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Post by dumbguywithquestions on Sept 26, 2018 16:22:54 GMT
Me and my friends need to do a research on something scientific for school. So we wanted to do something with the venus flyingtrap and we found on this website a lot of information but we have still some questions. Our main question is: is it possible te let a venus flytrap live without giving it insects to eat. We have 3 plants. 1. This is our safe plant: we do nothing special and try to let it have a normal life. 2. This plant we wil not let it eat insects but we give extra nitrogen to equalise the nutrition. 3. To this plant we wil do almost nothing except watering. No insects and no extra nitrogen.
Our question to you guy's: What do you think about the experiment? What will happen? How much nitrogen should we add to the second plant? Anything we should look out for?
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Post by hcarlton on Sept 27, 2018 3:56:37 GMT
Most of these questions have been answered on several sites, the one I recommend foremost is the Carnivorous Plant FAQ (http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html). One thing I feel should be mentioned here however is: do NOT apply any sort of supplemental nutrient to the peat the plants are growing in, as it can damage or kill them depending on the concentration.
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Post by hcarlton on Sept 27, 2018 3:58:16 GMT
Additionally, unless this is an experiment that you have time to record over a period of at least several months, if not years, you may not see any appreciable difference in these plants. Dionaea are slow growers, slow to recover from changes in conditions and not great for short experiments.
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Post by dumbguywithquestions on Sept 27, 2018 5:45:50 GMT
We are planning to do the experiment for about half a year. I don't really know what you meant with "do NOT apply any sort of supplemental nutrient to the peat the plants are growing in" do you mean we can't put nitrogen in the soil the plant is growing in? If that is so, how should we add the nutritions?
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Post by lucien on Sept 27, 2018 7:21:55 GMT
Do not put anything in the peat, fertilizer or nitrogen.
This is essential for the survival of the plant.
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Post by hcarlton on Sept 28, 2018 2:23:08 GMT
We are planning to do the experiment for about half a year. I don't really know what you meant with "do NOT apply any sort of supplemental nutrient to the peat the plants are growing in" do you mean we can't put nitrogen in the soil the plant is growing in? If that is so, how should we add the nutritions? Carnivorous plants are designed to absorb nutrients through the digestive glands of their leaves, and require more than just nitrogen to grow well (exactly what they need varies by genus and species, and I don't remember offhand what Dionaea absorb from their prey). As Dionaea also require some stimulation of the trap to absorb nutrients, most people feed them with live or dead insects to trigger the traps, or apply dilute fertilizers (orchid, bromeliad, or Maxsea) to things like pieces of sponge or paper towel. If anything is applied to the soil, this promotes algal growth and can burn the roots of the plant, thus damaging or killing it. |
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