FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey, everyone. I'm new to these forums, but already it's been a huge boon to the health of my plant. I was recently (by recently, I mean yesterday) told that my plant was actually multiple plants in one pot, so I pulled it out of the pot and divided it into four smaller plants. I planted them in regular foam cups with half organic non-enriched peat moss and half non-enriched perlite (Pike's did not have silica sand). In each cup, there are six holes on the bottom (poked with a chopstick, so I'd say each hole is approximately a centimeter long). All of the cups are placed in a plastic tray about 1.5-2 inches tall filled with VFT appropriate water. The plant was quartered and replanted this morning around 7:30 am, and none of them appear to be dying. However, they do seem feeble. Their leaves are laying low and limp against the ground, and I'm wondering if that is a normal and temporary reaction to repotting or if this is something more serious (or perhaps it is too soon to make any conclusions about how these plants will handle division). I'm not freaking out or anything, but this is my first venus fly trap. I'm concerned for its well being, and any input on how I can improve its situation or how the plants look so far would be MUCH appreciated. I will post some pictures, but I apologize - the pictures were taken at night.

Additional information for plant background:
-I'm in Woodstock, GA USA
-These are Typical VFTs
-They've been growing steadily prior to the division
-Few if any leaves have died since I got it (around sept 24th of this year) - all leaves that died were old growth from when it was at the store, though many of the original leaves DID live
-I purchased the original plant from Home Depot
-The plants are being grown outside and gets full sun from sunrise to around 1pm (after that, it gets partial sun because of the porch cover)

If I forgot any useful information, let me know.

Again, thank you so much for any help, advice or comments. -Lock

If they're still in full sun, that's probably why they're wilted. All plants will experience transplant shock anytime they are moved from one container to another. And if they're being broken apart and separated, there's even more shock to the roots than when you're simply bumping it up to a larger pot. They need to be kept in a shaded area or indoors until they recover and then be gradually reintroduced to full sunlight. Oh, and by the way, this could possibly be the worst possible time of year to transplant them. In the northern hemisphere, due to the shortening length of daylight hours, flytraps will be wanting to go dormant for a few months starting in November, so spring is always the best time to transplant them, when they're waking up from dormancy and starting to grow again. Your plants don't look too bad though and should make it okay if you give them lots of TLC. The soil looks a little dry to me though, so they might benefit from being watered from the top. By the way, did you moisten the soil thoroughly before transplanting them? The ones in the last three pictures look to me like they might be a little too deep in the soil. You want the rhizome just barely buried with the growing crown exposed in the middle. I got some of mine planted too deep this past summer, but they continued growing anyway. That's probably not as bad as having it planted too shallowly with the rhizome exposed.

Good luck!

Thanks for letting me know about the sunlight requirements of freshly divided plants. I would have kept them in full sun as long as I could thinking that I was speeding up their development! About the soil, though - I don't know why the soil looks dry in the pictures, but I have been keeping it moist with a spray bottle. Before I potted them in the cups, I poured some water directly into the cups as well, though I don't know how well the water distributed through the soil on its way to the bottom. I will go and see about checking/changing the depth of those plants you mentioned. I had planted them kinda deep so that they would not be susceptible to being blown around or removed from their pots by accident, but I guess that's not really a problem for other growers so mine should be fine too, I guess. I'll move 'em. I figure there's a few weeks left before they start to really go dormant (I'm planning on doing the refrigerator method since temperatures here often go below freezing in the winter, and I don't want my plants to die outside), so hopefully the divisions will have strengthened their roots by the time they have to go dormant. Next spring, I expect they'll do very well. Some quick questions about watering: you say that they could benefit from watering the tops of the "pots". How long should I continue misting them from above? And should I not be worried about over watering since they are in a tray, or is that just not a significant threat to the plants? When will I know that the plants are ready for full sunlight and regular plant maintainence? I understand that all of these questions are ill-timed considering that it's OCTOBER, but I want to learn as much as I can about caring for these plants, and I really missed the growth season this year.
Thanks you for the feedback! I appreciate it. -Lock

Well, I'm afraid I can't give you any really definitive hard-core answers on anything. I've only been growing CP's for just one season so far myself, so I'm still learning too. I do have about 35 years experience with growing *other* kinds of plants though and I worked in my brother's greenhouse business for about seven years when I was younger, so that's where most of my experience with transplant shock comes from. As I'm sure you know, growing CP's can be quite different from most regular plants though, so I may not be the best person to answer all your questions.

