FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I've had my seedlings under 24 hour lighting from the beginning. I think they are a couple weeks old and growing great. I've noticed that a lot, more than half that have traps, are red. One of them is leaning towards purple. They've been under a 1ft single bulb T5, 10000k and a 70w high pressure sodium. I recently put my sarr in the terrarium with the seedlings and it really started growing and started to purple up. I think i'm going to keep them growing under 24 hour lighting and see what happens. If they die...so be it. I'll start more.

Any thoughts on this? Could the constant light be causing the color in my seedlings? Maybe the quality of light from the HPS? I'll post some pics a lil later so you can see what I mean.

Dionae wrote:Any thoughts on this?

I've heard conflicting information about putting plants under lights on a 24 hour photoperiod. So I look forward to hearing your results.

In one report I read, the grower said that he had Sarracenia seedlings under lights on a 24 hour photoperiod for 2 years solid and they were large with well-developed rhizomes at the end of the 2 years. I've not read any reports on Dionaea seedlings, so I'd like to encourage you to leave the flytrap seedlings under the lights until they start looking sickly or they're large enough that you're happy moving them to a natural photoperiod.

Dionae wrote:Could the constant light be causing the color in my seedlings?

It absolutely could. Lighting definitely plays some role in the coloration of flytrap leaves.

I look forward to hearing more as your experiment progresses. Please keep us updated.

Thanks for your input Matt. I took pics but my cam ran out of batteries. Lemme charge them for an hour or 2 and i'll post the pics. I'll keep everyone updated regularly.

After giving them a good looking over it seems almost all of them have a lil color. Some seem orange tinted, some red and one that looks dark red/purple. I'll update every other day to show progress .

I'm amazed at this. Has anyone ever had this many colorful typical seedlings? Every single seedling is a shade of red, orange or purple. See no signs of the 24 hour lighting hurting the seedlings. I have 31 seedlings so far but there are new ones popping up daily and I just planted 35 more . I transplanted 2 of the bigger ones to their own pot. Easier than I thought it would be.

Thank you FTC for the help. Matts VFT care tutorial really helped me out.

Beautiful little baby Flytraps! Growing from seed is very satisfying because although it takes 2-3 years (usually) for the seeds to reach maturity, it is so interesting watching them develop from such a tiny sprout, and the color and form variation is unique in each one, and growing from seed is the only way to get truly unique plants (since most Venus Flytraps are clones of particular individual plants).

One of the plants I currently like the best from cross-pollinations and seeds that Matt and I have produced is one that looks like a cross between Red Piranha and Low Giant. It has generally red traps inside and outside, rosy splashes on the leaves and leaf margins, and large traps and teeth very much like Jaws. It's a beautiful plant. Any seedling can mature into a special, unique and beautiful or interesting plant.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

Thanks for stopping by Steve! Thats why i'd rather start everything from seed. I'm very patient and I love seeing the different phenotypes a lot of plant varieties express. I'd love some Ceph and Nep seed just for this reason.

I also just ordered a TC kit. I'm hoping this will help me grow from seed and not have to wait forever for mature plants. Any thoughts on this?

Your seedlings look great Dionae!

Dionae wrote:I also just ordered a TC kit. I'm hoping this will help me grow from seed and not have to wait forever for mature plants. Any thoughts on this?

Growing flytraps from seed can DRAMATICALLY be sped up when doing it in TC. What normally takes 10 years can be reduced to a year or so through TC. From one seed, you can produce literally thousand of plants. The only problem is that you'll have so many that it will take a lot of time to look through them all and find the ones that you think you want to propagate. And then you never really know what you're going to have once you plant them out because they look much different in the soil than they do when in jars.

Thanks Matt! Sounds like TCing is the way i'm headed then. I'm a house father so I have plenty of time on my hands and always have some new project going on. Gets on my better halfs' nerves too. Going to buy a 6x8 greenhouse this spring so i'll need something to fill it up with.

Might need a few tips from you on TCing cephs. I remember you telling me you were doing those. All i'm interested in growing is VFT, Cephs and S.Purpurea mostly. Might grab a few more neps because my children love the new one. Thanks for stopping by!

Btw, does stronger light make VFTs grow faster? I see most people grow under fluoros(i'm assuming cus of the ease of controlling temps) but i'm really considering putting my VFT seedlings under a 400w HID when I get them all into separate pots. If I can control temp would this up their growth rate? 'm guessing it would but there must be a reason most people use fluoros.

Dionae wrote:Btw, does stronger light make VFTs grow faster?

I would think so, but I've really only grown them under one type of light, so I can't say for sure.

Dionae wrote:If I can control temp would this up their growth rate?

Temperature certainly plays a role in how quickly the plants will grow. If you can keep it up near 80°F, the plants will grow faster.

Put a couple in their own pots. Used the wet toothpick method. I was surprised to see that one of them had a really long root for such a lil plant. It was at least double as long as the plant. I've been letting the pots get fairly dry and the babies seem to be growing great. Starting to have teeth all over the place now .

Nearly all the seed I started In August have some red coloration on them, some a lot more than others. My camera isn't good at macros, but I'll try to take some shots.

I love watching them develope. I wish I had some as dark as that purple one!

The 20 plantlets I have are in a four inch pot that I keep in standing water in a south facing window. It gets down to about 50 degrees in that window at night, so I think they are slowing down... I wouldn't quite say dormant yet.

You say you let your seedlings dry out some? I've been scared to do it, but I'm also worried about root rot or damp off. What is your watering regimine?

I just spray them with water whenever they look too dry. Maybe a couple times a day. sometimes more, sometimes less. I'm worried about damping off too thats why I let them get a lil on the dry side before spraying them.

Good to hear. I'm off for two weeks starting tomorrow. I'll try to be more judicious with the watering while I can keep a closer eye on them.

Thanks again!

Keep in mind that I keep mine under a 70w HPS too so it prob gets a lil warmer than fluoros. My medium prob dries out a lot faster than yours...if you're growing under fluoros.