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Utricularia biloba - beautiful and easy


Cephalotus

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Hello everyone,

I would like to share with you a very easy method of growing Utricularia biloba so that it would flower for you like crazy.

I took a 1x1 cm piece and have planted it in round pot in pure peat. Maybe mixes of peat with sand in proportion 1:1 or a layer of sand on the surface might be beneficial, but it seems that in pure peat it is doing fine until other conditions are met.

I took one pot two number bigger, so that I could submerge the plant. So sometimes it was under 1 cm water layer which than I let to dry out a bit, sometimes even to the moment when all the water evaporated and than poured it with water again. I made that pot in December 2011 and kept on south windowsill. Temperatures souring the day around 18-19*C and during the night around 13-15*C. That is really not that important. Before summer came, the pot was already fully overgrown by the plant.

When the temperatures outdoor were long time positive I took the pot out on my terrace to provide it full sun. Since that moment I kept the soil always having much moisture, mostly in shallow water.

In the middle of summer it started to produce first flower stalks which than started to appear like crazy. Many of them were damaged by my lovely animals, but still most survived and beautifully flowered. I cannot tell how long it was flowering, but it was at least 3-4 weeks if not longer.

In addition I will say that U. fulva is very similar in cultivation, I just have to get back home to take a proper care of it. It should definitely grow in sand or at least have 1,5-2 cm sand layer on the surface and should always be submerged with around 2-3 cm of water, the rest is the same. When I came home last time the soil was dried, although I gave instructions to keep it under water, it is not that tolerant like U. biloba.

I hope you enjoy:

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Kind regards,

Chris

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Guest Andreas Eils

That´s a very impressive flower show, Chris!

You really make me envious because I grow my specimen similar to yours but it never ever flowered! :( I will take the pot outside next summer in sunnier conditions and I´m curious if direct sunlight will perhaps solve the problem. I have only recently moved to a flat with balcony.

It´s the last chance for my plant! If it won´t flower next year I will throw it into the compost bin! :verymad:

Kind regards

Andreas

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Thank you all for your kind words. I have some more suspicions of how some CPs could be cultivated an easy way and look well. Before I test them myself I am not spreading my thoughts, because I might also be wrong.

I would have answered earlier, but I was expecting an e-mail notification of a reply... I do not know how to make that work. I forget to check topics I participate in.

Andreas, definitely this plant loves full sun. It really has baked on my terrace this year. Almost each day the water it was standing in was heating so much, that one might think that the plants will boil. As you can see nothing wrong happened to them and I had days with 35*C in shade. Maybe the temperature amplitude between day and night has something to do with its flowering, but I honestly do not know how much.

Hmmm... it seems that I haven't mentioned that I also successfully grow this way U. dichotoma (some not tuberous one) and U. monanthos. Both like those conditions and U. monanthos likes them even more. It had something like ~28 flowers in 2011, but more like one after another than at the same time. U. dichotoma had something around 8 flower stalks. Unfortunately, I do not have photos of their florescence to show. Last year I also made one mistake with them. Those species do have cold winter in their wild habitat and I kept them in warmth through the winter (2011/2012). That severely weaken them. A clue was a 1cm3 piece of U. dichotoma I left in my basement with Dionaea muscipula in 1-10*C. That small fragment set an amazing flower in spring when it was taken outdoor. On the contrary, the whole pot of U. dichotoma that staid on windowsill haven't produced a single flower. Also U. monanthos produced only one flower this year. So give those plants cold dormancy if you wish them to flower better. Maybe also U. dichotoma should not really be submerged but U. monanthos does not mind it at all. It set seeds and sowed itself with loads of seedlings in such conditions...

Instead of growing those species in aquariums or terrariums where they are given artificial light, give them baking sun and it will solve their flowering problems. I am aware that not everyone can provide their plants sun light even if they wanted...

U. dichotoma in 2009 in a 7x7 cm pot. It got that insane intense colour outdoor.

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U. dichotoma [L] and U. monanthos [R] before their true flowering that year.

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Kind regards,

Chris

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Very effective set-up, your plants look great, as proven by their excellent flowers. I am curious as to why you said that U. dichotoma doesn't grow well submerged? My plants have been growing submerged for about a year and a half, and are currently flowering strongly.

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Very effective set-up, your plants look great, as proven by their excellent flowers. I am curious as to why you said that U. dichotoma doesn't grow well submerged? My plants have been growing submerged for about a year and a half, and are currently flowering strongly.

Hmmm... that gave me a load to think. Maybe there was some other factor that caused weaker growth and no flowers this year, which I simply missed due to my absence. It might be that I just blamed the fact it was submerged this year and last year rather not. That gives me lack of cold dormancy during the winter to blame next. Or maybe still there is something I do not notice. Several pieces of it were given to D. binata and Cephalotus pots, which are currently in my basement. Bot have cold temperatures and much light. The difference is that in Cephalotus pot it is definitely not submerged and in D. binata pot it is in most of time. I will see than if I was too hasty to make a judgement.

Thank Ciaran, that is what such conversations are for. :)

For me at least half of the pleasure in growing CPs and other plants is the contact with others with similar interests. I hope that my method will work for all those who would like to try it with same or better effect than I had. :)

Ciaran, I wouldn't like to elongate the off topic I than made myself, but I would love to see any photo of your flowering U. dichotoma if you have any.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Chris, I'll create a thread in the near future with my U. dichotoma. The first group of flowers are starting to look a little poor now but new stalks are rising so I'll take some photos wen they're flowering.

The difference may also be down to location or simply climatic difference. I am growing it within it's natural range so it may be more tolerant of a wider range of conditions for me.

Edited by -Xeno-
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  • 2 weeks later...

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