FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

mobile wrote: Just because a plant survives in certain conditions in the wild, it doesn't mean that it thrives.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this point. I would say it's the other way around, just because the plant survives in our pots does not mean they thrive. Venus Flytraps are in their very specific climate because it is optimal for them. The plants evolved in their specific conditions over many years, and as such they are optimally suited to grow there. Look at these plants


Those plants are HUGE. That's not a cultivated variety that's been selected for the "largest traps," it's just a normal old VFT. That is an incredibly healthy plant, growing and thriving in the wild. Unlike animals (especially humans) a plant's natural environment is as close to the optimal environment you can get for it. It's not like they just pick themselves up and walk away to find a better place, so the species has to change for the environment its in or die...

I'd love to see analysis on the soil that they thrive in...

cool!

Humm.....Have you guys heard of invasive species? They come from a different environment and do better than the native plants.

When I was a manager for a government contractor which specialized in environmental restoration I got to see first hand that most plants have a range of acceptable light levels, water levels, nutrition levels, pH levels, soil types, and min/max temperatures. Plants do best when they stay in the happy zone with minimal variance in a controlled environment. I don't see why venus flytraps would be exempt from this.

This experiment looks fun! I have many fond memories of walking over a carpet of pine needles when I worked in the forests. I look forward to seeing how this experiment turns out.

Regards,
-The 209

209 wrote:Humm.....Have you guys heard of invasive species? They come from a different environment and do better than the native plants.

I guess you're right, I didn't consider that. Although I would be hard pressed to say a carnivorous plant could be invasive due to the nature of the roots and soil they evolved in.

95slvrZ28 wrote:Although I would be hard pressed to say a carnivorous plant could be invasive due to the nature of the roots and soil they evolved in.

Eco-terrorists in the 70's who hated dry empty lots took local wild grass seeds, coated them in fertilizer enriched clay, and threw them all over the place. They would bounce around and find low spots across the lots. When the seasonal rains came, the clay would wash away and the seeds would germinate covering the lots in wild grasses. I'm sure that if someone was crazy enough to repeat this process with venus flytrap seeds, that an academic paper would appear with "invasive population of dionaea muscipula" in it somewhere. As hilarious as this would be, please don't do this. Protect nature.

Regards,
-The 209

209 wrote: As hilarious as this would be, please don't do this.

As much as I would love to have more and more wild VFTs, I'm thinking coating them in clay and fertilizer would probably not work so well

I feel that most things that have the capability to be an invasive species are all plants that are overall hardy, can grow in many soils, and set seed easily. Things such as grasses, thistles, those cursed Dandelions...

It would only work if it was done around freshwater lakes near the coast.

Dandelions....so evil and so beautiful....

Adrian Slack used to throw Sphagnum "Bombs" into hard to reach areas of bogs to start off Sarracenia Purpurea colonies.....

I like his thinking!

P.S Mobile, just looked at the pictures, great looking Flytrap. Maybe i'll be using Pine Needles soon!

Was there ever a conclusion on this? Would really like to know how things turned out

An interesting read for sure. I’m suspecting things didn’t go well since the updates stopped?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ant update? Fingers crossed it went well...

Considering this thread is nearly a decade old, I feel we'll never know.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

It looks like updates continued into 2013 on the CPUK thread and it was still going fine: https://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.p ... um/page/6/
My impression from earlier in that thread is that 50:50 pine needles and peat was the best combination, although plants were still fine in 100% needles.

I've been searching through these threads since I'm curious if anyone's had continuing success or even tried growing sundews in conifers needles as well, or how much it matters what conifer species is used. I have cedars in my backyard but based on some research I think their needles might have too much calcium. Anyway, I've not seen anything new on using conifer needles since these threads.