Horror story - send help
I woke up this morning to find my entire Nepenthes collection looking suddenly very unwell. Two plants had completely blackened leaves, while many others were rapidly starting to turn black. At first I assumed it was the recent heat here in London, but then I noticed what looked like a crystallised droplet on one of the leaves. Looking more closely, I found crystallised salt residue all over my grow space.
I normally water with rainwater, but occasionally top up with deionised water that I buy online. I watered everything with this “deionised” water two days ago. After testing it today, it measured 260 ppm, and when even a single drop evaporates it leaves behind a thick, chemically smelling salt residue. I had two separate containers from the same purchase, and both tested the same.
I’m honestly devastated and doing everything I can to save what I can. I’ve got fresh media arriving tomorrow so I can repot everything, and in the meantime I’m using an old water distiller to get actually clean water and flush each pot as quickly as I can. Unfortunately, the distiller is slow, and I know time is a factor here.
Any and all advice would be appreciated, and any encouragement - feeling quite low about it rn. There are obviously more import things in life, but I’ve had some of these plants for nearly a decade 😭