Question
QUESTION: It looked like my Darlingtonia was dead until I pulled it out and looked.  As you can see on the photo, the roots look fine and there is a shoot coming out of the plant.

Is the plant dead or is it just putting all it's energy into the shoot?

ANSWER: Hi John,

What you have is a Darlingtonia with part of the plant still alive with a stolon coming out.  This looks like some classic fungal root-rot which Darlingtonia are so prone to. The stolon will probably die soon too unless you treat it with a fungicide.  The one that's worked best for me is tebuconazole.  This is found in the Bayer 3 in 1 or Bayer Disease Control which is a concentrate you need to mix.  You will need to actually soak the living parts in it for a few minutes.  This is pretty drastic, but after loosing most of our collection a few years ago to this, it's the only thing I've found that works once they have the infection.

Good Growing!

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

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

QUESTION: I have two Darlingtonias in the same pot so does that mean that I should treat them both?  One looks fine, but it can be hard to tell with fungusai can't it?

Answer
Hi John,

Yes.  I've found that once you start seeing this die-off it doesn't stop.  It doesn't seem to matter how cool you're keeping the roots or any other cultural factors.

I've been recommending that people not let their Darlingtonia containers come in contact with the ground or regular soil.  The offending pathogen is probably Phytophthora of some species which are very common in soil.  Live Sphagnum which is very acid, or their native Serpentine clay, which is full of heavy metals, probably keeps it at bay in nature.

Good Growing!

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