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Discussions about anything related to Venus Flytraps, cultivars and named clones

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By MikeB
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Joined:  Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:13 pm
#355119
Joshuamarshall792 wrote: Mon May 25, 2020 4:58 pmMy king Henry got a haircut 2 weeks ago and I made sure to make it a bare rhizome except for the new growth that hasn't popped up yet!
By "haircut", did you mean "cut off the dead leaves" or "cut off all leaves"? If a leaf is still green, then it is still producing food for the plant via photosynthesis. Cutting off the green leaves before they die is actually impeding the growth of your plant.
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By Matt
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#355123
Joshuamarshall792 wrote:They were all droopy and useless, they didn't even close!
They might have been useless for catching insects, but that is their secondary function. Leaves and traps on Venus flytraps provide most of the energy to the plant through photosynthesis. By cutting off all of the leaves, you essentially took away all of the source of energy for the plant and forced it to use its energy stores in the rhizome. This is taxing for a plant to do and, if done too often, will lead to the plant not growing back.

It is never a good idea to cut off anything on any Venus flytrap that is green.
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By DragonsEye
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Joined:  Sat Oct 01, 2016 1:22 pm
#355495
A yellow leaf you can cut off. Where you understanding seems to be lacking, Joshua, is in the function of the leaves. Insects and other prey items are merely "fertilizer" in a form the plants can readily use. As with any "normal" plant, vft's produce their own food via photosynthesis -- and for that they need their living green leaves. Even if the trap itself is dead/useless, as long as the rest of the leave is green (though, yes, so cultivars turn red in strong sun but that is a more indepth conversation for another time) and alive, it is still serving the very useful function of manufacturing food for the plant.

Glad to hear you plant is doing so well!
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By Panman
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#355512
It's not going to make it if you can't get it more light.
Last edited by Panman on Sat May 30, 2020 11:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Artchic528
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Joined:  Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:13 pm
#355534
Panman wrote:It's not thing to make it if you can't get it more light.
Yup. If you can't get it more light, it'll just remain weak and anemic and eventually what little energy it has will peter out and it'll die.
Counting to infinity.

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