Post by kusanivy on Apr 28, 2009 1:25:41 GMT
Hi,
I'm new to the forums and still quite the newbie at growing CPs. I live in southern Canada near Toronto.
I was given three VFTs as a surprise housewarming present last year in November. I'm assuming they were store bought and are of no particular, or special cultivar.
I became a serious student of Barry's FAQ and so made sure to give them light, light, and more light, (using a pair of banker lamps and the highest wattage "daylight" bulbs that would fit) as well as pure distilled water. Because I wasn't sure what time of year the plants thought they were in I didn't give them a winter dormancy. I figured I was doing quite well - I was soon getting lots of nice red traps at a regular rate and "the Colony" seemed quite happy in their fishbowl home.
I made it all through spring and summer, and when fall came around I started decreasing the amount of light they were getting and tried putting them in a slightly cooler (but not outright cold) area of the house, in the hopes of inducing dormancy. One VFT lost it's traps very quickly and died right back - actually I thought I'd killed it. But a month later I noticed a tiny trap starting to sprout from the hole in the pot. However when that trap turned brown and died back before opening and this time the moss grew over the hole I figured "He's dead Jim."
The other two VFTs seemed to definitely go through a winter phase with low, ground hugging traps but I don't know if I was able to get them cold enough for a proper dormancy (the best I could do was put them near an open window. Now they've "woken up" and are starting to put out longer, taller traps.
I think that one of the two surviving VFTs is in fact three different plants all growing in the same pot - I can discern at least three distinct places where new traps are emerging from the soil. And it's getting pretty darn crowded in there - one of these plants is very, very, small and is getting crushed by the larger traps of its immediate neighbour. The traps of all three plants are so close together that they are literally growing into each other - a new trap will end up opening inside an older trap and triggering it.
And after that long-winded history here's my question. Since I have a, now empty, pot full of moss might it be a good idea to attempt to repot one of the smaller, crowded VFTs? Or, perhaps move the larger of the three to the empty pot and leave the two smaller plants to share their current pot?
Or should I just leave them all together and not mess with a good thing? Especially since I don't know 100% what killed the empty pot's original inhabitant. I don't think it was disease, I think it was botched dormancy, but I don't know for sure.
One of the plants in this crowded pot has attempted to flower twice now since the beginning of April - I've cut the stalk both times (or at least I'm planning to on the second one, once it fully breaks the soil), and took this to be a positive sign that it's a fairly happy plant.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'm new to the forums and still quite the newbie at growing CPs. I live in southern Canada near Toronto.
I was given three VFTs as a surprise housewarming present last year in November. I'm assuming they were store bought and are of no particular, or special cultivar.
I became a serious student of Barry's FAQ and so made sure to give them light, light, and more light, (using a pair of banker lamps and the highest wattage "daylight" bulbs that would fit) as well as pure distilled water. Because I wasn't sure what time of year the plants thought they were in I didn't give them a winter dormancy. I figured I was doing quite well - I was soon getting lots of nice red traps at a regular rate and "the Colony" seemed quite happy in their fishbowl home.
I made it all through spring and summer, and when fall came around I started decreasing the amount of light they were getting and tried putting them in a slightly cooler (but not outright cold) area of the house, in the hopes of inducing dormancy. One VFT lost it's traps very quickly and died right back - actually I thought I'd killed it. But a month later I noticed a tiny trap starting to sprout from the hole in the pot. However when that trap turned brown and died back before opening and this time the moss grew over the hole I figured "He's dead Jim."
The other two VFTs seemed to definitely go through a winter phase with low, ground hugging traps but I don't know if I was able to get them cold enough for a proper dormancy (the best I could do was put them near an open window. Now they've "woken up" and are starting to put out longer, taller traps.
I think that one of the two surviving VFTs is in fact three different plants all growing in the same pot - I can discern at least three distinct places where new traps are emerging from the soil. And it's getting pretty darn crowded in there - one of these plants is very, very, small and is getting crushed by the larger traps of its immediate neighbour. The traps of all three plants are so close together that they are literally growing into each other - a new trap will end up opening inside an older trap and triggering it.
And after that long-winded history here's my question. Since I have a, now empty, pot full of moss might it be a good idea to attempt to repot one of the smaller, crowded VFTs? Or, perhaps move the larger of the three to the empty pot and leave the two smaller plants to share their current pot?
Or should I just leave them all together and not mess with a good thing? Especially since I don't know 100% what killed the empty pot's original inhabitant. I don't think it was disease, I think it was botched dormancy, but I don't know for sure.
One of the plants in this crowded pot has attempted to flower twice now since the beginning of April - I've cut the stalk both times (or at least I'm planning to on the second one, once it fully breaks the soil), and took this to be a positive sign that it's a fairly happy plant.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.