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Genlisea cultivation Requirements?


Kath

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Hello.

I am considering getting a genlisea in future (if I can ever find one in NZ!) but first (before I spend months tracking one down...) I want to make sure I could grow one.

So here are my questions:

1. Do they have a dormancy? If so, what kind - summer or winter?

2. I've heard they're semi-aquatic - they like it wet. Is this true?

3. Do they need to be fed? If so, what? And how muhc/often?

4. What temperatures does it like, and what are the minimum temperatures before it'll die?

I mostly want to know where I'd have to grow it. I could grow it at home, or at my nanas. At home the temperature is about 25-30 in summer, give or take a bit, and down to 8 during the day and down to 2 at night in winter. I think this may be too cold in witner unless they have dormancy. At my nanas the temperature is constantly above 20 - winter or summer, rain or shine, in fact its usually around 25. On the windowsill at night in winter 15 degrees celcius is the minimum. It could rise to around 30, maybe more in a sealed environment.

So which of these soudns better, or neither?

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I've always treated them like a terrestrial Utric, meaning that I kept them inside, either at window sills or under artificial lighting. I've only had a couple types and both were best kept near room temp. I gave them collected rain or creek water. The latter always had some living organisms, which they fed upon. They do seem to like wet conditions Once I tried putting the pot in a plastic container such that the pot rested on the lid of the container, allowing the "roots" to go through the drainage holes into the water of the container.

This is G. hispidula:

IMG_0023.jpg

Edited by jimscott
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  • 1 year later...

There's a famous picture, somewhere, of a setup like that, only you can actually see the bladders. I think the author of it is someone named Jeff Wong. Maybe someone can find it...

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LOL! Yeah... Geoff Wong!

What I have toyed with and never actually did is to set up a plastic container that accommodates several pots of utrics and Genlisea, and have it overlay a fishtank or plastic tote and have that container filled with water so that the roots would extend through the bottom of the pots, into the water. And then take a picture!

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LOL! Yeah... Geoff Wong!

What I have toyed with and never actually did is to set up a plastic container that accommodates several pots of utrics and Genlisea, and have it overlay a fishtank or plastic tote and have that container filled with water so that the roots would extend through the bottom of the pots, into the water. And then take a picture!

I'm trying that at the moment with some utrics, but too early to tell how well it'll work - so far just a single stolon protruding from the bottom of my U. tridentata's pot. But what I've learnt so far from having transparent pots (wrapped in layers of black plastic to keep the light out) is that most utric stolons seem to grow pretty close to the surface, so in future I'm going to pot them into very shallow substrate. Anyway it seemed to work pretty well for Elgecko:

http://mysite.verizon.net/elgecko1989/Utricularia.html

Cheers,

Tim

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Steve had a nice setup. I'm thinking a fishtank would work well enough for seeing and pictures. A typical garden center plastic tray that holds several pots can overlay the perimeter and yet be in the water.

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Geoff Wong's setup was also the cover of the June 1995 issue of CPN.

That looks fantastic. In my opinion genlisea and Utricularia become ten times more interesting when you can actually see the traps.

A few years ago I saw an amazing setup for genlisea at the VCPS show here in Melbourne that had been made by a guy who, I was told, works with plastic for a living. Pretty much the same thing as in the picture but bigger and more impressive, with the word "GENLISEA" moulded onto the side.

Cheers,

Tim

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A few years ago I saw an amazing setup for genlisea at the VCPS show here in Melbourne that had been made by a guy who, I was told, works with plastic for a living.

Stuart McIlroy was the guy. Last year he brought along this nice display of U. longifolia with traps extending into the water.

Longifolia.JPG

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Stuart McIlroy was the guy. Last year he brought along this nice display of U. longifolia with traps extending into the water.]

Hey Sean,

Yeah, must be the same guy - he comes up with some amazing contraptions. Until I saw that earlier setup I'd never really even considered genlisea as an option (availability, condititons etc.), but found a new appreciation for the genus when I saw the setup I described.

I find that there's a strange kind of intrigue with genlisea and utricularia that comes from having plants that appear so harmless on the surface, but which are actually drawing all their resources from catching countless microscopic animals.

With setups like these you not only get to really appreciate the plants as being truly carnivorous, but also see them in a kind of self contained "ant farm" environment, which I kind of enjoy.

Cheers,

Tim

Edited by Tim Caldwell
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