FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I know it sounds silly, but I've noticed some plants put out larger leaves when not in the sun for 8+ hours. During the summer limiting the direct sunlight to 4 hours and ambient light the rest of the time may grow larger leaves (traps)? Anyone experimented with that?

The only CP I know that gets bigger on lower light level is the D. Adelae. Not sure about VFTs, they are notorious Sun worshipers.

hb

Yup.. Noticed that too.. about that particular sundew. I've seen some really large traps that were not coloured up at all. That's why I'm wondering...

Yeah, what I am doing right now is letting it grow a bit bigger then exposing it to Sunlight to color up.

hb

My friend has a VFT that didn't get 8+ hours of sunlight. It's leaves were bigger, but the traps were small, and some didn't even form at all.

That sounds like there was not enough light. I'm thinking where there is enough light, just not the maximum.

some members of our CP club that grow Cephalotus leave them in the shade so that the new pitches will grow larger than normal and then move them into the sun to color up.

From what i know, or at least think i know. With any plant, when they start producing larger leaves it is because they are not receiving enough light. So even though you give a flytrap 6 hours of direct sun, you might get a slightly bigger leaf, but the trap might be smaller than if you grew one in more sun. I have noticed this in different plants- tomatoes, peppers, basil, sarracenia. Even nepenthes and sundew grow larger leaves in less lighting. I would say it is so that they can get the most light possible from the conditions that they are in. With added artificial lighting you might get the same results as in growing them in the sun all day, but i have never experimented with that so i cant say for sure. I have, though, grown two fly traps of the same cultivar(typical) and age(about 4 years) in different lighting conditions. Where one received around 5-6 hours of direct sun(and bright light the rest of the day) along with my sundew, and the other was placed with my sarracenia where it received around 10 hours of direct sun. The one with the sundew started to grow slightly larger leaves, but wasn't growing as tall as it's older leaves. The one with the sarracenia kept growing tall leaves, well, as tall as they get, while also dividing faster than the other. In the end they both still divided, they were both still healthy, i didn't lose either one, but i think i liked the more sun one a little better. Getting 10 hours of sun resulted in traps of about an inch and a half, slightly better color, and it divided multiple times which left me with about 10 baby flytraps and 1 other mature plant. With 5-6 hours the traps still grew to about 1 inch, but it did not divide as much, maybe around 6 baby traps. This was just my little experiment. I'm pretty sure everything depends on the conditions of the flytrap, and the climate in which its growing. And that is my 2 cents.

That sounds interesting. I'll have to experiment as well.

Moving them around confuses them into thinking it's Spring or Fall, because You are affecting Light AND temperature, so the petioles get broader to capture more light, but You will get Spring or Fall like traps. . . smaller, I suspect.