mdeford09

ooooh! That is a nice one! I love the look of short fat pitchers!!! Thanks for the compliments guys! :)

thanks so much! I have seen a lot of hookerianas but I most certainly do favor mine over the others. The person I obtained it from stated that it was seed grown so it is a little different and unique. I have gotten it in TC too. Hopefully I can help spread it out to others

Thanks everyone! I am fortunate enough to live in Texas where it is very hot the majority of the year so Lowlanders love to grow here. But, as long as your temps do you not drop below 18C at night and can exceed 26C during the day, most lowland plants will still grow for you. They just might not grow as quickly. Plus, Fluorescent lights usually give off enough heat to keep them warm enough during the day and they do just fine. Mist them a couple times a day for humidity too.

Well, I had two 120mm fans and they didn't do any good (standard size for a PC). I then stepped it up to two 200mm fans and they couldn't do it either. So, I went and bought a 12" metal fan at Walmart for 15 bucks... I have it set to low because it seems to move a ton of air. But, it works and keeps the heat from pooling up in the top half of the tank. Total size of the tank is over 300 gallons, lol. But, I have positioned it in such a way that the fan is not directly blowing on any plants. They are just getting the air that is bouncing around the enclosure. I will let them go and see what happens and post the results. Thanks for all of the advice! Here is the tank, incase you guys missed it in my other post.

As a fellow CP enthusiast from Texas, I do not recommend going by any of the sites online that give a guestimation of TDS readings. Due to the area of the country, we have a LOT of clay and minerals in our water. Buy yourself a TDS meter. They are not at all expensive. http://www.amazon.com/Mudder-0-9990ppm-Hydroponics-Laboratory-Scientific/dp/B00MRLMG0M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432579161&sr=8-2&keywords=tds+meter

Thanks for all of the info everyone! I may go ahead and try the timer and see what happens. The issue I have found is the heat moves quickly. I actually had a couple of 120mm PC fans installed but these couldn't even push the heat down. So, I am worried that leaving the fans off for 15 minutes would just cause the top of the tank to reach 38C+ and the bottom go back to room temp. Only other option I can think of is to make my tank 2 individual tanks. It was much easier to control when the tank was smaller. Here is the list of what is in the tank. N. Smilesi N. Gracilis N. Trichocarpa N. Hookeriana N. Rafflesiana (pink) N. Rafflesiana (Green) N. Bicalcarata N. Ampullaria N. Hookeriana X Ampullaria N. Campanulata N. Viking x Tiger N. Dyeriana N. Merrilliana N. Hirsuta N. Hispida N. Albomarginata N. Rayong x Ampullaria

So, I built myself a giant grow tank. It is bright, lovely, and very neat. My highs are 29-32C My lows are 21-23C Humidity is 70-99% But, the way I managed to get my temps and humidity constant is to install a decent size fan that keeps the air moving. My question is, how bad is the constant wind? They aren't getting blown around to the point that pitchers are flopping in the wind or anything like that but, the leaves are constantly shaking. Is this an issue or will it just help to insure that the plants are tougher to put up with the wind? All plants are Lowlanders.

and now in color! (not quite enough coats and my son picked the color... it is REALLY orange, lol)

Couldn't agree more. What attracted me to these amazing plants was their ability to catch and eat prey. Take that away and they're just another plant.

Definitely agree on the pricing and trying to name every plant. Some dummies spent a fortune on a few plants a few times on ebay and now some are raising their prices basing their rationality those eBay prices. But, most businesses end up that way. "Make More Money" is the name of the game in the world these days. What really gets me going is when you have so many plants all named for the same characteristic and yet none of them are really any different. Like here in the US we have DC XL and B52 which both hold fame for having "largest traps". But both plants rarely ever produce even above average traps and only on super rare occasions do they put out super large traps. The majority of my typical plants do the exact same thing and the majority of my typical plants all look just a tiny bit different too. But, again, money is the name of the game. /shrug

Pay no mind to the brown leaves on a few of the plants. They got some cold damage but, they are growing right out of it just fine All I need now is to find out where I can buy a bunch of non hybrid lowland plants! no one is selling Lowland plants any more :'(

I believe it is because they do not like the plant... Lots of people are not partial to, as they're called, "freak plants". But, I will say that this plant looks like it has been attacked by some predator bug. I have seen this shape of traps on dozens of plants and it has always been because some bug is munching on the newly forming traps.