I can't really say exactly how long it might take for your plants to recover enough to be able to stand full sun exposure again. That's something I always do gradually in the spring by placing my plants outside in the shade after the danger of frost has passed. Then after a week or two, I gradually start moving them to where they'll get an hour or so of morning sun at first, then gradually keep moving them to where they'll get more and more stronger afternoon sun until they're in the final position where they can receive the most sunlight possible. Some people say I'm overly cautious, but I know that when *I* first start going outdoors in the spring, if I overdo it, I'm bound to get sunburned and I've seen the same thing happen to plants too, so it just seems like a common sense thing to me.

I wouldn't really worry too much about your plants being overwatered since they've been through transplant shock recently, especially the ones who'll be getting a double dose by being uprooting again to a more shallow depth. In my limited experience, flytraps do seem to need more a little more water than usual for a week or two after being transplanted. Ideally, the best situation for them would be very bright but indirect light (like in a greenhouse) and keeping them pretty moist until they perk up again. Then you can go with the "moist but not wet" rule like usual.

By the way, whenever I transplant my flytraps, I always mix my soil up in a large flat plastic pan on the bench in my potting shed. I use 50/50 peat moss and perlite like you do, but after measuring out equal portions of both, I use my small watering can to gradually wetten it really well with distilled water or rainwater while mixing it together. I'm always surprised by how peat moss can soak up so much water, just like a sponge, but I just keep adding more water until it's almost wet enough to drip when you squeeze a fistful of it. Then after making a hole and gently lowering the plant's roots and rhizome down into it, I gently press the soil in around it and then water it even more until the water runs out the bottom of the pot to help remove any air pockets in the soil. Also, make sure you don't pack the soil into the pot too tightly so it will be loose enough for the roots to easily expand through. I just fill the pot by hand and then gently tap it until it settles in even with the top of the pot before planting.

In my experience, misting doesn't really deliver very much water to the plant; it just raises the ambient humidity in the air around it for a while, unless your really pump and pump directly onto the soil over and over many times. Flytraps don't really seem to need high humidity like you see mentioned everywhere so often. When I kept my very first flytrap too damp in a terrarium last year, it literally turned into black fuzzy mush almost overnight!

I'm afraid I can't really offer much advice with the tray watering system either because I've always watered my flytraps from the top, like any other plant. (I can hear gasps of disbelieving consternation everywhere right now!) I know they grow in swampy bogs in the wild and most people say that tray watering is the *only* way to do it, but after the experience I just related with how my first flytrap rotted so quickly from staying too wet, I've always been very leery of leaving them standing in water for very long. I always try to think about how plants grow where they thrive in the wild, and I figure the rain probably falls downward from the sky in the Carolinas just like it does everywhere else! Besides that, I've always had a propensity for overwatering things, so that's another reason I prefer not to use the tray method. I figure if I give them too much water, it will just run out the bottom of the pot.

As for the refrigerator dormancy, I would highly encourage you to rethink that if at all possible. I can't remember who said it right now or which thread it was in, but I just read recently, like yesterday or today, where someone was saying that refrigerator dormancy is usually only recommended in very tropical regions where there's not much change in the number of daylight hours throughout the year. The daily photo-period has a lot more to do with inducing dormancy than the physical temperature does, and flytraps don't really need to be very cold for dormancy. I think they even mentioned how Matt has said his greenhouses can get up around 80 during the day over the winter, but his plants still go dormant. I also know that Matt has told me that even dormant plants should still optimally receive at least 8 hours of sunlight per day. So even just a cool window sill would be better than putting it in the refrigerator. When you think about it, for a plant that needs as much bright light as a flytrap does, does it really seem like a good idea to plunge it into total darkness for months at a time if you don't have to? I guess that may be better than no dormancy at all, but I've also heard people saying that flytraps that do receive some light during dormancy always perform better than ones that get refrigerated.

Well, hope that helps some. I'm sure someone else might come along and tell you the exact opposite of what I've just said and that I'm totally full of it. I've had that happen more than once here, so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt. Like I said, I'm still learning too.

I agree with you on a lot of your points and ideas. When I was repotting these plants, I just used the cups as a scoop to collect the already-mixed peat/perlite so it was nice and loose. Kind of fluffy, really. Then, I watered it from the top a little bit (so the soil was moist as I put the plant in), put the plant in, then watered a little bit more to let the soil settle around the roots/ rhizome a little bit more. Oh, I should mention - I fixed the depth of those three plants. They look a bit better now resting higher on the soil, and it didn't seem to disturb them much when I pulled them up a little bit. It seems so far that the leaves will perk up soon. All in all, I'm feeling more confident about the splits despite the poor timing. From what I've read, these plants are surprisingly resilient.
It's good to know that transplanted VFTs will require more water. I had been concerned that with their delicate roots, they would be MORE at risk for overwatering. And about the spray bottle, the only reason I'm using that is so that I don't disturb the soil's shape. I still water it a good bit (it takes forever watering the top with a spray bottle haha). When I tried to water my plant with a watering can, it made the peat moss bulge and bubble, so the plant ended up getting buried and covered in a muddy soup of peaty horror. That's interesting that you do not use the tray watering system. I've heard of people skipping that part of the set up with success, but I never thought of doing it myself. It just seems so simple to use a tray, though I too could easily become overly vigilant against excessive watering if I had lost a plant to it. Understandable.
Like I said before, my plans to use the refrigerator dormancy are only because I am certain that my plants will die outside. I had considered keeping them inside, but I had thought that they would be too warm or get too much sun and not enter dormancy completely if I went with that course of action. Have you had success with indoor dormancy? If so, with what conditions? I'd LOVE to be able to have my plants around in the Winter, even if in a diminished state. I dislike the idea of fridge dormancy, but it had seemed like it was the only way to keep them alive AND get a dormancy for them. After reading what you have to say, I am hopeful that I can keep them on a windowsill, in a closet with the door open, on a desk or something like that. That would be very cool.
I'm so glad I found this site. I would be soooo lost haha -Lock

Well, like I said, I don't have a lot of experience myself, especially with dormancy, so I'm mostly just listening to that little voice in the back of my head from my experiences in gardening with other kinds of plants.

Before this past summer, I'd only ever had just one VFT. Well, except for that one totally miserable failure so many eons ago when I was a teenager and there was no internet at all to find out how to take care of them and I kept it under a desk lamp in a windowless room for a couple months. (Yes, we *did* have electricity back then!) I thought it was actually a good thing when it surprised me by blooming! It immediately died right afterward of course. After that, I never tried again until the summer of 2011 (the summer before last).

That's when I bought one at Lowe's and started reading about them online. I couldn't find the right ingredients for the soil, so I chopped up some LFS with scissors and mixed it with vermiculite since I couldn't find the right kind of sand or perlite without fertilizer added to it. I kept it in full sun on my deck that summer and it seemed to thrive. Looking back at pictures now, I realize with regret that the new traps it was growing were *very* large, especially for just an unnamed typical:
I brought it inside in the fall and put it in my unheated basement, right along with all the other plants I wanted to keep over the winter. I only watered it a little bit a couple times each month. About half the traps turned black over the winter, but it survived okay. When it started sending up new traps in the spring, I brought it back upstairs. That was before I knew terrariums could be so bad for them, and I put it back inside the one I'd had it in initially. I also (wrongly) figured that if it was starting to grow again, it would need plenty of water, so I really soaked it. The next time I checked on it, a day or two later, there was almost nothing left but fuzzy black mush! Aaaigghhh!!!

I got so mad and discouraged that I gave up completely for a while, but then I started doing more research online to figure out what I'd done wrong. I started visiting these forums more frequently, bought a couple more flytraps at Lowe's, then a couple from Matt & Steve here at FTS, then a couple more from them every few weeks. By the end of the summer, I had about 20 flytraps and two pitcher plants! My first two sundews just arrived recently too. Since we've started having frost and freeze warnings here in the mountains of Virginia the last couple weeks, I've put all of them down in the basement again. This time I have so many they cover almost an entire shelf of a four-foot wide shelving unit!

I'm planning on giving them very little water again this winter. And since I've invested so much money in them, I also figured I should give them some supplemental lighting over the winter since I can't leave them outdoors where they'd be getting natural sunlight. I replaced all of the fluorescent tubes I used to use for starting bedding plants seeds in the spring with the "daylight" kind that Veronis recommended here on the forums. I've got them on a timer that I'm gradually dialing back to keep synchronized with the number of hours of daylight that there are outside. By the darkest part of the winter, they'll only be on for about 8 hours a day, but it will be really bright, good quality light, the closest to sunlight I can afford to provide them artificially. (I'm hoping to buy a better grow-light system in the spring after I get my tax refund because the plants I've seen here that have been grown under artificial light look so much better than any of mine *ever* have!)

I think the main trick is to try to mimic the conditions they'd be experiencing in the wild without letting them get so cold that they'd freeze. That's why even just a cool window sill seems better to me than a refrigerator. I've heard people say that fridge dormancy is no big deal because it keeps the plants so cold that they don't need any light at all, but that just doesn't make much sense to me. Matt has told me that the flytraps in his greenhouse even continue growing a little during winter dormancy; they just slow down to a crawl, so it seems to me like they'd be further ahead like that than if they have to start all over again after being plunged into a totally dark, near deep-freeze all winter.

I know what you mean about how the soil can "bubble" up when you water from the top. For me, that usually only seems to happen right after transplanting, especially if I haven't gotten the soil wet enough while mixing it up. Once the soil gets more settled into the pot, it's usually not a problem. I left my plants outside all summer in some really heavy downpours of rain and hardly any of the soil got splashed out of the pots. The only time I ever brought them inside was if they were calling for severe storms with strong winds that might blow everything off the deck! If you have enough perlite in your soil for drainage and you keep the peat fairly moist all the time, any additional water should immediately drain straight down through the soil instead of forming puddles on top.

In any case, like they say, experience is always the best teacher. I'm sure you'll figure out the best way to care for your plants over time. It seems like it's a little different for everyone, probably because individual micro-climates can vary so much from place to place. It's always a learning experience, but like you said, it's good to know you can always get advice from other people here who've been growing CP's for a longer time. I've tried a lot of different things I've heard about here and I've stuck with the methods that seem to work for me while rejecting the ones that don't, so maybe that's why people seem to think I'm crazy from time to time!

Good luck!

Wow. That story about the VFT is just terrible. I think if my plant had survived all growing season, then all Winter just to die right after dormancy, I would go off the deep end. And that really healthy looking plant in the pic - that's the one that became the fuzzy black death-mush? That's messed up. My sympathies to you, man.

I think you're right about the peat's bubbling. It makes sense that it's only doing that because it is too dry and isn't absorbing the water right. I noticed that when I was planting the little divisions into peat that had already been watered from the top BEFORE placing the plants in there, the plants weren't consumed by puddles and stray peat. I had thought it was only the addition of perlite that had done that (though it no doubt helped). It makes sense that peat that is already moist would handle water much better. I will have to wet my peat before planting VFTs from now on. Good to know.

I am going to do some additional research about dormancy indoors - perhaps on a desk near a window. I just hope that the heat in the apartment doesn't make it so that they don't go dormant. Honestly, I think that these flytraps would survive a year without dormancy at their size, but I want them to experience a successful dormancy so they'll grow healthier next year. I'll also need to find a way to protect the plants from the cats. The cats are the kind that seem to do things with the sole intention of pissing you off. They WILL try to eat my plants.

I think I'll probably post some more pictures of the divisions as they recover from the repotting.

Thanks for all the comments, advice and tips. You've given me a lot of good ideas and insight. -Lock

Yep, that's the exact same plant that turned into black fuzzy mush about six months after that picture was taken. Now you know why it made me so sick. Looking back now, I think I *did* go a little off the deep end. I remember lots of ranting, raving, cursing, stomping of feet, and screams of "I will NEVER do anything like this EVER again!!!"

And yet now, about another six months later, I have *this* many...!
Oh well, you know what they say - a fool and his money are soon parted! Seriously though, I just hope I've learned enough since then to not make any more stupid mistakes like I did with that very first one. Of course, I'm still a nervous hen since this will be my first attempt at dormancy with this many plants, but I guess I'll never know until I try!

Glad I could help you out with the suggestion to thoroughly wetten your soil before planting. That's one of the many things I learned while working at my brother's greenhouse. We grew all the bedding plants in a mixture called "Pro-Mix" that's actually very similar to what's recommended for CP's. It's just a blend of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite. It came in these huge bales that it usually took two people to lift and carry around, kinda like the big bales of peat moss they sell at Lowe's. We'd hoist them up into the bin on the big potting bench and slice them open with a utility knife. It was really compressed so you had to hack it apart with a small shovel. One person would usually do the chopping while the other person held the hose and sprayed it down as it became loosened. It was so dry, dust from it would fly into the air from the slightest breeze if you didn't immediately make it wet. (Every time I blew my nose after mixing up another batch of soil, the tissue would always be brown with dust from the peat moss!) Then we'd put sheets of cell-packs (six-packs or four-packs) into dozens of empty flats, then fill them all up with the wettened soil mix, then poke a hole in each cell and pop a seedling into each one. Then you'd carry them out into the greenhouse and keep them watered and fertilized until they'd grown big enough to sell. It was a fairly small family business, but still plenty of work for just a few people. I can remember going to work during the busy season in the spring as soon as the sun came up and not getting finished to go to bed until way after dark. It's a *very* seasonal business and harder work than most people think.

Sorry to hear about the trouble you have with your cats. I can definitely sympathize. We have two cats and I always have to build cages around the plants I bring in over the winter to keep them from chewing on them. We actually bought a new roll of plastic coated fence wire for that just last week. I know that's not economical when you only have just a few plants though. I've got several other plants on that rack in the basement you can see in the picture above, plus another table about that size covered with plants, with *another* layer underneath the table, so I had to wrap wire all the way around the lower part of the shelving unit and the table to keep the cats out. (Bad kitty! You are SUCH a bad kitty!)

Anyway, yeah, keep taking pictures of your plants so you can document your progress. I kept taking pictures of my CP's every few weeks this summer so I could look back and see how much they'd grown and changed. It's always fun to see how other people's plants are doing (well, except when they're so much better than mine!) Just kidding!

Keep us updated on how it's going...

Lock wrote:I don't know why the soil looks dry in the pictures, but I have been keeping it moist with a spray bottle.

As soon as I looked at the photos, I thought the soil was too dry. Did you wet it before using it? Soil should be mixed and thoroughly moistened prior to putting plants in it. Misting from the top will not suffice as that will only make the top of the soil damp and not really moisten the soil where the plants need it most, down near the bulb and root system.

Matt - Before I put the plants in the pots, I poured some water in there a few (2-3) times with a watering can. When I stuck my finger in the soil to make a hole for the plants, I could feel that it was pretty wet. That's why I'm wondering why the soil looks so dry in the pictures. It's weird. Anyway, since then, I've been keeping them in a tray of water. Additionally, I've been using a spray bottle to give them water (I don't mean 4 mists, and done. I mean enough sprays to make the soil good and moist without disrupting the peat in the way that Bill and I have been discussing. Earlier today, I tried watering them with a watering can, though and the peat was not so disturbed, so I'm thinking that my problems with that before had been because the peat was too dry on the top. I'll most likely start using a watering can to lightly water them from the top since the soil isn't being so unruly now. Bottom line - I'm keeping these puppies as moist as I know how without risking drowning them, though I'll probably go out and check the soil lower down in the pot to make sure the water is getting to the middle of the pot from both above waterings and the tray below.

Bill - Wow, that's a lot of plants! Are those all typicals, or are there some special ones in there? Those look like some big traps on many of the VFTs. What is the pitcher plant on the far right? Isn't that called a sarracenia purpurea? Those seem like my favorite kind of sarracenia so far. I envy your collection. If only I had found out about these kinds of plants before the major growing season had finished. I'd probably have gotten all kinds of plants. Now I feel like I'm taking a carnivorous plant crash course called "How and when NOT to start your horticultural hobby". Anyway, next spring will be very exciting since I'll be very eager to get my hands on a bunch of new plants of many varieties. I just hope I don't kill 'em. I had seen Peter D'Amato's "The Savage Jungle" referenced in a few websites and forum posts, so I thought it could be a valuable resource. I downloaded that book today and will be reading it for the next little while. Do you (or other forum members) know of other suggested reading sources?

The plants look like they're perking up already. I kept them in the shade all today, and they look much less floppy and sad. One of the larger traps (the largest) in picture DSC01059 looks like it's turning yellow, and the three other trapless leaves (yellowing) on the right side of the picture are not looking any better, but the rest of that plant seems to be doing okay. The rest of the other plants look good. Even the two broken leaves that I stuck in the fifth extra cup haven't wilted at all. I have all of the plants placed to be directly in the sun tomorrow morning since they're looking better and more stable. Should I keep them there, or will it be detrimental to them to put them back in the sun now? Another question: what signs should I look for that will let me know if a particular plant is having serious trouble (apart from wilting and discoloration)?

Thanks for all the input and feedback, guys. It's really helping my plants. I'll post some pictures of them tomorrow. -Lock

Well, I've never gone to the trouble of typing up a Grow List because, after seeing other people's lists where it goes on for pages and pages, I figured my little collection wasn't worthy yet! About half my VFT's are typicals that I got at Lowe's. Most of them have at least 2 or 3 crowns in each pot so I'll probably be separating them in the spring. I got all the others from Matt and Steve, including Fang, Vigorous, Fine Tooth Red, Maroon Monster, Jaws, Pink Venus, Sawtooth, Big Mouth and Dutch Delight. (My "want" list has at least 9 or 10 more, but that will mostly depend on finances, of course.) The largest traps I've had have always been on Jaws. Here's a picture I took a while back...
And yes, you're right, the larger, shorter pitcher plant on the right is a Sarracenia purpurea. I got that one and the other pitcher plant right behind it at Lowe's too. The other one wasn't identified with a species name, but from all the pictures I've looked at online, I'm guessing it's probably S. alata. I really like the purpurea too. The deep red veining on it looks really awesome out in the sunlight, and I even got a picture a while back where you can see the all the tiny downward pointing hairs that lead down the "throat" into that nice clear inviting liquid inside. Any bugs want to go for a dip in the pool?!
I wasn't too thrilled with the pitcher plants at first because there's less "action" involved during a capture since they don't snap shut like a VFT does, but it's still fun to watch bugs crawling around all over them until they slip and fall down inside. I always find myself yelling (aloud?), "Ha! Got ya', suckah!"

Like I said, I've got a big list of other things I want to try in the spring too, including a bright red pitcher plant I saw online the other night called S. psittacina. Here's a link. Isn't it awesome?!

http://www.carnivorousplantnursery.com/ ... 1a-lrg.jpg

I've never read the book you mentioned, but I have heard it mentioned here once or twice too so I'll check into it. I could probably use something to read over the winter to keep me from going stir-crazy when I can't be outside doing anything! Where did you get it?

I'm glad to hear your plants are already looking better. It's not unusual to lose a few traps after transplanting. As long as the center of the plant looks okay with new leaves coming up at the crown, you should be okay. I have one that died *completely* back and I was sure it was completely dead, but it really surprised me. Here's the whole story...

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/befor ... 17002.html

It's not surprising that your largest trap would be the first to go. It seems like the older a trap is the more expendable it becomes, but there should always be new ones coming up in the center to take its place. I can't really think of anything else to look for that would indicate a problem. I usually try to leave the dead leaves on them until they turn all the way black. As long as there's any green left anywhere, it means there's live tissue that can still perform photosynthesis. I do remove them after they turn black though because I've seen a couple of them get fuzzy white spots that look just like the mold on the one I killed in the terrarium, and obviously I don't EVER want to experience THAT again!

I'm not really sure if it's too early yet to put yours back out in the sun yet. How long has it been since you transplanted them? I always try to give them at least a week or so to recover, and it usually depends on what the weather is like before I decide to put them outside. The sun is getting lower in the sky and weaker every day now, so it shouldn't be very strong now in the morning I wouldn't think. Will you be around to bring them back inside if they start wilting or showing other signs of distress? I probably wouldn't leave them out on their own for a while until you can be sure they can handle it. When do you think you might be having frost? It's already happened here, but you're a lot further south than I am.

Looking forward to seeing more pics...!

Oh my god, I read that post already! I had no idea that was yours! Wow, small world on the internet.
I looked at the picture of that red pitcher plant. that looks beautiful. That would be so fun to watch grow, especially since it looks different from a lot of the serracenia shapes that I have seen. I'll have to check out Lowe's in the spring for plants. I've never been in a Lowe's before so I don't know what all they have. I've looked all around in Wal-Mart and Home Depot for plants when I was looking for better peat and some perlite, but NOWHERE had what I needed except for Pike's. Seriously - NO non-miracle grow peat, and NO non-miracle grow perlite. I'll probably just stick with Pike's from now on anyway since their employees were MUCH more knowledgeable about their products, and their product and plant selection were MUCH better. Also, I'm curious since you seem to have some experience growing FTS cultivar clones - which is/are your favorite(s) and why? I'm really hoping to pick out some nice plants next spring, and I'm wondering what the good choices are. I already have a list of interesting ideas, but I'd like to get your opinion on the matter.

About the book. . . I downloaded it online, but I'll tell you this - I definitely DID not get it from a website that, if personified, would yell "arrrrrr, matey!" and steal all of your plunder. I'll leave it at that.

The weather here is getting colder, but we probably have a week or more before things start to get frosty. It's only been in the last week or two that I've noticed any change in temperature. It doesn't get hot in the morning and the sun isn't TOO strong, so I'm hoping the plants will do okay in the light. I'll be watching them as vigilantly as a gargoyle to make sure they don't wilt. I repotted them in the early morning of the 13th, but I don't know if that's not enough time before reintroduction to direct sunlight. They usually sit next to a railing on the little porch of my apartment, but since I moved them out of the sun, they've just been on the floor of the porch behind a big bin to keep them kind of in the shade. I would be more reluctant to thrust them into the sun, but I fear that they won't have much time to steel themselves for dormancy, and they'll need all of the nutrients they can get before then. In the words of House Stark, "Winter is coming."

Pics shall be taken and posted tomorrow around noonish so we can all see how they handled (or didn't handle) the sun! -Lock

Favorites...? That's always a tough one. Of the plants I have so far, I guess Jaws would probably be my favorite, not just because of trap size but because the shape of its teeth is so different from most VFT's. They really do remind me of shark teeth, so it looks a little more menacing than most of them. Most of the others I haven't really had long enough for them to get big enough to tell if they're going to become favorites. I've only had some of them for half a growing season or less. The color on Maroon Monster is really awesome and its traps get pretty big too, but the red varieties seem to grow a lot slower than the green ones. Some of my plain ol' typicals are pretty awesome too simply because the coloration of the traps can vary so much from a cute pinkish blush to bright red to some that are so dark red they look almost purple! I guess the one at the top of my "want" list would have to be B52, simply because of trap size, but it never seems to be in stock anywhere.

If you ever look for CP's at Lowe's they always seem to keep them indoors in the houseplant section. They're always packaged in clear plastic boxes that are "affectionately" known here on the forums as "death cubes." At my local stores, they never water them at all, just let them sit there and slowly shrivel up. If you can get them shortly after they've been stocked, like I did my Sarr. purpurea, they're not too bad, but they definitely need to be repotted right away. They're basically packaged like bare-root plants with LFS wrapped around the roots, then shoved down into a shallow little pot with a little plain peat moss packed so tightly in the bottom it's almost like concrete. I guess they can survive like that for a few weeks, but they're not really going to grow like that very well and the packaging usually doesn't tell you *anything* about what kind of soil they should be in.

Whenever they do get a shipment of live "potted" plants in (which is only a few times a year), they also seem to get a flat of "dormant" plants which are basically just dry roots shaking around in a bag of loose peat moss. That's how I got my other pitcher plant and it took forever for it to start growing enough to even look like anything at all. The really bad part about it is that most people won't ever buy those because you usually can't see anything *green* inside at all, and the store won't ever get another shipment in until *all* of those empty looking boxes have finally sold off the shelf. It gets really frustrating and irritating.

I've never been able to find any CP's at all at any of my local Walmarts or Home Depot. I had a really hard time finding the soil ingredients anywhere too. The big chain stores usually only carry the Miracle-Gro crap, but the Walmart that's closest to me finally started carrying small bags of Schultz brand Canadian peat moss in small bags that are only about $3 each. It's enough for several CP's and saves you the trouble of lugging around a huge bale of Premier brand peat which is the only size they ever sell at Lowe's. The only perilte I've found that's free of fertilizer is the organic Espoma brand that they carry at a local nursery and garden shop that's just a small local business, not a big chain. At least they had it last spring. I bought one bag for about $8 and it lasted me all summer. I think I still have a little bit left. I just hope they'll have it again next spring when I'll need more. If not, I guess I'll have to order it online. Just hope the shipping will be cheap since it's so light and fluffy!

Well, I'd better run and get ready for work now. Hope your plants are doing okay. It's really cloudy and drizzly here today so no worries about the sun burning anything here! Just chilly and damp. Brrrr!!!

Lock wrote:Matt - Before I put the plants in the pots, I poured some water in there a few (2-3) times with a watering can. When I stuck my finger in the soil to make a hole for the plants, I could feel that it was pretty wet. That's why I'm wondering why the soil looks so dry in the pictures. It's weird.

Peat is hydrophobic (resistant to taking up water). It must be mixed thoroughly with water, stirred and squeezed, until it is saturated before putting it in pots. I use a large plastic tub for mixing and wetting peat moss. The process can take quite a few minutes if the water is cold. Warmer water seems to be taken up more quickly. If you didn't thoroughly saturate the peat with water before you put it into the pots, you might want to uproot all of the plants and start over. Once it's in a pot with drainage, peat will continue to be hydrophobic and simply repel any water right out the drainage holes.

Hey, everyone. I'm back. I got some pictures, and for the most part, I'd say that the plants look okay (except for the leaves that I had mentioned before). The sun here is REALLY diminishing. It stormed last night and it's a little overcast today (the plants do not and cannot receive rain water on the porch), but the plants are still looking pretty peppy. I can tell that some will probably do better than others, but none of them seem to be dying off - again, even those two little lonesome leaves are still alive!

Matt- Should I really uproot them all again? I now understand the importance of wetting the soil before repotting, but is it worth it? Ah, well I guess you'd know best. I'll go do that now, but I'll still post pictures of what they looked like today. I feel so bad for my plants. Poor things. Time for repotting again. I'll check back in later and post more pictures if they do not look well after the new repotting.

Bill - I thought that B52 was in stock at FTS. Weird. By the way, do you have any idea how the B52 compares to the DC XL? I've been trying to compare them with pictures online but photos of the DC XL are so elusive! It seems almost as if the advertisement picture on FTS is the only photo out there haha. On another note, that's very interesting that your red plants are growing slower than your green plants. I wonder if that's the case for all growers. I've read that the red coloration is a result of the plant sort of "recycling" the chlorophyll, so maybe red plants grow slower because they are using less effective, twice-used chlorophyll? I wonder if any research has been done to study that. How are you enjoying Maroon Monster? Does it grow quickly, what's the average trap size, and how is the coloration?

Thanks for the advice and information, guys. This has been a very interesting learning experience. -Lock