?

I swear on my great-great grandmother's grave, those plants were unkillable. Fortunately, I don't know where any of my great- great grandmothers were buried, because I'm beginning to think you could kill a rock. The mushiness sounds like "too wet," which shouldn't bother those species, but let's see some pictures first. Maybe it's really no problem.

How did the finals go?
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

Finals..oi. Failed Math..C in Poli Sci..B B A in classes that meant much less to me. So it's Math and Plants in the same boat, I guess. Thanks for asking though!

Luckily, the plant in question isn't one of the ones you sent me. Those are sitting in my backyard in a 10g covered tank which gets sprayed down every day in lui of my setting up the 29g as soon as I get back from Vancouver.

Attached are the pictures of the plant in question. Strangly, it's the only plant in the tank that is having the problem, so I assume it may be the dirt level, or maybe I just suck at plants. I'm almost thinking of scrapping the whole 10g tank and just using the 29g, now that I kind of know what's going on with cage construction.

And look Patty! A plant GROWING! Woot! Off a random cutting I did of all things, too. Good thing it isn't Pothos.. (ps, the pothos cutting I had in my crested cage died as well.)

And you know, while i'm at it, I might as well show you the rest of my cold bloodies. My room is FINALLY comming together. When I get back from Canada, i'm going to ditch crickets and grab some Roaches! Score.

Squirt

Shadow

Stumpy (he is missing a leg) and Rupert

Ruby

Pinky

Mr. Gecko

Don't worry, i'll never post pictures again.

I too was in your place about 2 months ago...

As you can see in the right hand corner of this pic, I had those planted. I forget what the name of that variety is, but they like to have the soil completely dry out and they like direct sun light.

I moved them outdoors and they have done fantastic. The African Violet and the crotons did not do well long term either.

The african violet stop blooming since I wasn't fertilizing it enough. I have since moved it to a pot where it receives excess fish water frequently and it stays in bloom all the time. Funny enough, none of my original plants turned out to be Vivarium types (for me at least). The grapewood even broke out into mounds of slimy mold.

What has worked for me are:
Philodendron
Pothos
Diffenbachia Compacta
Bromeliads
Jewel Orchids
Ground Orchids
Tilisandia
Bird of Paradise
Walking Iris

Experimenting with plants is half the fun! Good luck.

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-Iman

1.1 BRBs (Ying and Yang)
1.1 JCPs (Striker and Sheila)
0.0.2 BPs (Spot and Speck)
0.0.4 Dendrobates Tinctorius 'Suriname Cobalts'
0.0.4 Dendrobates Auratus 'Costa Rican Green and Black'
5.5 Fish (Insert your favorite names here)
1.0 Miniature Daschund (Rue)

Loving to Learn
Learning to Help
Helping to Love

Stimulate debates, stifle arguments.
Please be nice always.

Hey, Andrew, keep posting pictures. I love all of your critters, especially the baby Crestie.

Who needs math anyway? As long as you have all of your fingers and toes and can count to 20, balance a check book, you'll be fine, at least after you get through organic chemistry and physics. I could do all of that stuff on a slide rule, years ago, without understanding a bit of it, but now it's even easier if you can take your calculator to exams.

I think the plant in question may be Fittonia vershaffei, possibly the variety, "Dark Star." While I do have some Fittonias with wet feet and low light, I keep this one high with good drainage, and in the only tank I really have strong light in. (90 W fluorescent 6700K--2 of them.) So I think that Trinian's assessment is correct. I believe I sent you a Fittonia cutting, but it was one of the silver veined ones that tend to be more forgiving of damp feet and low light, in which it tends to scraggle around etiolating to look more like a vine.

Congratulations on growing a Philodendron without killing it! You're making progress there. I will be eating crow in no time for teasing you. Just don't try orchids quite yet.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

I also agree. I am going to go through the same thing you went through I bet. I just fround a dwarf Gunnera that I can't wait to plant,Gunnera monocia.
Good luck with the silver veined fittonia, I have that (the big leaf form)planted in a terrarium and it is awesome!
Nick

Nick--How large is your dwarf Gunnera? The only ones I'm familiar with (G. chilensis and G. manicata) are huge, and I've only seen them out doors in places like San Francisco. A truly dwarf one would be interesting in a viv. Can you post a photo of it?
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

Patty, I was wondering. This weekend I am going out to the desert for 3 days, and then 4 days after that I will be in Vancouver for 12. Now, I am leaving the care of my plants to my mother, who has little time to take on another charge after my reptiles. What would be the best way to keep them housed while gone?

I currently have everything you sent in a 10g on my porn, they're in cocofibre with moss on top of that. I have the tank completely covered with a piece of PVC, and it gets sprayed down once a day. It's in full sunlight.

Should I leave it like that and just tell her to spray it?

I would move them out of the sunlight, unless it's only early morning sun, or late evening. None of these plants needs sun. They'll be fine with some spraying every day or so to keep the moss damp. They're probably in the process of rooting.

Have a great trip, and get some more pictures of lots of creepy crawlies, flutterbies and flowers.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

I found a couple of photos of the Gunnera manicata and the dwarf G. monocia in the meantime. It looks like it could be a great ground cover. Be sure to let us know how it works.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

Yes Patty the common gunnera gets huge!!! AKA Dinosaur food, Poor mans umbrella. They call it poor mans umbrella in the native area it is from because many insects feed on it and make a bunch of little hole, thus making a leaky umbrella.I carry both at the nursery. I will take many pics once I finish the viv. The dwarf gunnera I have has leaves the size of a dime and it is not as much of a ground cover as the pic you see, but I am sure it could be if I let it. I would like to keep it it more of clumps

Like Patty said, a picture would be great. If you were a customer from my nursery I would have you bring it down and check for crown rot. If it was planted deeper than the soil line it originally had in the pot, then it could have caused the crown to rot. This was cause decreased it or no travel of water to the leaves resulting in at first wilt, then it would looked burned like it dried out. BUT since it is in a humid viv the damaged (dead)leaf tissue might get mushy. I suspect it is a crown rot or a root problem (might have lost much of the root system during planting)
Nick