I'd suggest just going with any typical or vigorous flytrap. Stay clear of most of the freaky clones at first because they are usually slow growers and need as much light as possible (with a few exceptions). My favorite plant for shear vigor and size is Jaws. It isn't the biggest or the fastest, but it is a great combo of both and the teeth are very menacing looking :) Here are a few of my Jaws. They are quite lovely plants.

I can't say for certain when it will be. But, I do know that it could be possible for Steve to start offering plants by the end of the year, depending on how fast the TC babies grow invivo.... But, if I had to guess, I would say spring of 2016 is when SD Kronos will become available to everyone :)

Beautiful plant, Steve! And to respond to Ptaah, Steve is not shipping live plants over seas. But, I will be shipping sterile cultures of SD Kronos overseas as soon as Steve gives me the OK.

Actually, none of the plants mentioned by Flytrapcare are listed there.... Maybe they don't update often? http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cultivars/names.php?name=Dionaea

Here is a question I've had about the current registration process..... Since B52 is already described has a plant that grows up to 2.25" traps that can have a deep red color (even though it clearly doesn't get that large and it is pretty picky about color too).. What happens when say a plant like DC XL comes along that is actually better? (Although, B52 has outgrew my DC XL's pretty consistently. But for the sake of an example, lets say for me DC XL kills B52 on average.)..... Since B52 is already registered as it is, where does that leave DC XL? This is the problem that Steve is referring to with the current system. If a new plant comes along that is a better grower and is much more vigorous than a current named clone, but looks similar, that clone is pretty much unable to be registered. Even though it is better, it's still too close to the other plant to be named and deemed special.... You can't say "looks like B52 but grows bigger more often and is more vigorous than any B52 I've ever grown".... But, you can just call DC XL a B52, if you want. The registration doesn't say you can't and it matches plenty close enough to do so... So I guess from now on, I will start selling my DC XL's as B52. (not really, lol) The only true way to be unique is for the plant to be a "freak". Venus Flytraps are either green, red, or have red in the traps... Everything else is pretty much the same.

I brought my SD Titan into artificial conditions in mid January in attempts to produce a flower stalk for TC purposes. It was then placed back outdoors in mid February and then transplanted in early March and then again in April to a insulated pot to help cope with the intense heat of my area. Natural time of year for plants to break dormancy in my area is late January to mid February. So it has a few extra weeks of growth, but been out of dormancy for many months. All of my plants put on their summer leaves some weeks ago. Enjoy the thread, guys. Sorry to seem like a butt head. I just wanted to share an awesome plant with you guys but instead had to defend it against people who seem to believe they have a 6th sense and can determine plants entire growth cycle by a few pictures. Definitely! But, that is exactly why I said out of all of "MY" plants ever grown, it is the biggest on average that I have ever seen. There is no lie or exaggeration in that statement. I have only grown plants in 2 states in the US. North Carolina and now Texas. But, I have had B52 in both locations.... North Carolina was like a hot humid swamp and Texas is a desert. Temps in the summer time sore above 44C quite often and I often see humidity in the single digits... My B52 came from Flytrapstore back in 2010-2011 (not certain on the exact date, ) so i am fairly certain it was the real deal..... But, what I am getting as comparing all of my plants grown in those totally different locations and environments, I have never seen a plant grow like SD Titan. Yes, I can. Here is a thread of a user who JUST started growing last season and his B52's rhizome ALSO looked very similar to the Photo of Steve's plant (but with smaller traps). http://flytrapforum.com/showthread.php?tid=225 ... He is a very nice guy and definitely has one heck of a green thumb. But he just started growing. Again, that post was not meant to sound superior. It was merely used to point out the extreme flaws in your argument of trap shape, size, and color. Take care, everyone. Hopefully once you see SD Titan in person, you will see what I mean.

Last comment I am going to make on this thread. It is very obvious what is happening. With a test taken right now, what is it going to tell me? "That at this time of year, in my area, my current stock of "said plant" is averaging a certain size"... But, EVERYONE knows that most plants produce different sized traps in the spring, summer, and fall. So my tests are only conclusive to how they are growing right now in their current conditions. But in 3 months, that same test is going to present totally different results. This reasoning is exactly why I told Steve it was probably a bad Idea to post in the CPUKforum and why I never became a member until yesterday. CPUKforum is more focused on "freak" plants. No offense intended, everyone has their own tastes. Some people like blonde hair, some like red. And there are those who only like extremes and like their SOs to not have legs. To each their own. We are all different with different tastes. But, CPUKforum is definitely more oriented around "strange". These are my comments and I tried my best to always include that the comments were intended as a comparison between my current plants and my plants of the past. Like I stated before, SD Titan has not taken any official crowns. But in comparison to all of my plants, INCLUDING B52 and DC XL, this plant has out grown all of them consistently this year. It is has done more in a single season than any other plant I have ever grown or seen..... If that is not something to get excited about, I don't know what is.

