P. gigantea Question

[snowflakeobsidian]

Does P. gigantea need a different potting mix than other Mexican Pings? My P. gigantea has a disproportionate number of outer leaves halo'ing compared to newer ones. "Halo'ing" is a term used with Gesneriads where the outer leaves yellow on the perimeter. With Gesneriads that is generally handled that by adding a smidgen of gypsum to the potting mix or when exhibiting, removing the halo'ing outer leaves during grooming. The thing is my P. gigantea generally has only 3-4 leaves at any one time which are not halo'ing, which seems excessive. The potting mix is a combination of milled spaghum peat and horticultureal sand. I did add some gypsum to see if that would help lessen the halo'ing but that didn't. My son suggested the problem might be the pH.

TIA

[gardenofeden]

I grew P. gigantea for a while in a mostly inorganic mix with lots of limestone chips (ie low nutrients & high pH) and they grew OK but slowly and were a bit yellow. I repotted them into a mix of "multipurpose peat-free houseplant compost" and perlite 50:50 and they have greened up and grown really fast. Pings love feeding.

[chuckpowell]

I grow mine is a mix of peat moss and long fiber sphagnum and its currently about 14-15" diameter. It's working for me and has for over a year.

Best,

Chuck

[Joseph Clemens]

Balance, especially between the major environmental variables: light, water, nutrients, temperature, are essential. From my experience, light is the most important factor in the environment of Pinguicula. Pinguicula gigantea is perhaps the one species of this genus with the potential to grow the fastest and largest. Hence, it can use more feeding, light, and water than its cousins to grow its best. I prefer a non-organic media and a tiny amount of Iron Oxide powder added to the media to ensure the availability of sufficient Iron.

[w03]

Speaking of P. gigantea, I was wondering if this would grow well in just APS and perlite.