FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi!
I am not really a beginner, I’ve been growing carnivorous plants for about 2 and a half years and I’ve really had great success with CPs. I have this question about sarracenia psittacina and it’s hybrid sarracenia Scarlett belle. So I a while back, I found a guy saying that you can grow sarracenia psittacina submerged in water, and that in the wild they frequently get submerged in water. And I’ve also stumbled across some posts in this forum about the topic too! So I was on YouTube and this YouTuber with the name of “Helix plants”, conducted an experiment where he put a s. psittacina in an aquarium with sufficient sunlight and water for six months and I’d say that it was a significant success! The plant grew prolifically but it was trying to get above the water level to go back to it’s normal growing habit. So I have a sarracenia Scarlett belle (which is a hybrid of the sarracenia psittacina) at home. And even though it’s a hybrid, can I do the same thing? Please help me out. I only have one sarracenia psittacina and where I live CPs are scarce and rare to buy, and I don’t want to lose it but I also want to experiment with it. Oh and below is the link of the video of the experiment he did.

Welcome to the forum, AJ! Glad to see you found your way here and figured out how to post

I can't answer your question about growing a S. psittacina hybrid submerged in water, but if your plant is large enough, you could take a division of it to try it out yourself!

Matt wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:18 pm Welcome to the forum, AJ! Glad to see you found your way here and figured out how to post

I can't answer your question about growing a S. psittacina hybrid submerged in water, but if your plant is large enough, you could take a division of it to try it out yourself!

Thanks Matt,
Yeah I had some trouble at first, but I got it now. Yeah I will try to make divisions out of it and maybe experiment it. Where I live carnivorous plants aren’t really that popular and there are many misconceptions about them too!

Annati wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 5:09 pmHi, there!

Hi!

Hi and welcome! Sarracenia xwrigleyana 'Scarlet Belle' is a cross between S. psittacina and S. leucophylla. In the wild, S. psittacina is sometimes found growing totally submerged in water. It has completely different pitcher growth from other Sarracenia and the growth habit is colloquially known as a lobster pot trap because it functions similarly to...you guessed it, a lobster trap! The lobster pot trap is effective at catching prey, both when it is submerged and above water.

However I think it is fair to say that S. psittacina is not an aquatic plant, but an emergent one, where the roots and such are below water, and the leaves stick out. In the video you included, you can see how the pitcher plant naturally grew its leaves above the waterline when submerged totally. I expect the same will occur with your S. 'Scarlet Belle.' The psittacina genes will make it grow out of the water, as it does in nature. I do know the S. leucophylla I grow do like it a bit drier than my S. purpurea, S. flava , and S. psittacina, and that's seemingly true for most cultivators of S. leucophylla. In light of that I would attempt to take divisions of your S. 'Scarlet Belle,' so that you still have a plant left over after your experimentation It is a very vigorous hybrid that I find divides itself very easily in light of its slow-growing S. psittacina parentage. Good luck and keep us updated!

Hi Bawesomer,
Thank you so much for the advice, but I am not sure if I know how to propagate my s. Scarlett belle since they can’t be propagated through via leaf cuttings, pulling a or root cuttings. Any suggestions on how to propagate them? And also I agree, I think the plant might exhibit the same behavior shown in the video since is a hybrid of the original plant. Thank you again for the advice! I will try it out.
AJ

AJ, propagate them through divisions if they are mature enough.
If not, don’t experiment

Kyaw Thuta wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 3:26 pm Hi Bawesomer,
Thank you so much for the advice, but I am not sure if I know how to propagate my s. Scarlett belle since they can’t be propagated through via leaf cuttings, pulling a or root cuttings. Any suggestions on how to propagate them? And also I agree, I think the plant might exhibit the same behavior shown in the video since is a hybrid of the original plant. Thank you again for the advice! I will try it out.
AJ

Here's a pretty good tutorial from the ICPS on how to divide Sarracenia plants: https://www.carnivorousplants.org/grow/ ... aDivisions

You can only divide plants if they have multiple growth points, so you might have to wait for your plant to mature and grow larger if you want to carry out your experiment. If the plant only has two growth points, I probably wouldn't divide it either as that takes away energy that could be going towards future growth.

Thank you very much, I will take a look at it!

Supercazzola wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 4:14 pm AJ, propagate them through divisions if they are mature enough.
If not, don’t experiment

Thank you, I ‘ll try it out