The carnivorous plant thread.

[Ambers Troll]

Interesting, I hadn't heard of that. Googling brought up this article: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423810000610

Not sure how effective it would be in plants that have been root-rotted, as these have. It likely would help in germinating seeds of the Byblis plants.

For plants who germinate by fire, it is essential.... It wont harm your plants, and is worth a try as a soil conditioner. Keep in mind that most of these plants love organics (smoke is a fine organic), and that many take opportunity soon after other vegetation returns from fire.
You must give them time and a degree of stability, think of creating soils where no one species thrives, this is what all predatory plants love. Fire is one way ecosystems are stabilized, smokewater tells sleeping plants that opportunity awaits.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Just curious. Is that a space blanket you have wrapped around the outside of the aquarium?

Almost. It's reflective mylar film designed for use with grow lights. It bounces light that would normally be lost out the sides of the tank back onto the plants. I have a removable piece of foamcore board covered in the stuff that I attach to the front of the tank when I'm not working with the plants.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

You'd think I'd learn. The last time I tried raising the plants closer to the lights, I had a fixture up there that had a UV bulb in it for reptiles. I found out that UV bleaches plants.

Well, now that I have that fixture replaced with 2 HO T5 grow lights, I tried again.

Maybe I should have read the spectral breakdown of those lights first, so I would have seen that they ALSO put out a fair bit of UV radiation.

I didn't get bleached plants as badly as last time with the pure UV bulb, but they still look a little funky.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!!!!!

My 'screwing around with things that are working fine' resulted in the loss of the little Cephalotus plant. It was doing GREAT til I decided to put it up in "UV Burn" land. Tried removing the dead leaves this morning and the WHOLE CROWN OF THE PLANT POPPED OFF IN MY HAND due to rot at the base.

I'm still holding a faint hope... one new pitcher was still VERY green, so I removed that one from the dead mass & have it set up as a leaf cutting. It might produce a new plant, as might any living roots in the soil.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I swear, this thread changed from "Look at these cool plants!" to "Let's see how the Weasel can manage to kill one or more THIS week!" :icon-cry:

 

[Shaun__]

I swear, this thread changed from "Look at these cool plants!" to "Let's see how the Weasel can manage to kill one or more THIS week!" :icon-cry:

I am sure you will take the knowledge you learn through your experimentation, and have a carnivorous garden to envoy in the future.

 

[LadyLuna]

I swear, this thread changed from "Look at these cool plants!" to "Let's see how the Weasel can manage to kill one or more THIS week!" :icon-cry:

I admire how persistent you are, and how you are examining everything to see what your mistakes were so as not to repeat them.

You're doing better. Keep it up!

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I JUST HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!!

(Yep, this is the point where you should all flee in terror.)

If I can figure out how to reorganize this room to free up the space in front of the window, I can place a terrarium there and use the sunlight as a light source for flytraps & such that prefer FULL sunlight. There's no amount of lightbulbs in the world that can put forth THAT kind of energy.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I swear, this thread changed from "Look at these cool plants!" to "Let's see how the Weasel can manage to kill one or more THIS week!" :icon-cry:

I admire how persistent you are, and how you are examining everything to see what your mistakes were so as not to repeat them.

You're doing better. Keep it up!

I just wish I could do so without messing up/killing a $30 plant.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I JUST HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!!

(Yep, this is the point where you should all flee in terror.)

If I can figure out how to reorganize this room to free up the space in front of the window, I can place a terrarium there and use the sunlight as a light source for flytraps & such that prefer FULL sunlight. There's no amount of lightbulbs in the world that can put forth THAT kind of energy.

I'll probably put off doing this for a while. Flytraps will be going dormant between October & November anyway.

 

[Ambers Troll]

Drosera Macrantha (Bridal Rainbow) just appeared in bushland here... their lovely pink flowers will rise in the next month or so and will find them easier.
They look healthy enough climbing over the sedge like herbal layer...but suspect fewer this year locally due to disturbance and weed invasion.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Drosera Macrantha (Bridal Rainbow) just appeared in bushland here... their lovely pink flowers will rise in the next month or so and will find them easier.
They look healthy enough climbing over the sedge like herbal layer...but suspect fewer this year locally due to disturbance and weed invasion.

Tuberous sundews are so cool looking. That's a type I've never yet tried to grow. There was a really cool article about them in the last issue of the ICPS journal by a grower down in the Blue Mountains.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

This Nepenthes hybrid is going nuts! Toward the lower right, you can see how far that new pitcher has developed. It still has a way to go before it opens. Upper left, check out the size of that leaf! That's the small new one that was just starting to show in the last pic. Yet ANOTHER new leaf is coming in to the right.

For reference, here's the previous pic, taken 15 days ago. The developing pitcher seen above is on the left in this pic.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

My so-called 'hospital tank' has been a big joke. Everything I've put in there to recover... hasn't.

Just this morning, I went to check out my Yellow Trumpet & Pale Trumpet pitcher plants. I hadn't seen any activity out of them, other than the dying of the leaves they once had. I had tried flushing the pots with a lot of purified water to remove the excess minerals that were causing root rot.

Yellow Trumpet: Fungus all over the growth point & leaf bases. It's done. Trashed.

Pale Trumpet: All the old leaves are brown & dead. Taking it to the trash... hold on... what's that... TINY NEW PITCHERS!!! HOLY SHIT, IT WORKED!!! I ACTUALLY SAVED ONE!!!

