FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

WHIRL caught five fungus gnats today.

Nice! Fungal gnats can be a good, dependable food source all winter.

I would highly recommend them from personal experience with the caveat being that they are known carriers of damping off disease (on their little feet) and it is said their larvae will eat the roots of seedlings and kill them.

Two seedlings turned black when I was on vacation. I assume it was root damage from larvae, although I use mosquito dunks in the water.

I just caught back up on this thread and enjoyed it. RIP to the 4 fallen soldiers

With Venus fly traps some seeds never germinate. Some seedlings never seem to grow. Some seedlings do not grow a root system and some seem to die for no apparent reason. I lost one plant this year (other than the pot of seven seedlings I forgot to water when I went out of town for a few days). It was a very healthy just shy of one year old seedling this past early July. The pot of some thirty other seedlings looked great and does to this day. This plant in less than three days simply collapsed and died. Cephalotus and viola atropurpurea also seem to suffer from this death by no apparent reason. Many other plant species may suffer from this as well. I do not know. VFT's, cephalotus and viola atropurpurea are typically grown in media containing decomposing organic material although my recollection is that the atropurpurea is kept dryer than the other two. It may be there is a connection to the fungus gnat. Whatever the indirect cause or causes may be of this sudden death it is probably a fungal root infection which causes the death. Pretreatment with a fungicide recommended by Jagasian may prevent this. Scott's DiseaseEx Lawn Fungicide at one quarter teaspoon per 8 fluid ounces of distilled water. I can not say as I have bought the product but have not used it!

[UPDATE SEPTEMBER 21 — 15 weeks]

Only 13 of the original 24 survive, and some of those have really stalled out and I presume are on the critical list. Breaks my heart.

There are still some fungus gnat larvae in the peat, although I douse with dilute hydrogen peroxide every week or so.

But three of my four "grown-up" flytraps outside have put out small divisions, which I'll repot in the spring. Whichever seedlings survive will have plenty of cousins.

Hi Schmeg,
I have been following the saga of the Twenty-four since they were fresh seedlings and have enjoyed the educational journey. Your updates have been both enjoyable and insightful for the detailed information you have imparted. I I thought that I would try about 5 King Henry's in the spring but now I understand why people plant so many seeds. It may be too much of an undertaking for me.
Keep the information coming. Granpa Walt

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Granpa Walt: I knew I'd learn so much from my first batch of seedlings. I learned how to manage algae and (maybe someday) fungus gnats. I experimented with germinating flytrap seeds in water and that was a total failure.

I'm ready to plant another set and know I'll get better results.

I also know that whichever of these grows up will be far more special to me than plants I buy. Anyone can order a plant or buy one at Lowe's. But growing from seed makes these one-of-a-kind.

[And yes, plant a lot of seed. You can always give away extras.]

I have 5 small vdt that I have germinated from seeds in sphagnum moss. After a weej or twk where I now just left tge container opeb I saw some mold on the medium worried I always spray the medium with hydrogen peroxide with water and for me I think it didnt work so I also sprinkled some cinnamon powder on and around the sma seeing and after a few days the algae is gone. Ill try to share some pictures of my vft seedlings but they are still so small my phone camera cannot capture them clearly. BTW this tgread is my inspiration to try vft from seeds on my first attempt and got 5 out of 10 that germinated.

I have another batch(sowed last sept 24) of seeds that I got from a local seller trying them out if they will have a higher percentage of germination I sprinkled cinnamon powder on top of them and mist with water.

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Rinsing the peat mix thoroughly and gently circulating the air has helped reduce algae, more than treatments like cinnamon. A little clip-on fan can be only $10.

schmeg wrote:Rinsing the peat mix thoroughly and gently circulating the air has helped reduce algae, more than treatments like cinnamon. A little clip-on fan can be only $10.

Have a fan facing them. Here are the 4 out of the 5 seeds that germinated. Have some algae again. I remembered I microwaved and rinse the medium before using them Not sure how old they are but I saw first germinatikn around Sept 4 so I started couting from that day.

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If you have algae after microwaving and a fan, it's probably too wet or the fan isn't circulating correctly