Growth pulses?

[BarryRice]

Hey Folks,

I've noticed that some Dionaea in my collection frequently grow in cycles that take a few years to complete. For example, last year my 'Justina Davis' and 'Dentate Traps' plants looked huge and spectacular, with some of the largest traps in my collection. This year, they're barely limping along.

Compare this with Sarracenia, which typically just enlarge year after year, monotonically.

Anyone else see this, or is this an indication of something in my cultivation methods that I should improve?

Barry

[Brian Barnes]

Hey Barry!
Ditto. All of my Dionaea are suffering immensely outdoors, which I'm contributing a small part to heat/temperatures reaching above 90F, combined with the ending phases of their tissue culture vigor. The only ones that still look great are my 'B-52's' which are in live sphagnum...
Although I do believe that you grow yours indoors during the hottest part of the year. Is this correct? I'm considering buying some styrofoam pots to plant them into. Right now, most of mine are in the greenhouse under 50% shadecloth and are still barely chugging along...
But....I am leaning more and more towards the theorization that maybe they are just reaching the end of their "tissue culture vigor" that sometimes takes a year or two to exhaust completely, which is always followed by slower growth patterns until normality returns once again, at least in my experience.

Whatcha think?

Happy Growing,
Brian.

[BarryRice]

Hmm. The plants I'm talking about have the same treatment, year after year. They spend a gentle winter outside, and then all growing season under lights.

I'm not talking about ALL my plants in the same cycle. This year some other plants are looking great, while last year they weren't much to speak of.

Weird.

[ICPS-bob]

I have a number of plants growing in the same soil (100% Canadian sphagnum peat) for several years. I notice that as the peat begins to break down into a black mush, the VFTs look progressively poorly.

For most of my several hundred potted VFTs, however, I routinely separate the rhizomes and repot in fresh new peat every spring when the plants are just coming out of dormancy. That is, when the plants are just initiating new root growth. In my area, this is usually in late February or early March. For these newly separated and repotted plants, I have not noticed any grow patterns that vary year by year. Of course, the largest rhizomes of the divisions produce the largest plants and the tiny rhizomes produce much smaller plants.

I have experimented with leaving VFTs in the same media without dividing for six years, and, because of peat breakdown and invasive earthworm activity, the plants do not do very well.

I have never tried gently repotting a plant in the same large pot with fresh peat without disturbing (dividing) the plant to see if the large clump with multiple crowns is as robust as a single plant. I have often wondered how large a clump can develop for an undisturbed VFT growing in a wild natural setting. All of the photos that I have seen of wild VFTs in North Carolina do not show them growing in large clumps.

[BarryRice]

As always from you, Bob, an interesting post.

The vast majority of Dionaea I have seen in North Carolina (or South Carolina for that matter; or even non-native populations in California or Florida) are single rosette plants. Interesting.

The only major exception was at one moist pond-side location where the plants were all over each other.

[Brian Barnes]

Hmmmm....
'Tis interesting indeed! Ahhh....the Great Mystery, which is the Venus fly-trap! ;D
Brian.

[brokken]

Hi Barry,

I can also attest to this year being bad for my Dionaeas. They are only *JUST* starting to come out of it, but certainly they won't attain the vigor and growth of last year. I'm also in California. I wonder if it was something related to weather.

[stevestewart]

Just to confuse matters, I have a Dionaea 'Jaws' leaf cutting, that is half again as large as the parent plant I took it from late last summer. The parent plant was replanted this spring at the same time as the cutting into the same media - fresh LFS, and is just starting to grow well.

Low light levels in the summer for my plants is causing unique problems most growers (hopefully) don't have to deal with. I grow in a south facing window which the sun is too far north to shine directly into, in summer months.

Take care,
Steve

[kby]

I can't give a good multi-year analysis, but as at least an anecdotal point, I ordered a couple of B52s from David Conner last year. One looked so-so, one really nice. Both were fairly large. They have been outdoors side-by-side since then (roughly autumn). This spring, they both bloomed but I decided to cut back the flower stalk on the one that looked the best last year whereas I let the "so-so" one bloom. Now the one that bloomed and looked worse last year is just starting to go to summer/fall leaves and looks great (recently increased humidity with an open terrarium which seems to make the trap speed more normal). The one that looked great last year looks miserable...go figure...but it did divide more.-kby

[Alexis]

How recently were they repotted Barry?

[BarryRice]

Jul 25, 2008 17:39:45 GMT Alexis said:

How recently were they repotted Barry?

I usually repot all my VFTs at the same time, in a massive orgy of peat and muck. I'm guessing I repotted all my VFTs most recently about three years ago. Of course, I've gotten a few other clones since then, so those are of more recent vintage.

B

[Alexis]

Maybe that could be a clue? I know some people swear by repotting every single spring. I tend to do mine every other year.