FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

hello there,
wile most peoples vft collections are in there dormancy
mine are wide awake and have been for months past there usual,
its an ongoing 24-7 project , eventually I will put then to rest in the fridge,
but this is an experiment to just how long they can be stretched ,

Your experiment won't work unless you let them go until they completely die.

And why risk the health of all those nice cultivars? Just use 4-6 cheap typicals.

Fieldofscreams wrote:Your experiment won't work unless you let them go until they completely die.

And why risk the health of all those nice cultivars? Just use 4-6 cheap typicals.

Can't you delay the dormant period until early January and make them go dormant so by the time April comes around they will have been dormant for 3 1/2-4 months? I feel like it would work just as fine as making them dormant in October then when spring comes around they have been dormant for 5-6 months. Who knows if the longer the rest the more growth they will receive in the spring time. There could be some truth to that ,but it could also be that if they are dormant for 3 months or 6 months there is no difference in boosted growth during spring time. Does anyone know if there is any evidence or statistics for that?

I don't think that it "won't work unless they die", you just have to watch them daily and catch them right as they start to decline in vigor and put them into dormancy.
The problem is that you can't say for certain when these plants are going to decline in health. It may be in January or it may be later. If they want to know for sure I don't really see how they could do it any other way than letting them decline in health to some extent.

I haven't read anything about 3 month vs. 6 month (etc.) dormancy periods and it's effects on the vigor of different plants... but I don't think that too big of a problem in this experiment. Even if the i.e. 3 month dormancy is not as optimal as a 6 month dormancy if they put them in the fridge in January or March and take them out in June or April they still will be relatively ready to grow during the natural summer.
The bigger issue is when that day of dormancy will come and how much it is going to be shifted. What if the VFT's don't decline until May or July and now they would benefit from dormancy but it's summer? The seasons would be completely flipped and then you have to readjust them to the typical grow cycle in the geographic area they're in over a period of multiple years (or just deal with a completely opposite seasonality and have them under lights in the winter and in the fridge in the summer). To avoid all that I personally would have done what Field mentioned: buy a bunch of typical and run them under the 24/7 lights until they burn out and throw them in the trash. Then you know how long you can do it to the cultivars without risking the chance of burning them out beyond the point of no return.

Those look beautiful! What light are you using?? It looks to be LED

thank you chesser,
and yes there all LED lights with the a little extra
fluorescent add to the mix.

more pics 1-19-19