I have it sitting in a new purified water bath to leach out any remaining mineral salts, then it goes back into the main terrarium. :dance:

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I didn't read the ID tag in the plant pot til now. It wasn't the Pale Trumpet that is recovering, it's the 'Dixie Lace' cultivar pitcher plant! That's the one I was really unhappy about losing! The flush water is now coming out a light amber color, rather than dark brown. That shows that the excess mineral salts are almost gone.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

So, here's where it stands:

Sundew seeds: Still no action at all there.

Fang cuttings: Still nothing there either. Honestly, I'm losing hope for those.

Cephalotus: Main plant gone, attempt at leaf cutting failed. Might return from roots, not holding my breath on that one.

Alice sundew: No return from roots on that one either. The moss and bladderwort plant that shared the pot are doing amazingly well.

'Dixie Lace' pitcher plant: Still slowly coming back.

Venus flytraps: Doing middling well.

Nepenthes hybrid: Rocking. The. House.

Purple pitcher plants: Same as the Nepenthes hybrid.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I JUST HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!!

(Yep, this is the point where you should all flee in terror.)

If I can figure out how to reorganize this room to free up the space in front of the window, I can place a terrarium there and use the sunlight as a light source for flytraps & such that prefer FULL sunlight. There's no amount of lightbulbs in the world that can put forth THAT kind of energy.

Also, my plan here has changed. I actually WON'T need a terrarium tank for this, just a shelf. With some misting of purified water a few times a day, the plants will do very well. A number of people grow flytraps, Sarracenia, highland forms of Nepenthes, Cephalotus, bladderworts & sundews like this.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I am currently sitting here, watching direct sunlight stream in through the window that I plan on parking the plant growing rack in front of. I am also cackling evilly as I do so. I might even be able to grow COBRA LILIES in here!

 

[ThunderWeasel]

In light of the earlier discussion in the thread re: smoke water...

The newest issue of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter has an article on the effects of smoke on Venus flytrap seeds. It seems that smoke actually sends flytrap seeds into dormancy. The theory is that a recently burned area will be too dry for a while to support flytrap seedlings, so the smoke-triggered dormancy delays the seed germination until enough moisture has returned to the area to support seedling growth.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Well, HELL. A fungus of some sort (possibly a form of rust fungus) has hit my Nepenthes. Eaten up one of the new leaves & has damaged 2 others. I laid some sulfur powder on it today to kill the crud.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Chopped the affected leaves off of the Nepenthes & dusted the cuts with sulfur. That should nuke the crap. It really sucks, as one of the affected leaves was the one with the developing pitcher seen in the preceding pics. It was ALMOST ready to open, too. Wasn't worth the risk of trying to save it, though.

 

[Shaun__]

I have never been able to keep plants alive, so I find your journey to what I assume is plant based super villainy inspiring.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Another flytrap rotted away, and one that has all current growth slowly dying away while no new leaves are coming up.

That's it. I'm done with flytraps, at least until such time as I have a place to grow them outside. They just need WAY too much direct sunlight to be a viable indoor plant, even on a windowsill.

The 'Dixie Lace' pitcher plant seems to have died off again. All the new leaves that were coming up died when I put it back into the main terrarium. The only things that are really growing for me at this point are the 2 purple pitcher plants, the Nepenthes and the bladderwort in the former Alice sundew pot.

Yeah, I need an outdoor growing space again.

 

[Ambers Troll]

My father had pitcher plants, flytraps, and sundews... he grew all in with his orchids. (Greenhouse environment, we lived in a cool low mountain environment, frosts in winter/ no snow, warm summers)
I think he used a pretty standard orchid mix, and as I recall they were all pretty low maintenence, a little direct sun regularly taking them from the greenhouse into direct sunlight for a few hours weekly.

Was looking at the native Drosera a week ago, they were companioned with the native orchids too. In fact the only place with the rarest orchid, also had the area of Drosera. Might be worth a try companioning some of your predators with orchids, or just the soil from healthy orchids.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

...aaaaaand DAMMIT! The fungus is back, eating the new leaves on my Nepenthes AGAIN. I think I may have to order some Physan, this sulfur powder doesn't seem to be doing much other than slowing it down.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I think I mis-diagnosed the problem. It may NOT be fungus. I'm now seeing something that I hadn't noticed before when I mist the plants. A spider-like webbing over the soil surface and up onto some of the plants, in ALL the pots.

I think it's an infestation of spider mites. If so, I wonder why the Nepenthes seems to be the only plant affected?

The good part is, if it IS a spider mite outbreak, the sulfur powder I was using for fungus treatment on the plants ALSO kills spider mites. I may pick up some Avid miticide & give the tank a spraying, just in case.

 

[Shaun__]

I think I mis-diagnosed the problem. It may NOT be fungus. I'm now seeing something that I hadn't noticed before when I mist the plants. A spider-like webbing over the soil surface and up onto some of the plants, in ALL the pots.

I think it's an infestation of spider mites. If so, I wonder why the Nepenthes seems to be the only plant affected?

The good part is, if it IS a spider mite outbreak, the sulfur powder I was using for fungus treatment on the plants ALSO kills spider mites. I may pick up some Avid miticide & give the tank a spraying, just in case.

Maybe the other plants have some kind of natural resistance to them.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

... and now it turns out that the 'webbing' I see on the soil surfaces might NOT be spider mites, it may be fungus gnats, which would NOT be causing the damage to my Nepenthes, which means that it IS a fungus!

... screw this, I need a nap.

 

[Ann_Sulu]

:console & :jhug

 

[ThunderWeasel]

:console & :jhug

Only on ACF would one get an awesome wiggling boob gif in a thread about carnivorous plants!