FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

How can I tell if my induced dormancy worked so that I can do it the same next year, or change it if it didn't?

I've found a lot of info about going into dormancy, and bringing plants out, but I cant find anything on how to tell if it worked.

I'm in Adelaide, South Australia (Mediterranean climate) And have a little desktop terrarium that had one, no-name, store bought VFT that is growing under a small LED light bar.

It's inside on my desk because I like looking at it, and it seems to be keeping me sane

It did very well over the summer, and over a few weeks leading up to winter, I changed the lighting from sixteen hours per day to five hours per day, let it sit at five hours per day for four weeks, then gradually brought it back to sixteen hours of light per day.

The light didn't fade in and out or anything, it was either full on, or off.

The VFT stayed green and healthy looking over winter, but didn't grow very much (or perhaps at all).

Maximum winter day temperatures would have been around 22C (72F), with minimum night temperatures down around 8C (46F).

It started to flower about four weeks ago (I cut off the flower stem at 5cm (2in)), and it also sent out six side shoots with their own root system that I have since separated and replanted. Five are now growing well, so I figure they were pretty healthy.

If my VFT flowers, and sends out shoots, does that mean my dormancy period was about right?

The VFT was originally about 5cm (2in) in diameter when bought, and is now more like 11cm (4.3in)

This is a question about my personal use of a winter dormancy test, and not about whether or not I should be using winter dormancy at all. It's just about whether or not the flowering and side shoots are an indicator of a successful dormancy period having taken place.

That is a tough call. New growth on the original plant would be a good indicator of success. VFT will self divide and put up flowers as a last ditch effort to preserve itself. Not saying that is what yours is doing, just that it is not a good indicator of health. Keep an eye on the original plant and once it starts producing new, strong growth, you can count your dormancy a success.

@Panman,

Cool.

I cant help keeping an eye on it.

It's all I seem to do these days

BullwinkleII wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:57 pmIt did very well over the summer, and over a few weeks leading up to winter, I changed the lighting from sixteen hours per day to five hours per day, let it sit at five hours per day for four weeks, then gradually brought it back to sixteen hours of light per day.

The light didn't fade in and out or anything, it was either full on, or off.

That's no different from the sunlight being blocked by trees, then the sun swung around, cleared the trees, and hit the plants full-force.

BullwinkleII wrote:The VFT stayed green and healthy looking over winter, but didn't grow very much (or perhaps at all).

Maximum winter day temperatures would have been around 22C (72F), with minimum night temperatures down around 8C (46F).

Those conditions are like flytrap dormancy in the Florida panhandle. "Little to no growth" for several weeks sounds like dormancy to me.

BullwinkleII wrote:It started to flower about four weeks ago (I cut off the flower stem at 5cm (2in)), and it also sent out six side shoots with their own root system that I have since separated and replanted. Five are now growing well, so I figure they were pretty healthy.

If my VFT flowers, and sends out shoots, does that mean my dormancy period was about right?

The VFT was originally about 5cm (2in) in diameter when bought, and is now more like 11cm (4.3in)

• Is the main crown on the plant growing well (decent-sized traps)?
• What mix are you using for soil?
• How long has the plant been in this soil?

This past winter, I had some plants that went through dormancy just fine, but when spring rolled around, they reluctantly put out small leaves and traps. They had been in that peat/perlite/sand mix for 3 years, and the soil had gone "sour". When I unpotted them, I found that the mother plants had produced a ton of offshoots. I divided the plants and potted them in fresh soil, and they recovered nicely over the summer. I ended up with 40-50 Grün cultivars from just 3 pots.

@MikeB said...
* Is the main crown on the plant growing well (decent-sized traps)?
* What mix are you using for soil?
* How long has the plant been in this soil?
---

Main parent plant is doing well (Under lights - Spring in the Southern Hemisphere with 16 hours/day light)...
Media is dead sphagnum moss (the green bits are added live for my visual enjoyment)

I think I got the original VFT about a year ago last spring from a hardware store.

The offshoots look like this...

This one had a shallow root (I figured it wouldnt matter given where it was planted), and then was unfortunately planted out into my aquaponics system as an experiment, but suffered three days of brutal wind which I think dried the top of the media (and was itself hammered by wind) Normally the media in the aquaponics system wicks some moisture up to within 1cm (half an inch) of the surface, but strong wind can take available moisture all the way back down to the water surface which is around 5cm (2in) down. I covered it today for some protection, and I'll leave it there to see how it goes. For the record, my aquaponics system is mature, runs expanded clay media, is under heavy shade cloth except for two hours in the afternoon, and runs on Adelaide tap water, and fish poop.

Adelaide tap water can be best described as being made of liquid rocks, salts, and chlorine (chlorine is probably gone by the time new water gets to the grow bed as totpup water drip fed into a 500L (132 Gallon) holding tank, and chlorine turns to salt within a day or so. Also for the record, nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia are all at <1ppm (ie undetectable). Dissolved salt levels are probably high, pH is neutral.

The biggest new trap on the original plant since the division, is the one at 9 o'clock, and is at least the the same size as the old traps (and maybe still growing), so I think I got away with my newbie handling skills. All the offshoots seem to be growing.

[EDIT- and the terrarium is watered with reverse osmosis water.]