FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Ive got a few questions about red and green VFT seedlings, mostly I'm referring to the fly trap store's special red mix and normal seed mix.
1. what is the average ratio of red- green seedlings in both seed mixes?
2. Can the normal pack of seeds still have red vfts?
3. Ive heard red colored vfts are harder to take care of because they have trouble soaking up sunlight. Is that true?
4. Do red seedlings take longer to germinate? Do they grow slower?
5. If you cross pollinate two green flytraps, can they still have red genes in their seeds?
6. Can green seedlings develop color when they are older?
7. Does anyone ever get any other colors from their seeds? Yellow? White? Purple? Albino?

Thanks! Sorry for all the questions!
Taryn

2. a normal pack of seeds, would depend on what the parent plants were. so while its unlikely that you will get a pure red VFT, its possible depending on the parent plants.
4. i dont think they take any longer to germinate. some cultivar of VFT can be slower growers than others. so it would depend on the parent plants, and if they took these gene from them or not.
5. cross pollinating 2 plants will not guarantee you the same traits as the parent plants in most cases the seeedlings will be typicals. and cross pollinating 2 green VFT's will be highly unlikely to produce a red variety of flytrap.
6. most flytraps develop a better colour when there older and given lots of sun, but its mainly the traps that get this change of colour, not the whole plant.
7. iv seen yellow and orange VFT's, there are some that develop deeper red/maroon/purple type colours.
but thats the most iv seen.

hope this helps

tgplp wrote:1. what is the average ratio of red- green seedlings in both seed mixes?

I can't say for this year, because I've not germinated any of our seed yet, but in the past for me, it is somewhere around 50% red-leafed seedlings from the Red mix of seed. In the other generic mix, it has historically been less than 5% red-leafed seedlings.

tgplp wrote:2. Can the normal pack of seeds still have red vfts?

Yes.

tgplp wrote:3. Ive heard red colored vfts are harder to take care of because they have trouble soaking up sunlight. Is that true?

Yes, red leafed flytraps typically grow a little slower. The one exception I can think of is the FTS Maroon Monster.

tgplp wrote:4. Do red seedlings take longer to germinate? Do they grow slower?

No. Yes.

tgplp wrote:5. If you cross pollinate two green flytraps, can they still have red genes in their seeds?

Yes. It depends on their parentage.

tgplp wrote:6. Can green seedlings develop color when they are older?

Do you mean can a green leafed plant turn red? No. But they can develop nice red interior trap color.

tgplp wrote:7. Does anyone ever get any other colors from their seeds? Yellow? White? Purple? Albino?

Yellow seedlings seem to occur rarely, perhaps one out of every 400 seeds or so, but they always seem to be very weak growers. I've never seen any white, purple or albino plants; only shades of green, red and yellow.

I've seen 'GUILLAME' have a 'totally pure white' vft before on cpuk forums.
I guess there's only around 2 or 3 pure white vfts around the world. Plus, the downside is that it lacks chlorophylls so it takes aaaaaaaggggggeeeeeeees for the plant to grow so you will have to give it MASSIVE amounts of light otherwise it will starve for light and die.
So I guess its only a plant for experts (And I mean 'expert' expert. )

Darkrai283 wrote:I've seen 'GUILLAME' have a 'totally pure white' vft before on cpuk forums.

I've seen photos of the white VFT you're referring to. It looks more like a pale yellow color to me. He posted the photos here as well:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/new-p ... tml#p71599
Here is the plant you're referring to:

It is a division from his "Camouflage" plant.

I would have to assume that Guillames plant would be Anthocyanin free. As anthocyanin free plants are usually very slow growers.

It's still a stunner tho'!

Daniel_G wrote:I would have to assume that Guillames plant would be Anthocyanin free.

I've not seen the plant first hand, but it appears to have a slight pink blush in the photo above. That would mean that it's not anthocyanin free.

Daniel_G wrote:As anthocyanin free plants are usually very slow growers.

I've not noticed this. In fact, the anthocyanin free flytraps I grow, like Grun and Justina Davis, are extremely vigorous growers. I think you might be confusing anthocyanin with chlorophyll?

It's the red-leafed flytraps that are usually slower growers and I've always guessed this is due to the fact that the anthocyanin "filters out" or in some other way limits the amount of energy from the sun that's getting to the chlorophyll (which is green) in the leaves.

I may be Getting The way flytraps grow with how Sarracenia do.
As Anthocyanin free Sarracenia usually grow extremely slowly.

Darkrai283 wrote:chlorophylls

Matt wrote:I think you might be confusing anthocyanin with chlorophyll?

Ja.

probably got it wrong dan as as they say chlorophyll is water absorbs the energy from the sun so if it cant get energy fast it cant grow fast

i also just purchased a package of the red seed mix, I am curious as to which VFT culivars were used this year to make this mix of seeds. Do you also track the genetics of which types pass on the red pigment at a higher frequency than other cultivars?

Going back to anthocyanin vs chlorophyl: red cultivars which red pigment (anthocyanin) as their electron acceptor, for the light dependent reaction in photosynthesis, are less efficient in converting that eventual light energy into ATP. They use red wavelengths of light inefficiently (they appear red, because red light is reflected), and rely primarly on blue wavelenths of visable light. This contrasts from most green plants, which readily use both blue and red wavelenths for photosynthesis. Therefore red pigmented plants are already at a disadvantage, in only being able to use blue light types.

It makes alot of sense that red cultivars are just slower growing overall, since they are not making as much ATP in the same photoperiod as their green pigmented siblings. I can only imagine how difficult a time a yellow seedling may have! Pretty interesting topic to say the least!

Auxin wrote:I am curious as to which VFT culivars were used this year to make this mix of seeds.

Nearly every type of red plant that we sell in the FlytrapStore played some part in producing the red seed mix. The biggest contributors are Red Piranha, Maroon Monster, Royal Red and Pink Venus. But there is also seed from "All Red," Bohemian Garnet, FTS Crimson Sawtooth, Holland Red, Green Dragon and many other named clones and several unnamed red leafed flytraps.

Auxin wrote:Do you also track the genetics of which types pass on the red pigment at a higher frequency than other cultivars?

No, I haven't tracked that.

Auxin wrote:Going back to anthocyanin vs chlorophyl: red cultivars which red pigment (anthocyanin) as their electron acceptor, for the light dependent reaction in photosynthesis, are less efficient in converting that eventual light energy into ATP. They use red wavelengths of light inefficiently (they appear red, because red light is reflected), and rely primarly on blue wavelenths of visable light. This contrasts from most green plants, which readily use both blue and red wavelenths for photosynthesis. Therefore red pigmented plants are already at a disadvantage, in only being able to use blue light types.

Thanks for that scientific explanation!

Awesome matt, thanks for the explanation! I am looking forward to growing them. Having read a bit about TC I think I want to try growing them on MS, since it seems as though they grow alot faster that way!

Well... this is the normal 2011 mix I got. Most seem pretty red to me.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... =3&theater

So they can get pretty red without being an actuall red cultivar.

I'd love to see that pale vft! thanks for the pic, Matt.

I have an odd problem... I hope you guys can help.

I sowed seeds for normal vfts about 5-6 weeks ago, and they never germinated. I sowed special red vfts 2 weeks ago, and today 2 are germinating! Yay! I used a different soil mix for the normal seeds. Do you think this is why they didn't germinate? Do you think I should start over and resow for the normal seeds?


Thanks for your input!

Taryn