FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Looking good! I totally understand your excitement as I have just sown fresh seed this year for the first time in many. I love seeing what new genetics might emerge from any particular seed set...so much potential!

Please keep us updated

Propag8 wrote:Thanks Matt. Possibly some new FTS cultivars this year then

Yes, possibly! Probably more likely to be Sarracenia cultivars than flytraps. I did start some flytrap seed too, but nothing that was new genetics in terms of parentage. Of course, you never 100% know what you're going to get with seeds! That's the fun part, right?!!

Propag8 wrote: In your professional opinion how often do seedlings show any traits of the parent plants?

That is highly variable depending on the particular trait of the parent you're asking about. For example, Dentate Traps, Coquillage, Fused Tooth, Triton, Werewolf, and a few other odd ones often produce offspring that look quite similar to the parent plant. When I say "quite often" I'm meaning somewhere around 30% to 50% of the time or more.

Propag8 wrote:I know you can't give numbers but is it common or rare?

Again, it depends on the particular trait you're looking for. In general, I'd say it's neither rare nor common to have the offspring look like the parent. How's that for an answer?!

I've sown hundreds of Alien seeds and have not had one look like the parent plant. But when I sow our Fused Tooth x Fused Tooth mix, about 2/3 of them look like Fused Tooth or Fuzzy Tooth.

Propag8 wrote:Thanks Matt. 30-50% of the specific cultivars you pointed is actually a fair amount I expected it to be far less but obviously with other clones it is far less. For me plant genetics are the most interesting part of growing especially with fly traps as there is only one species. I must say I seriously envy your job lol and I'm not suggesting at all that's it's easy. I'd love to see a day in the life of the flytrapstore. How you run your nursery, maintain and propagate plants and tissue culture your clones, prepare your plants for shipping and process orders, select your cultivars and run your breeding programs. Come on you've got plenty of spare time to do that for us as well as run the forum

!!

Yeah, I'm sure quite a number of people would be interested in seeing a day or few days in the life of FlytrapStore. I admit that I'm super lucky with the job I have! It truly is a dream come true to be able to do what Leah and I do each day. I am extremely grateful that things have worked out the way they have for us. It was a lot of work to get here, but worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears to make it happen!

Honestly, there is a lot of repetitive work in running a nursery, so much of what we do would likely be considered exceptionally boring. It's mostly just a lot of potting and repotting for in vivo plants and plating and replating for in vitro plants. That's the brunt of the work. Of course, there is a lot of watering, fertilizing, studying of the plants to watch for pests or other ailments, etc. That part of running a nursery is super fun for me.

Leah has been doing the vast majority of the processing of orders including selecting, preparing, potting and packaging up potted plants for shipment. I help a little here and there but mostly focus on keeping the FlytrapStore sever and underlying software up to date, propagating plants in tissue culture and by division, watering each day, monitoring for pests and addressing problems when I see them, fertilizing when I have time among other fun things!

We have been talking about making a video series for a long time but have never made it a priority. Maybe this winter and next spring we can do some videos. I know many people have been asking for them and they'd probably get some views.

Propag8 wrote:Aren't all jobs repetitive lol mine certainly is.

You know -- you're probably right! I believe that most jobs have a lot of repetition in them. I guess there is quite a lot of variety in what we do as well, so I should be even more grateful!

Propag8 wrote:You and leah have done amazing to achieve what you have and are an inspiration to a lot of people on this forum. You still take the time to answer our questions and welcome people to the forum on top of everything else you have going on.

Aw shucks Thanks for the kind words. Leah and I do our best to be available to those in the hobby and to be as kind and supportive to everyone as we can. It is nice to hear that our efforts are appreciated

Propag8 wrote:I would be over the moon to see a video series when other priorities slow down (if they do).

Winter is always a bit slow outside of my tissue culture propagation. Unfortunately, there isn't much to show in terms of nice-looking plants during that time, but we do still ship orders and I do a lot of propagation so we could do some videos on those subjects if people would like to see them.

Propag8 wrote:As we say here in the UK your an all-around top bloke

I like that!!

Propag8 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:00 pm Maybe nearer the time do a post explaining things that you are doing in work at the time and ask for forum users comments on what they would like to see the most. It would take a lot of the guess work out of what material to use in the vids when you have an army of plant nerds to give you feedback.

Great idea! Leah and I have a list of ideas. I will think more and add some and see what people here would most like to see from our list. Sounds like a great reason to start a poll!