The carnivorous plant thread.

[ThunderWeasel]

WOO HOO!!! I haz NEW PLANTS on the way! I got one of the Cephalotus as pictured above, plus a Drosera aliciae sundew and a fancy-schmancy hybrid Nepenthes pitcher plant. I also ordered a new high-output T5 light fixture for the main tank.

WEASEL SHALL BE THE OVERLORD OF THE FLESH-EATING FLORA!!! or something like that...

 

[ThunderWeasel]

... aaaaaaaand the light fixture, contrary to what the site said, was OUT OF STOCK. Order cancelled. Had to RE-order the thing directly from Amazon, for about $40 more. :angry4:

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I should have done this long ago. I joined the International Carnivorous Plant Society. http://www.carnivorousplants.org/

Quarterly newsletter, a seed bank where members can buy seeds of various species of carnivorous plant (as well as possibly send in extra seeds your plants produce for credit toward buying seeds), a forum for growers, all sorts of awesomeness.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

2 of the new plants have arrived, along with the new light fixture. Plants have been set into the terrarium, light unit is assembled and plugged into the timer for activation in the morning. Photos when I get more batteries for my camera.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

OH MY GOD! This high-output T5 light is INSANE! I woke up not long after it switched on this morning, thinking "Who the hell put the SUN in here?" The plants are not gonna lack for light now. It seems I can also buy more of these fixtures and link them together. I might think about adding 1 more, assuming I can take the photonic onslaught!

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I swear, I'm gonna have the title of this thread changed to "Misadventures in Carnivorous Plant Growing with the Weasel."

The book says to raise plant pots in terrariums by putting them on pedestals so they're closer to the lights.

The book was written BEFORE the advent of high-output T5 lights.

I came home to BLEACHED flytrap leaves.

 

[Shaun__]

I swear, I'm gonna have the title of this thread changed to "Misadventures in Carnivorous Plant Growing with the Weasel."

The book says to raise plant pots in terrariums by putting them on pedestals so they're closer to the lights.

The book was written BEFORE the advent of high-output T5 lights.

I came home to BLEACHED flytrap leaves.

Are they still alive?

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I swear, I'm gonna have the title of this thread changed to "Misadventures in Carnivorous Plant Growing with the Weasel."

The book says to raise plant pots in terrariums by putting them on pedestals so they're closer to the lights.

The book was written BEFORE the advent of high-output T5 lights.

I came home to BLEACHED flytrap leaves.

Are they still alive?

So far. I think the damage was confined to a few leaves. Still, these plants were ALREADY stressed due to getting chewed on by the damned grasshoppers. Who knows what this will do to them?

 

[ThunderWeasel]

So, here are photos of the new plants, and the unhappy state of a couple of the old ones.

What's left of the threadleaf sundew. That is to say, NOTHING. Those green bits are moss.

That slowly blackening leaf is all that remains of my hybrid flytrap. I think it's done for.

NEW PLANT #1 - an Alice sundew, Drosera aliciae Those little things that look like tiny blades of grass are the photosynthesis stolons of a bladderwort, an underground carnivorous plant.

NEW PLANT #2 - Australian pitcher plant, Cephalotus follicularis. The whole plant is barely an inch across, it's still just a baby.

NEW PLANT #3 - Asian pitcher plant hybrid, Nepenthes ventricosa x ( spectabilis x aristolochioides )

 

[ThunderWeasel]

And now I have some new Drosera burmannii sundew seeds to plant!

 

[ThunderWeasel]

My Alice sundew was still a bit stressed from being shoved in a dark box & mailed halfway across the country. That was why the plant didn't have the characteristic drops of sticky "dew" in the photo. It's now bouncing back and making glue again. A tiny gnat made the mistake of getting into my terrarium and landing on one of the recovered leaves. This was the result. Said bug is now the black lump on the leaf toward the bottom right.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Threadleaf sundew is gone, same for the hybrid flytrap & Cape sundew. I took their pots out of the terrariums yesterday. One of the standard flytraps is looking shaky, and the Sarracenia alata is looking almost dead as well.

On a better note, the last batch of Drosera burmannii sundew seeds arrived and were planted yesterday. The Sarracenia purpurea pitcher plants are putting out new leaves, the Sarracenia flava pitcher plant is hanging in there & the new plants are settling in nicely. The Fang cuttings are still doing something, I think. I know one still has bright green leaves, so I feel confident that one will root & bud into a new plant.

I'm considering adding a Pinguicula esseriana butterwort to the terrarium. They're cool looking little plants about an inch across, with amazing lavender flowers. Wiki photo here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...mediaviewer/File:PinguiculaEsserianaClose.JPG

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I just finished linking a second "OMG IT'S THE SUN!!!" T5 light onto the first one, going from 2 tubes to 4. The plants should like it. We'll see how *I* like having THAT fire up at around 6:30 AM. :shock:

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Oh man... the most promising-looking of the Fang cuttings is starting to turn black. I hope I don't lose Fang, that's my favorite plant!

