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To be clearer I should have said "grind the blood worms to a fine dust, hydrate to a paintable consistency, then apply to the trap".

1cashew wrote:To be clearer I should have said "grind the blood worms to a fine dust, hydrate to a paintable consistency, then apply to the trap".

I was just asking myself the other day "Self, how are we going to feed these hungry dews?"

I will try this tonight or tomorrow...

I recall reading a scholarly article that popped up on one of my VFT google searches, that suggested that smaller traps needed less simulation to close and digest than larger traps.

This makes sense: the size of insect that could get caught by a 3mm trap wouldn't put up much of a fuss, compared to a huge hornet.

However, I'm still wary of hand-feeding my very very very small seedlings, for fear that through sloppy dabbing I'd cause a precious green trap to die off.

1cashew, have you had problems with this?

Sloppy dabbing can certainly cause mold but I do not specifically recall killing any traps with this method,

Saw a video at youtube about feeding baby vft. Hope this helps but same steps as strps provided a few post above that it needs to be grinded.

https://youtu.be/29go3pYJ67U

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cryostasis wrote:Saw a video at youtube about feeding baby vft.

Very well-done video. Thanks for sharing that link.

Your series is most educational and is done with the right amount of humor. I hope to have VFT seeds within the next six weeks and am preparing for them. You will be my guide. Thanks

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[UPDATE JULY 30 — 7.3 weeks]

After 7 weeks, most of these original A-to-Z seedlings are still hangin' in there.

Standard look is about three full traps, such as those on FRITZ in the picture below.

A few of these seedlings have stalled. Not dead, but not growing leaves after opening their cotyledons. I may have jostled some when trying to scrape off algae and replace with fresh peat (before I learned that EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE RINSED).

Some traps have received a meal of bloodworm goo. Everything is still on a screen porch under a T5 light with a bit of morning sun.

Looking really good. Are you going to do a similar post with your sundew seeds?

By the time I plant sundews, I will have at least five seed types (more if I "win" one of the current giveaways!). It will be interesting and delightful to see how the different types grow with similar conditions with the same start date.

The flytraps seeds featured in this thread are from the Flytrap Store, but otherwise unknown about parentage. It'll take a long time before I discover whether any are different than routine Typicals. The sundews, though, will be known species.

Hope I can find room for them all!

They look amazing cute little traps

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How's about an update on your fly trap planting. How are your babies doing? How many survivors? And the leader of the pack, Zebra, how is he?

schmeg wrote:By the time I plant sundews, I will have at least five seed types (more if I "win" one of the current giveaways!). It will be interesting and delightful to see how the different types grow with similar conditions with the same start date.

The flytraps seeds featured in this thread are from the Flytrap Store, but otherwise unknown about parentage. It'll take a long time before I discover whether any are different than routine Typicals. The sundews, though, will be known species.

Hope I can find room for them all!

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[UPDATE AUGUST 8 — 8.6 weeks]

I know it's been hard for y'all to contain your excitement about my flytrap seedlings. Aren't you just so curious to know how they are doing?

20 of 24 plants survived (R.I.P. GRAVY, KNIFE, OLIVE, and ROAST).

When the 20 were at 5 weeks old, I tallied how many open or mature-size traps were showing. I didn't count new leaves or developing traps, nor were the cotyledons counted.

At 5 weeks, only 6 plants had any mature traps, for a total of 8: BAGEL, ENTER, FRITZ, IGLOO, and WHIRL each had 1. ZEBRA had 3.

Now, at 8.6 weeks, 17 plants have open traps, for a total of 46 mature traps! SNAKE and TWIST have at least 1 leaf. Poor VOTER only has its cotyledons, and these are browned at the tips.

Big 4-trap gains were made by DISCO (from 0 to 4), ENTER (1 to 5), IGLOO (1 to 5), and WHIRL (1 to 5).

CRISP and FRITZ opened 3 more traps each in the past 3-1/2 weeks.

APRON, BAGEL, HAZEL, NASTY, and PRONG opened 2 more traps each.

Slowpokes JEWEL, LEMON, MAESY, QUIRK, UNCLE, and ZEBRA added only 1 more fully mature trap.

Keep reading! Here's the exiting part! Some plants are showing possible signs of future characteristics. APRON, UNCLE, and WHIRL have traps that look relatively larger than the other plants. Many plants have a soft reddish flush inside their green traps, but ZEBRA has noticeably redder traps and slightly red leaves (but is not entirely red). It will be interesting to see whether such characteristics carry through as they grow.

I'm working on getting a macro lens, and will update this post with pictures if that happens soon.

Poor Olive now how will she help Santa.

Well at least she won't be laughing at Rudolph and calling him names.

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