Darlingtonia seedling dormancy

[sbowe23]

Hi everyone,

I received this 2" pot of about 15 Darlingtonia seedlings a couple of months ago. They've been growing very well (albeit slowly, of course) under fluorescent lights. I currently have a 16hr day cycle, which will be lowered to 12hrs over the next couple of months. With autumn approaching, I'm not quite sure how to handle their dormancy. These are the options I've considered, but I would appreciate any advice as to what the best option would be:

- I live in NYC and have an outdoor patio which gets morning sun, where I'm planning to enclose my VFT, temperate sundews and Sarracenia into a mulch-filled plastic box, wrapped in a heavy plastic bag. I considered putting the Darlingtonia in there, but worry about lack of sunlight. Outside of the box I worry about too-cold temperatures, as I don't know the source/elevation of the parent plants.

- I have very sunny, south-facing windows, but they each have a radiator under them.

- I have a shady north-facing window with no radiator, but also very little light.

- Just keep them under the lights with normal room temps.

Thank you in advance for your help.
Steve

[Aidan]

Sept 10, 2011 17:03:07 GMT sbowe23 said:

I live in NYC and have an outdoor patio which gets morning sun, where I'm planning to enclose my VFT, temperate sundews and Sarracenia into a mulch-filled plastic box, wrapped in a heavy plastic bag.

Darlingtonia is more likely to survive a New York winter outside than any of the above mentioned plants.

[ICPS-bob]

Looking at NYC climate in Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City
The average low temps look OK for Darlingtonia, but I expect that potted plants exposed to the record lows of -15°F might not survive. The mountain Darlingtonia generally spend the winter under lots of snow and the low elevation types seldom experience temperatures much below freezing. Under natural conditions, I would guess that soil temperatures in Darlingtonia areas rarely get below freezing.

As an aside, I used to live at 7000 feet elevation on Donner Pass in the California Sierra. Everyone had their water pipes laying on the ground surface (because there was very little soil in which to bury the pipes). Only rarely did the water pipes freeze, because they were buried under deep snow. The pipes only froze when the ground was bare.

[sbowe23]

That you both for your responses. So are you suggesting that I just keep it outside with no additional protection?

I realize that it's possible they can survive a typical NY winter, but as they'll be on my patio (which is on the second floor - elevated), the patio is covered (no snow will protect them), and they're in a tiny pot, I was concerned it'd be too cold for them, since they will not have the protection that being in the ground would provide. That's why I was considering putting them in the box I mentioned previously. Thoughts?

Thanks again.

[fredg]

If you're really worried about the pot freezing, try plunging the pot in a bucket of sand on the balcony and covering with fleece during darkness.

[wwoehrle]

I have all mine Darlingtonias outside in Germany (Black Forest). There was no problem about freezing for my seedlings. We had temperatures around -15 degree Celsius. But note, the plants should be adapted to this conditions.