Advice/Help Needed!

[pananep]

Hello everyone. I have a situation going on with two of my plants and was looking for answers to figure out what is going on and how to solve the problem. I guess the pictures speak for themselves:

N. 'Judith Finn'
This plant has had this problem on and off for a while. It grows and pitchers slightly well for a short period of time and the it reverts back to this deformed small new growth with what looks like black cuts/bruises/indentations on the leafs and pitchers. Most of the time though, it look like this:





N. bellii x truncata
I've had this pant for quite some time now, it has only produced one decent pitcher since its been under my care and this was a while ago. Other than that no pitchers are produced whatsoever and tendril endings don't even look like they have the potential to inflate. It has 2 growth points, previously three but one blackened and dried up as you will see in the pictures. Most of the leafs seem to be covered with these brown spots on the upper side. Also, both on the upper and underside of leafs tha plants has these brown stripes, even on new growth.






Any thoughts as to what is going on with these two plants and what i can do to address these issues will be greatly appreciated.

Look forward to your replies.

Cheers,

Rick

[hcarlton]

Have you checked for pests, like thrips? That could be what is causing this, and a dose of Neem oil or Pyrethrin should help. However, it would also help to know the conditions the plants are in: how much light they get, water quality, soil mix, temperatures, etc.

[pananep]

hcarlton, thanks for your reply.

My plants are grown outside year-round. These are my growing conditions:

Temperature: 80 - 90 f daytime temps, 75 - 78 f nighttime temps
Humidity: above 50% daytime, above 70% nighttime (summer)
above 60% daytime, above 80% nighttime (rainy season)
Light: Outdoor nursery exposed to full sun, nursery covered in 50% shade cloth (hence daytime temps are lower inside the nursery)
Soil Mix: 40% coconut husk chips (washed), 20% perlite, 20% LFS, 20% peat.
Water Quality: RO Filtered Water and rain water
Fertilization: Natural insect prey

Do you really think the problem could be thrips?

Thanks you! Look forward to more replies.

Cheers,

Rick

[hcarlton]

Your conditions seem okay, so I would suggest treating for thrips. They are very small insects, usually tannish in color and elongate, about 2-3 mm long, but often cause leaf deformation and discoloration.

[teinkes]

Well temperatures are well but I wonder if they do not suffer from a bit a cold.

I have the same synthoms now occuring on my N ventricosa .. was exposed to temp. around 10F.

When trip do occur the leaves are rather more spotted and have a dull colour / surface.

So I still wonderif it's not suffering from colder temp a few 2/8 weeks ago

OR it can be that aphids where on the plant a few weeks ago.. or sucking on young leaves a while ago and now you see the result