FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

haha. kinda sounds like some weird STD doesnt it, bladderworts? skanky....

but seriously, i would love to grow some bladderworts. i am constantly fighting with aquarium plants. well, i live on the river so i usually just pull stuff up and drop it in the tank. i keep lots of little baby crawfish because they are tiny hoovers who keep the much down. problem is, when they are hungry, they will munch the plants too. so a plant that propagates quickly is a must. does anyone know if bladderworts will eat snails/snail larvae? that would be good too.

our plot on the river here has an amazing granite escarpment, forming lots of little "tide" pools and some that are fairly ephemeral. i should be able to refill one with distilled water if thats necessary. ive been thinking of trying to run a small fountain pump off of solar panels to keep some of the pools filled.

aside from online, i cant find anywhere to buy these things, and it seems there are a bajillion different kind and i dont know them from hydrilla.

so, i like the idea of one that grows as underwater ground cover. i also want one that floats. if i can get anyone to spare a few sprigs, i can become a "bank" for it. ill grow different pools of different kinds and offer them to anyone who wants any.

Does the river water level not go up in the rainy season?

To be honest this idea is much worse than the idea of growing sarracenia on the river bank.

Ultricularia are known to be quite invasive when introduced to a nonnative area.

i really do understand the whole reason to not introduce foreign plants to areas they might go unchecked.

where i am though, its just a matter of *which* introduced species is running rampant. the bladder worts would be competing with hydrilla (which can grow 11cm a *day*).

with the bladderworts, i realize there is a very real possibility of taking over, and thats why i would grow them in the more ephemeral pools.

there isnt really a rainy season here, but it does occasionally flood. but, for it to get to those pools, it would have to be flooding on a scale that happens but once every 20 or 30 years.

i know what hydrilla did to the san marcos river valley, and ive seen what the elephant ear has done as well.

the only reason i could grow sarrs on a bank is if i visited them daily, connected a pump to solar panels to keep them watered, etc etc. without daily attention they would die in 48 hours or less. i live in the land of everything-can-hurt-you-including-the-plants (cactus, cow catchers, etc), so thats why im wondering if some CPs can take hold. i wouldnt call it living in the wild, it would be living in semi-automated salutary neglect.

So with the sarrs, are you thinking of planting them in containers on the bank and using a pump system to water them?

Or planting them directly in the pools and using the pump system to keep the pool from drying out?

the sarrs would be on the bank. we have a nice muddy bank that i could dig out and fill in with CPsoil. and river sand. i know it says no river sand here, but, cope with it. and probably a deep piece-a pipe down to the water table (at least ill try this first, but i could throw in a solar-powered water pump to pump river water to their spot on the bank (they cant be too close or stuff will eat/thrash them). probably with chicken-wire encircling them until they get big enough to eat the deer and not visa versa.

i know yall thought i was joking about a pitcher plant being able to eat a deer, so now i have photographic proof.

Growing foreign plants with full knowledge that they have a high chance of invading an area is a bad idea. There's hardly any justification for it.

Can't you just grow it in a bucket or fishtank?

Introducing non-native species in the wild is illegal! Fines and possible jail time should be expected, if you continue with this idea I will have to report this to US fish and game (so they can prevent the invasive species from spreading). I'm not trying to be mean, but I've been working to eradicate invasive species introduced into local creeks, streams, and lakes. The damage these plants have done to the ecosystem have caused the numbers of native species to drop. The introduction of bladderworts into that stream will cause important sources of food for young fish to drop and from there species higher up the food chain will be affected as well. Please don't mess up an ecosystem just so you can have these plants.