FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Does it zap the strength from the plant ? i have only 1 sundew so cant pollinate should i let it flower or not, i know flower stalks weaken a VFT but not sure about a sundew,
thanks.

What species is it? Most sundews flower prolifically without harm, others are annuals which go into decline after flowering (though this is natural) but can sometimes be made to last longer if you remove the flower stalks (but then you won't get any seeds). I always let all my Drosera flower, with the exception of the petiolaris complex when they are struggling a bit.

By the way, the "flowering weakens flytraps" thing is not entirely accurate. If your flytrap is already healthy, flowering should have no ill effect on it.

Stevie has a D. Binata, if I remember right - in which case the flower might be self-fertile if it's the Coromandel, New Zealand form. Source: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/seedba ... binata.htm

I found this - "Like most Drosera, you can leave the flowers on Drosera binata without much if any set back. In my experience the T form of binata does not self pollenate (neither on it's own or with your help). Drosera binata propagate so readily by root and leaf cuttings that you're not missing out on anything by not being able to collect seed." Source: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load ... 28931.html

miacps wrote:By the way, the "flowering weakens flytraps" thing is not entirely accurate. If your flytrap is already healthy, flowering should have no ill effect on it.

True. The proverbial "they" say to cut off the stalks for two main reasons as far as I understand...

1. Bigger traps if you cut the flower stalk.
2. Most newbies have weak VFT's and in such a state, using their energy to create a flower saps too much of their already-sapped strength and they never recover.

This doesn't apply to most, but if you want to clone a VFT in tissue culture, the flowerstalk is the best part to use.

could you cut off the flower stalk and stick it in the ground and grow more sundews, just like the VFT?