FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Any way to induce blooming on Utricularia Calycifida? I have been waiting. It is the orchid of the CPs! Really! The flowers are beautiful but it's a bit hard to make it bloom. Any suggestions?

My experience has been that this species will rapidly fill up the pot then bloom constantly. If that's not happening, I wonder if the temperature might be too high for it there in Indonesia?

I think it might just be time. Mine wasnt doing anything for a while, until it covered the entire surface of its container, it sent up a single flower stalk, then it started throwing out a bunch and now I have a little forest of flowers I've also heard that flooding them occasionally induces flowering.

I usually just wait until the water level drops all the way to the bottom of the container and then refill it all the way to the top.

Many plant species that multiply into clumps will do so until they're crowded, and will only then flower. The idea is, if there's still room for them to spread in this one area, they don't need to put energy into growing flowers that might result in them spreading to other areas via seeds.

Thanks guys! I guys I just need to wait now. I flooded it today. It looked like a tiny little swamp!

Fishkeeper is spot on. None of my species bloom til crowded.

I've seen U. calycifida bloom before filling up the pot before, and there's a few other species that will also bloom without necessarily being crowded.

In my experience it only needs to fill up the pot if the main "growth point" or rosette isn't very big. Sometimes it'll spread and make lots of small growth points, other times it will tend to make a large rosette with big leaves before spreading. Different forms of the plant also seem to have sightly different growth habits.

Either way, keeping it fairly wet (I wouldn't keep it completely submerged for too long, but wet is good) is advisable. U. calycifida also seems to like slightly lower light levels than many other CPs, and benefits from (light) fertilization.