On 2014-01-18 12:53:33 +0000, Nick Maclaren said:

In article ,
sacha wrote:

One of four Lampranthus I have growing in my conservatory has died;
as far as I can see, the case was that its small roots have rotted
away, but there is no evidence of why (no signs of fungi, weevil or
anything). The others and layers from the same one in the same
conservatory border are fine.

The one difference is that it was smack bang under an Aloe ciliaris,
but others are well within the root zone of that.

Any ideas as to what might have happened?

Totally wild guess - could the Aloe have given off moisture or humidity
affecting the plant? Ray says - as you'll know - that it doesn't take
much to kill off Lampranthus if they're wet. We've got a couple outside
still which are pretty much an experiment. They're right on the edge of
a low wall, so we'll see if they drain well enough to survive - if the
cold doesn't get them.

Thanks very much.

In the strict sense, quite the converse! It makes the soil in that
location very dry. But it is possible that I overcompensated when
watering, and so it is my fault.

The border goes down to the subsoil, so the established aloe needs
no watering, but the relatively new Lampranthus did get a bit,
because they went a bit floppy - of course, if the reason for that
was that the conservatory got a bit chilly (well above freezing,
though), I would have done precisely the wrong thing :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Apparently, they're notoriously tricky. That's why it was so
frustrating to get out of the helicopter on Tresco and see great banks
of them blazing at us!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon