FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

My typical vft's had their flower stalks, which I cross polinated very thoroughly. rubbed the pollen bits on the fuzzy stamen receptor bits of the flowers on the other plant. I even tried using multiple flowers to polinate multiple other flowers. lots of flower rubbing took place.
Unfortunately there are no seeds as yet. there is just a whole lot of dead flowers. I have seen the pics of fertilisation and seeds, so i have an idea of what to look for, but so far have not seen it yet.
Is there any way of determining if polination was successful, and how long does it take for polination to produce seeds? Are vft's prone to fertilisation not working, or did i just have bad luck / do something wrong?

A picture would be nice

would be happy to post a pic or two, except that I dont have a camera that can do enough macro to be relevant.
The flowers curled up into themselves to look like buds again, and most of them look like they are black and rotting.

Lessian wrote:Is there any way of determining if polination was successful, and how long does it take for polination to produce seeds?

After successful pollination, the flower petals will curl in on the stigma and the stigma will begin to swell. After about 3 weeks, the stigma (seed pod) will ripen, become black and usually split open to reveal shiny black seeds. If pollination was unsuccessful, the stigma won't swell and will simply just turn black.

Lessian wrote:Are vft's prone to fertilisation not working, or did i just have bad luck / do something wrong?

No, VFTs are very easy to pollinate, though some clones are more apt to produce seed than others and the health and care of the plant is critical to having them set seed. If the plant itself isn't healthy, it will often abort the seed producing even if pollination was successful.