Jump to content

how do you grow yours?


Ian Salter

Recommended Posts

I am interested to find out off as many people as I can the particular way you grow your VFTs, Please forget anything you've read, I want to know YOUR conditions and methods in these simple terms.

Greenhouse/indoors etc..

Light levels. Full sun/Part shade etc..

How much water you use.

Pot size or depth.

Soil mix.

general condition and colour.

If you wish, please add comments after the basic details.

Thanks kindly, Ian.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hi

i grow mine outdoors. i take it in once in while to avoide frosts.

full sun the whole day.

i water if the soil gets dry, which isn't often as it rains alot.

average 4 in pot, but i have more than 5 vfts stuck in there, not counting the small divisions.

peat with layers of sphagnum on the surface.

my typicals are really red now, but the traps died cause of oncoming dormancy. my denates have huge traps but are mostly only pink. there quite healthy.

Zongyi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest VFT guy in SJ

Ok Im in the south bay area in California USA about 40 miles south of San Francisco, but please dont use San Francisco as a general reference to weather here, we are vastly different than there.

My plants grow outside full time year round. No greenhouse or anything. Full sun from sunrise till about 4 pm in summer (less in winter as the sun tracks south) All my plants are in 4 inch pots ( I believe thats approximately 10 cm, please bear with me as Im not used to giving measurements in metric) sitting in water bowls I fill to 1 - 2 cm deep and allow to run dry before refilling. Soil is 50/50 peat and sand. I never "feed" my plants, but since they grow in the garden they have an abundance of insects that they readily feed upon, there is rarely a trap that stays open for more than a few hours unless its exhausted.

Here is a couple pictures to give an idea how much growth has occoured in about 16 months.

vft1yr1.JPG

plant as it was when recieved June 2002.

flytraps2.jpg

plants after division June 2002

vft1013_004.jpg

Oct 13 03

vft1013_011.jpg

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a fairly low maintenance approach:

Late spring to mid-summer they sit on my porchrail on the east side of my house where they get 6 to 7½ hrs of direct morning sun and the rest of the day in shade. I have 5-3 inch (7,5cm) pots set in a ¼ inch (7mm) or so of water. In a long windowsill planter that is about 5 inches (12,7cm) deep, I have 5 VFTs that I water whenever the top of the soil looks dry. The soil mix is 1:1 peat:perlite in both the planter and the pots and my VFTs grow quite well :) .

During the late summer, I start bringing them in to avoid the hard frosts we occasionally get overnight. By fall they are inside all day long. The small 3 inch (7,5cm) pots go in my computer room in a spot they receive bright indirect light most of the day and the windosill planter is by the porch door where it is cooler, but only receives a few hours of light during the morning. I keep the soil damp and water only when it dries slightly. In the spring, when the temps start getting into the high 40ºf range during the day I start putting them outside for part of the day until the temps drop in the evening. By late spring they are back on the porch rail 24/7.

I rarely feed them as they catch plenty of bugs on their own outside during the summer. How do they look? I'll let you decide :D ........

My D. muscipula dentate traps

25948364-076e-02000180-.jpg

Windowsill planter of typicals

25948925-4bf8-020000CC-.jpg

My Green Dragon

25949064-0600-02000180-.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of my VFTs spend their growing season, March - September, in full sun in my conservatory, which is more like a greenhouse attached to my house than a living room. From October - March they are moved to my unheated cold frame for dormancy, this gets less sun and the plants are protected from harsh frosts. They seem to do well like this and moving them makes room in a sunny spot for my tuberous sundews over winter :)

I have several VFTs (typical) that have been outside all year, planted in my mini bog, for the past three winters. They have all survived and this year, no doubt due to the high temperatures and light levels, flowered and set seed. The bog is nearly 2 foot deep and has a good layer of live sphagnum growing on top, so their roots are more protected against hard frosts than if they were growing outside in small pots. The coldest recorded air temperature they have experienced and survived is -8C (about 16F).

Vic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Keladrin

My carefully contrived cycle of growing is as follows:

Mid Nov to mid Feb they are outside in a north facing porch - they grow very slowly and summer leaves die down. Feed a little bit.

Inside in a South facing window in a centrally heated room (day) until the start of June - they are jolted out or domancy and proliferate colourful spring then summer traps with long petioles ready for feeding.

Outside on a sunny south facing patio until mid Sep - they gorge themselves and grow at maximum rate/size with best coloration

Back in the south facing room until mid Nov - during this period they grow a profusion of winter traps which will survive until next year, still retaining most of the summer traps.