 

[ThunderWeasel]

So, here's how things stand as of today:

Sundew is looking shaky. That 'recovery' seems to have been a false alarm, as you can see from the lack of dew and blackened tips of the new growth at the center of the plant. Still hoping this is just adjustment shock & it'll come back.

One flytrap looks like it's done for, the other is sending up a lot of small new growth. Crossing fingers.

I'm not too happy with the way my Yellow Trumpet pitcher plant is doing. Maybe it's just trying to shake off the stress still

My Dixie Lace pitcher plant is also looking a bit slow on the comeback. You can see a bright red new leaf coming in, though.

In happier news, my Nepenthes is sending out a new pitcher (top left), and I can see yet another new leaf forming deep in the center of the plant.

My Cephalotus is REALLY doing well! All those fuzzy bumps you see coming out of the center of the plant are new pitchers forming.

Last but not least, my 2 Purple Pitcher plants are REALLY loving life! Look at that new growth coming in!

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I'm scratching my head. That Alice sundew is blackened even worse now. HOWEVER, comparing the photos I posted here in the thread confirms what I was thinking. The bladderwort plant in the pot AND the moss are both growing incredibly well. (And moss is REALLY picky about the growing environment.)

Maybe I just got a sundew that, for whatever reason, decided it was done. I'm not counting it out yet, as there's a chance that even if the main plant dies, surviving roots may send up new plants.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Sundew is fading more & more. As you can see, the moss and bladderwort plant are both growing like mad. I'm at a loss.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

So, it has come to this. I decided on an all-or-nothing effort for the sundew. That patch of browned moss is where the plant USED to be. I removed everything above-ground, including a small bit of the plant's central stem. That should prompt any living roots to create new plants. If nothing happens, so be it. The visible parts of the plant were too far gone, there was no saving that.

IN HAPPIER NEWS...

My Nepenthes is rocking HARD. You can see a new pitcher forming on the left, and the new leaf I mentioned in a previous post is now visible in the center.

Also, this shot of my Cephalotus shows a new pitcher puffing up down in the bottom left, and a whole bunch of fuzzy new ones coming up out of the center of the plant. A couple of the old pitchers are dying and turning brown, but that's normal life cycle stuff.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Look at what I just bought! THE WEASEL IS NOT ADMITTING DEFEAT!

I figure since I'll have this one inside, protected from GRASSHOPPERS, it should do well.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

I just read the 'care sheet' that came with that flytrap. It's actually a "How-to-kill-this-plant-slowly" sheet!

 

[ThunderWeasel]

The 2 uppermost traps on that flytrap are now closed tightly. I tossed a couple of houseflies into the terrarium yesterday. The flytrap handled the rest.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Not being the sort to leave well enough alone...

The 2 light fixtures I use each came with 1 6000K white light lamp & 1 650 nm roseate lamp.

I just ordered 2 10000K white light bulbs to replace the 6000K bulbs. MORE LIGHT FOR THE PLANTS!

(WTF am I doing... it's REALLY gonna look like the sun in here now... ) :shock:

 

[ThunderWeasel]

DAMMIT, JIM, I'M A WEASEL, NOT A SPECTRAL ANALYZER!!!

Turns out I'm gonna have to return those new bulbs as soon as they get here. Further research shows that they put out a TON of light... very little of which is actually in the spectrum needed by the plants.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Of the plants in this photo, only the 2 on the right in the front row have survived. At least now I know the mistake I made that killed them. I didn't rinse the sphagnum moss that I used for a soil top dressing. Excessive mineral content rotted their roots.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

"BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!"

Removed the dead plants from the terrarium. The 'Dixie Lace' and Yellow Trumpet pitcher plants are almost gone. I just performed a serious flushing of their pots with a LOT of purified water & transferred them to the hospital tank. I think it's a futile gesture, but it's worth a shot.

No activity on the Fang front either. ONE of the stem cuttings is still barely green, so I'm not TOTALLY giving up yet.

This is the current State of the Terrarium. The 2 green pots in bottom right and one just out of frame on bottom left contain the sundew seeds that I'm still awaiting germination on.

This one Purple Pitcher plant is REALLY stealing the show. So much color & new growth.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Now that I have empty space in the terrarium, my brain is all a-quandary about what new plants to add.

Cape sundew?

Pygmy sundew?

Butterwort?

Bladderwort?

Another Nepenthes?

 

[Ambers Troll]

Something to try on your sick plants is smokewater.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

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.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Made another change. Got these clear plastic storage trays to use as platforms to raise the plants closer to the grow lights. A lot more stable than the overturned plastic cups I was using before. The Nepenthes wasn't put up higher because they like slightly less intense light than the other plants.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

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