Here is one of my pots of FTS Etna. I took this picture on June 18th 2014. But, you can see how a plant that is getting the same amount of light as the plants around it and yet it still has much more coloration.... And you can see some of the taller traps are opened towards the sun and getting more direct light than that lower trap and yet they have less color.

First, that picture I just posted was taken yesterday June 24th at 5:20pm Central time, on my Nexus 5. That IS the plant during the summer... I took that picture for Steve last night to show that it was producing a second flower stalk and that I am gonna let it grow for TC purposes. Second, anyone who has a decent amount of growing experience knows how capricious color on a Venus Flytrap is. Heck, I have 2 SD Draco's growing less than a cm apart and one is red and the other is solid green (SD Draco is a very colorful plant)... Color is no where near a good indicator of health or the amount of natural light a plant has received..... I don't like to call people out but that is a 100% BS claim to make..... But, I will say that you can put a plant under certain light frequencies to make color more pronounced, but that is not natural.... Plus, when you put a plant in low light it doesn't grow large traps. It grows long, spindly, thin leaves with tiny traps that usually have a very light green/yellow tint. I can't say the rest of this without sounding like an A-hole, but it must be said.... Since you really feel Phalanx and SD Titan are similar enough to compare, and you really think that the 2 Big Vigorous and Low Giant pictures are similar enough to compare, AND you really think color is any sort of an indicator for plant health. Your arguments cannot be taken seriously. It is very obvious you don't have enough experience with plants to make any sort of judgement. Again, I am sorry that has to sound so harsh (I am not good with words so i couldn't think of a nicer way to say it). Please don't take that as me trying to sound more superior anything like that. We all started some where with plants and there is definitely a learning curve to their care, growth and differences. There are lots of people with WAY more knowledge than I have. Lasty, you are correct that other countries have different plants. The only "Giants" I currently have are B52, DC XL, Megatraps(G17), G14, FTS Etna, and JAWS. B52 being the current world record holder and DC XL the proposed contender for that title. But that is exactly why I said this to Phil, yesterday But, before this gets out of hand, I am going to bow out and leave with "I am glad you guys are skeptical. But you can't judge a plant from 5 pictures, so just wait and see before you make your final judgement."

Not sure what you mean by this statement since no one is invested in this plant and no one is out to make a single dime off of it.... I am sure what you are thinking is that since I just opened a TC store, you think we are promoting it so it can be sold for lots of money or something like that.... I think you should ask the multiple customers (all of which are competing stores), that have already obtained hundreds of clones from me, how much they paid.... *hint* the answer is $0 (well, Steve has actually been really pushy towards paying for everything. But, I just turn around and buy stuff from him in return. So for us, we just toss money back and forth, haha). The only goal I've discussed with Steve is to spread SD Titan to the world as quickly as possible so people can experience it... And Steve wants his name tied to it. (which i don't blame him, SD Titan is amazing) But, nothing about what Steve has said is over hyped. Nor has anything that I have said been false..... No, SD Titan has not produced 5cm traps for me. But, nor do I think a plant will ever constantly produce traps that size..... But, SD Titan does produce more 4cm+ traps than any other large clone I have ever grown and it produces traps that size as fast most plants produce their average size traps. No, a plant doesn't need to be the biggest to be special. No one is claiming SD Titan to be the biggest ever. But, I am with 100% certainty claiming that SD Titan out grows every plant in my collection and from February of 2014 to today, it has produced more traps over 4cm than every other plant I ever owned, combined. But, I will end with this statement again... Please, be skeptical. It is good that so many people are being so. There are a lot of stores, some very popular, taking advantage of many gullible people.... But, Flytrapranch is not one of them. SD Titan will prove itself.

I guess my question for you would be, since SD Titan is easily different than every other plant in my collection (which is many), wouldn't that make it exactly what you just explained? You are making your assumption off of a few pictures... Plus, comparing Phalanx to SD Titan is a very poor comparison. That is like comparing Dentate to a typical.... Phalanx is known for its extremely long cilia. SD Titan is becoming known strictly for large traps.