Kevin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I grow 90% of ours in an unheated greenhouse where they stay all year round. In the summer it is in full sun from about 11am till 7pm. In winter they are often frozen in their pots.

I water as required filling tray with a good half inch of water then allowing this to completely go before refilling.

They are in a variety of pot sizes ranging from 1.5" diameter to approx 5.5" diameter.

Grown in peat, occasionally I throw in a bit of perlite, but only if I remember :D

All look very healthy, and range in colour from heterophylla to deep burgundy reds, with all the varients inbetween. Most have flowered this year and I even managed to cross some :D:D

Also have two bowls of typical vfts which stop outside all year and are subjected to whatever the weather throws at them - these ones are particularly good at catching spiders :D

Suzy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steve :) , Your VFTs look healthier than mine, That's why I started this post :D .

Vic & Kevin, thanks for your input but could you please add your soil mix & pot size, If used.

And thanks Suzy. I,ve had more trouble than ever useing sand in the mix very interesting info.

Please keep em coming, If you need guidance see the first post :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hallo mate..

this is how i grow my vft and they love it..

i have got a cheep proigator wid no holes at the botom and leave small amount of rain water at the botom. i let them drink the water up over afew days but not letting them go dry and they grow grate..i didnt even take them in over night when we had the frost a few days ago but i could be criticized for that..had no bad afects though..

some of my smaller ones i didnt have covered and they are still fine except a bird must have its eye on them as a few times these last few months they have been uprooted.so now they are in pots under the proection of another propegator.

hope that helps a bit.. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine grow in a polythene greenhouse March until October, when they are moved into a glass one. I keep them in a tray full of polystyrene beads over winter just to keep the soil temperature slightly higher. Last year a great plant couldn't cope with the cold and lost all its roots. I've now got three tiny plants surviving and hopefully they will do better next year. I hate it when they freeze!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Peat,

Soil mix; Peat and perlite (2:1), I used to use sand until a couple of years ago, but having seen, with my own eyes, the quality of Mike King's VFTs, I switched to perlite.

Pot size; 1L square pots; 11 x 11 x 11cm approx.

Vic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's how I do it!

peat/sand 70/30, or 50/50 peat/perlite

small pots (I find they work just as well as large pots and you use less peat which is no bad thing)

In the greenhouse all year round.

Wet in the growth period, just damp over winter.

Quite standard really, but if it 'aint broke...........

Regards

Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Keladrin

Forgot to to mention they are in 100% peat that is never water logged as it never stands in water - the 5" width long trays have an overflow facility built into the bottom. This necessitates watering from the top - fine in the summer as the rain often does this. The advantage of this system are that pure peat requires less frequent watering and the pot design ensures adequate drainage and ventilation. I am experimenting with sand/peat, perlite/peat using the same trays but, apart from more frequent watering requirted, there seems little different in growth so far.

Kevin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine are in a coldframe, with a large wood/pond liner tray the same size as the base. Its in full sun. 8)

I have the lids fully open during summer and only closed completely when it freezes.

They are mostly in 11cm sq pots and stand in 0.5 to 2 cm water throughout the summer.

Mix is about 70% peat 30% sand, but I will try adding some perlite when I re-pot in the spring.

They grow well and have great colour :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine grow in a greenhouse all year round. I keep the greenhouse frost free in the winter months. They get full sunshine from early morning until the sun sets. I grow them in 3 and 4 inch pots. soil mix is 2:1 peat and sand. I stand them in half an inch of water in the summer months and allow the tray to dry for a day or two before refilling, and they are just kept damp during the winter. Condition is good, with strong red colour to traps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have grown VFTs continually for over 50 years. During that time, I have experimented with all kinds of soil mixes, but keep returning to using 100 percent Canadian sphagnum peat, because this seems to consistently work best for me.

I grow some of my VFTs outdoors in an artificial bog filled with sphagnum peat.

VFTbog354.JPG

I also have VFTs in an unheated coldframe in pots of varying sizes that I water from the top. For my climate, the plants growing outdoors in the bog are always larger and more healthy than those grown in the coldframe.

During winter, the plants are watered with rain water. During our long rainless spring, summer, and fall, I use my well water, which is sufficiently low in minerals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You live in a bug-free yard, huh BobZ?

Not really. About half or more of the traps are filled on any given summer day. In the evening, I usually spray the plants with the garden hose and wash out the dead bugs from the traps that have re-opened. The caught bugs in my outdoor area are usually flies, spiders, hornets, pillbugs, beetles, and moths/butterflies in that order.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...