FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Awhile ago, a light fixture fell on my P. emarginata and broke off a couple of leaves. I found one, cleanly snapped off at the base, and put it on some live sphag to see if I could get babies. Shaded, but in decent light, kept moist but not soggy, carefully not directly misted. No luck, that leaf just died.

I missed a leaf, apparently. I just found it, a little spiraled-up, snapped-off bit that was just about broken in half down the center. It's in a spot where it's getting water directly on it whenever I mist, which pings hate, but apparently it's what the leaf needed to make babies. And it just happened to land on some live sphagnum.


The cut edge has 7 babies along it, and the leaves are maybe 1mm wide on most of them, aside from a couple that are a third of that size I accidentally disturbed the leaf when I picked up some moss, but I put it back after inspecting it, and it's kind of snuggled down onto the moss so the one tiny root I saw can touch. I made sure it's over the moss so the roots can't fix into anything permanent, and I can just lift the entire bundle if needed.

I know I'll eventually need to split these apart, but I'm assuming they should be much larger before I do that, so what size do I aim for? Or do I just wait for the leaf to die off?

I'll be planting them into some hygrolon and on top of some LFSM, which is where the adult is thriving. It's right on the edge of a pocket full of LFSM, some of its roots in the moss, some in the hygrolon.


This is the parent. It's long since recovered from the damage, and hasn't stopped blooming since I got it. The babies will go all around it when they're ready, since it's happy there. It's never put on ideal colors, but grows fast even while flowering, and it has a hint of pink around the edges. Apparently P. emarginata really like growing in hygrolon, which isn't surprising given that they're often found in the moss on cliff faces.

Celebrate!
I'm assuming you should would wait for the leaf to die off. I'm having the same situation, but with spatulata plantlets. I had trimmed off sickly looking leaves, but forgot to discard them. I'm glad they did not, as they decided to grow (I have ~7 of the little dudes/dudettes now, along with 2 VFTs started accidentally the same way). The leaf starts to die, and since their roots usually are not extensive yet, the leaf kind of disintegrates over time. Good luck!

cool. i'm only growing fly traps but some cuttings are making divisions. One thing I'm finding is they seem to do better together, in a bigger pot. Not so much little single pots. Maybe its easier to keep a larger pot at the optimum conditions for babies. cool. happy growing

I've found that touching the leaf to the soil before any plants start forming can cause the leaf to die off faster than normal. I'm assuming this is because pathogens make their way into the wound. The leaf that broke off isn't going to hate direct misting because it's not really a full plant system. The mist probably kept the leaf hydrated long enough for plantlets to form. It looks like the mother plant is doing very well, happy to see it working out on the wall for you!

It's on top of live sphagnum, so I figure that probably kept pathogens away. I might have to do this on purpose a few times- cut a few leaves in half lengthwise and put them on top of some sphag, see if I get even more babies.

Oh yeah, it's thriving on there! I'm excited to plant the babies near it and have an entire patch of them. The mother plant is currently 1.5" across, has two flowers, and is still growing despite having flowered constantly since you sent it to me. Apparently, growing in Hygrolon and a touch of LFSM is great for P. emarginata.
I keep it fairly moist, and it's done a great job of eating all the gnats so none of them get in my face. I just have the setup under a desk lamp with a ceiling-grade CFL bulb, and that seems to be working out. It's not at maximum color, but there's some pink around the edges.

When I do pulls I usually wait til the plants have roots about a quarter to half an inch then pot them up in their permanent residence.

The babies are about 4-5 times the size they were a month ago. The leaf is about dead, and the babies were so crowded they were all getting lanky trying to stretch for the light, so I gently tore the leaf into pieces to separate the babies. There's five babies and a few buds that could become babies if they got the ambition, and I hope they'll get the ambition now that they can get at the light. None of them really had good roots, so I just nestled them back into the live moss and gave them a good watering. I'll keep them there until they have at least a couple roots each, then lift 'em out and plant them on the wall.

Yesterday, I was rearranging some nearby plants and accidentally tore about half a leaf off the mother plant. It doesn't seem to care, and I went ahead and put the leaf piece next to the other one, with the cut edge lightly touching some live sphagnum. Thought I'd see if I could get any more strikes. Ping leaves are durable, but if they have a small rip in the edge, they tear really, really easily.

I also found out why my marcgravia rectiflora cutting hasn't been growing. It has, but the tail end was growing for some weird reason, and it was happily growing a sprout wedged up behind the moss with almost zero light. I've pointed the sprout out into the light now, and I'm happy to see it going, marcgravias can be fussy plants but look really nice when they get going. Little vines with shingling leaves.