Posted by: Matt
on Feb 01, 2010
I've been using Maxsea 16*16*16 at a concentration of 1.5 teaspoons/gallon on my Heliamphora nutans and Heliamphora minor for about 6 weeks now. I've been drenching the soil thoroughly every 2 weeks and then thoroughly drenching with distilled water about every 4 to 5 days. They seem to be responding very well to the fertilizer. The H. nutans is doing much better most likely because it's been established a month longer than the H. minor which is still likely getting over shipping and transplanting shock.
I've had the H. nutans since November 13th and the H. minor only since December 20th. The growth on the H. minor isn't as obvious, though it's there, so I'm only showing some photos of the H. nutans.
Here are some before shots of the Heliamphora nutans taken on December 14th.
Posted by: Matt
on Jan 16, 2010
Until recently I'd never even heard of the Venus fly trap clone "A2" developed by Henning von Schmeling. I was exchanging some emails with David Conner and he mentioned it in passing. I was immediately interested and went on the look for a trade. I was able to secure myself a clone from the very generous Jeremiah Harris of the Colorado Carnivorous Plant Society.
I received the clone in the mail today, January 16th, 2010 and immediately potted it up. It's a rather healthy looking dormant plant with good coloration. I'm excited to see what it looks like during the growing season.
Here are a couple of photos of what it looked like after I potted it up.
Posted by: Matt
on Dec 23, 2009
I've been interested in Heliamphora for a while now. The fact that they're somewhat hard to find in the US along with the fact that they're very expensive when you do find them has prevented me from buying any until now.
I finally splurged and got myself a nice one for Christmas. I actually got quite a few other seedlings as well just a week ago, including two Heliamphora pulchella, one Heliamphora minor, one Heliamphora heterodoxa and one Heliamphora nutans. I got the Heliamphora nutans in November from Cook's Carnivores.
But this is the first adult Heliamphora that I've ever seen and I think it's absolutely gorgeous! I hope that you enjoy the photos.
Posted by: Matt
on Oct 23, 2009
I have no idea what species of Drosera this is, but I'm growing quite fond of it:
Posted by: Matt
on Aug 23, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
I started a lot of cultures from flower stalks I was able to harvest in early to mid June. I was fortunate enough to get many of them to take and I now have quite a few different varieties going in cultures.
I posted an initial thread on the Red Piranha here:
Red Piranha and Cupped Trap cultuers
I posted an update of these cultures in the forum just about two weeks ago:
Various Venus flytrap tissue cultures
but their growth since then is already fairly noticeable.
I just wanted to post an update of these cultures to give people an idea of how fast they can grow.
Posted by: Matt
on Aug 23, 2009
I put seed that I acquired from Steve Doonan of flytrapranch.com in vitro on March 9th. I had written a couple of blog entries updating their growth:
Dionaea Seedlings in vitro
Dionaea Seedlings in vitro - Update #1
Well, two weeks and two days ago on August 6th, I took some of them out of their safe little jars and brought them into the world. You can see a thread I started with photos here:
Dionaea seedlings forum post
I thought that I would provide a little update on their status now that they've been ex vitro for two weeks. They're doing great! They look a little dried out, but I'm guessing that this is normal for plants coming out of 100% humidity into 40% humidity. I kept them wrapped under plastic wrap for 2 weeks to artificially raise the ambient humidity for them and the last two days they've been on their own with whatever humidity level is in the house, which is around 40% right now.
Posted by: Matt
on Aug 22, 2009
I've always wanted to see carnivorous plants in the wild. When I was younger, my parents would buy me books about carnivorous plants and I'd read them with wild enthusiasm dreaming about going to the Carolinas and the Green Swamp to see them growing in the wild.
Unfortunately I haven't yet gotten to see Sarracenia (picther plants), Drosera (sundew) or Dionaea (Venus flytraps) growing in the wild, but I definitely still want to.
I just recently relocated from Boulder, Colorado to Ashland, Oregon. I knew that Darlingtonia californica, the Cobra plant, grew in the wild in southern Oregon and norther California, but for some reason, I never thought that I'd be able to see one.
Posted by: Matt
on Aug 20, 2009
So Leah and I finally made the move to Ashland, Oregon. Since getting settled in, I've got my new greenhouse set up! I'm very excited about that. It gives me plenty of room to expand my collection.
Unfortunately I kept most of my collection inside under fluorescent lights this spring in order to try to keep them cleaner so I could gather tissue for tissue culture. When we arrived here in Ashland, I planned to just put them out in the greenhouse and let them acclimate. I had no idea that the temperatures would be over 100°F the week we got here. Between the heat and the intense sun that they weren't used to, most of them burned to a crisp!
The plants in these photos were either outside when we were living in Boulder, have recovered or, for one reason or another, weren't affected as badly by making the move from fluorescent lights to direct sunlight.
Posted by: Matt
on Jun 14, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
I started a flower stalk in a culture way back in November. It was teeny tiny then, but it grew a lot in cultures and I replated it quite a few times until finally I decided to cut it up into pieces. Shortly after cutting it, I began to see callus forming on a couple of pieces. I wrote about this in an earlier blog entry.
Well, for those of you following, I thought I'd provide some updated photos. For reference, I'll include the older photos and show the progression.
May 19th
Posted by: Matt
on Jun 13, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
It's been a month since I last posted an update of the seedlings that I started in vitro on March 9th. They're only 3 months old now, but they're getting quite large. Here are some photos for your viewing enjoyment:
