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

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By Apollyon
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Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#385986
Nice! Mine have been acting about the same. The Dracula I have has been kinda ehh this season. It did much better last year but it's growing anyway. I got them in hydropots similar to yours. My DCXL isn't reaching up like yours but that may be for a number of reasons. I was hoping I'd see more of that this year but perhaps it'll still do it. They grew vigorously and jumped in size though. You have some great looking flytraps. Think you might like SD Kronos if you like Big Mouth and large traps. It's definitely a beast of a flytrap.
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By francisfaustino
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#385988
Yes, I do have the SD Kronos as well as the Low Giant. Unfortunately, those are 2 of the cultivars that were affected by last year's mishaps as I described in this thread: can-vfts-survive-winter-dormancy-withou ... 51557.html

They're sprouting back up and I have a number of division pots of each cultivar that are doing well, albeit still small, that I took earlier this year.
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By francisfaustino
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Joined:  Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:46 pm
#386090
I've finally decided on which cultivars to put in a big pot and re-potted earlier tonight. I'm using 3 gallon plastic pots from Home Depot. The pots uses a lot of media which is why I had to be extremely picky which ones I put in the big pots. If money and space were no objects though, I would have all of them in big pots! :D

I ultimately chose the Big Mouth and Jaws. Throughout the past few years, I have been researching which cultivars I like the most to justify the big pots. I've looked at plenty of photos of mature pots and also read comments from experienced growers about their experiences of different cultivars and their general descriptions. Of course, I have also closely observed the plants that are in my actual care.

My criteria for choosing are vigorous growth, color, consistency of the cultivar's description, and large traps (it didn't have to be the largest but nothing that are generally considered small). I also want somewhat normal looking traps, so no Wacky Traps, Werewolf Spawn, etc. The most "abnormal" looking cultivar that I'm willing to consider is the Alien. Unfortunately, I don't currently have an adult Alien. I also don't see very many photos of it filling a big pot or how it looks like in a big clump.

I specifically picked 2 to represent a cultivar with a more upright growth and another that is low to the ground.

For the low growers, it came down to Low Giant, SD Kronos, Purple Ambush, and Big Mouth. I didn't pick SD Kronos because all of the photos that I saw of mature plants seem to have very long teeth, which I'm not exactly fond of. Between the Low Giant and Big Mouth, I just preferred the overall look of a mature pot of Big Mouth. The Big Mouth also seem to color more readily than the Low Giant. Finally, the Purple Ambush and the Big Mouth has very similar growth patterns in my growing conditions. I picked Big Mouth because it has been so much more vigorous and has bigger traps than the Purple Ambush. I bought the Big Mouth last spring as a young plant and it's already a bigger plant than my Purple Ambush that I acquired in 2016.

As for the upright growers, I chose between the G16, DC XL, Jaws, Trev's Dracula, and Royal Red. I didn't really like the unkempt look of the DC XL and G16 which quickly ruled them out. Trev's Dracula has been a complicated pick. The description from Trev says the cultivar stays low to the ground all year round with only a few upright traps. Well, I've had the plant for 3 seasons now and that has not been my experience with it at all. Trev's Dracula for me has always been more of an upright grower. My plant still looks fantastic though and it has big traps but I just prefer the cultivar be more consistent with the description across a wider range of conditions. Otherwise, I'll never be sure just how the plant is supposed to look like. I've also never seen it color like the photos that Trev posted. Maybe my conditions are too warm. It would have been an easy pick if my plant looked like the photos from Trev. Moving on, the Royal Red is my favorite red cultivar but I didn't pick it because the Jaws is so much more vigorous in comparison. I just love the overall look of a mature pot of Jaws. I might still put the Royal Red in a big pot later on though. :D

The Jaws pot consists of my main plant that was in a 5" x 5" x 7" along with 7 smaller division pots that I took earlier this year all put into one big pot. The Big Mouth has my main plant along with 2 division pots. I tried not to disturb the LFSM around the rhizomes. I just put them in the bigger pots and added more LFSM around the extra spaces.

These are of course my opinions and my experiences with the different cultivars in my growing conditions. Liking a plant is highly subjective! I mean no offense if you don't agree with my choices or if you think my picks are ugly! :D :D :D
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By francisfaustino
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#386342
I finally found the perfect pots for my Big Mouth and Jaws! For years, I've been searching the wrong terms of "wide and short planters" when I should have been searching for "bowl planters". The pots are 6" tall and 14" wide. It still takes a lot of media but not nearly as much as normal dimensioned planters that are 14" wide and 15" tall meant for bigger plants. I can't wait for the plants to fill them out. :D :D :D
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By francisfaustino
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#386618
As I mentioned previously, many of the young plants that I bought last season's spring 2020 died back completely. I re-potted everything earlier this year and I don't know if my re-potting methods are wrong or what. I'm thinking the most likely culprit though is that I under cared for the plants during winter dormancy. The divisions I took earlier this year though are doing great. I think the reason the division pots did better than the mother pots is because I kept the division pots much wetter then the mother pots. I use water trays on the division pots but not on the bigger pots. I also let the bigger pots dry out more before watering. This isn't a problem with the mature plants but it might not have been enough water for the younger plants.

Mother Pots:

Low Giant - I don't know if I'm gonna give up on this as it has looked like this all season now. If you look really closely though, you can see tiny leaves sprouting.
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SD Kronos
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B52
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FTS Maroon Monster - this is one of the few plants where the mother pot actually did better than the division pots.
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Division Pots: - Here are the plants from the divisions I took earlier this year. I have transferred some of them back to the bigger pots.

Low Giant - I took 4 smaller division pots and put them in one bigger pot.
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SD Kronos - I only got this one division earlier this year.
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B52 - I want to transfer this division back in with the main pot but I'm too afraid to touch them right now. Maybe next season.
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By francisfaustino
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#386955
VFTs in the rain! Late summer and early fall seem to be the best season for colors with these plants in my climate.

B52 baby coming along nicely after I almost killed it last year.
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Purple Ambush this season has been the best I've ever seen this plant so far.
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By francisfaustino
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#387340
Got a few new plants today! First Venus flytrap purchase of the year! I can't wait to see the 'Flaming Lips' and 'Bimbo' all grown up and filling big pots in a few years. They look awesome based on all the photos I've seen of the plants from other people! 🤩🤩🤩
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By francisfaustino
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Joined:  Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:46 pm
#387790
I received a plant that I bought from eBay. This was a bit of an impulse purchase for me but I really like the look and the coloration of the plant from the photos that were posted on the Facebook group. Hopefully it grows up into a stunning plant! 🤩🤩🤩
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By francisfaustino
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Joined:  Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:46 pm
#390020
After almost a month of seemingly not doing anything after I received it, I finally noticed my Fine Tooth x Red has settled down in my grow environment and started putting on some colors inside the traps.
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By francisfaustino
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Joined:  Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:46 pm
#390498
Update on the Alien that I almost killed last dormancy. This plant died back to nothing earlier this year after I re-potted in the spring. I kept taking care of it because I could still kinda see a small part of the rhizome sticking out. This plant has been indoors for the most part of this growing season which allowed me to have better controls on the temperatures and watering. It took the plant all season to grow this much. It is still very small at just an inch across the rosette, but at least it is now noticeably getting bigger. As you can see in the media, I haven't touched it in a while because I'm too afraid that I might hold it back again if I re-pot right now.
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By JAYSONE
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Joined:  Mon Aug 30, 2021 6:40 am
#390502
Just wanted to say I appreciate this "journal" of yours. Provides a wealth of information and insight to a newbie like myself...keep it up!

What do you think went wrong with your repot of your Alien? Was it the repotting itself or the aftercare?
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By francisfaustino
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Joined:  Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:46 pm
#390508
JAYSONE wrote:Just wanted to say I appreciate this "journal" of yours. Provides a wealth of information and insight to a newbie like myself...keep it up!

What do you think went wrong with your repot of your Alien? Was it the repotting itself or the aftercare?
Thank you for the feedback. It's fun for me as well to look back and see what the plants looked like and what I have learned along the way! I'm glad to hear that the information is useful to other people as well!

What happened with the Alien, along with a number of my other plants, is last year was the first time I was able to provide full on sunlight all day long to the plants when we moved to our new house. Full on sunlight also came with high temperatures. Most of my plants were stressed from the constant summer's heat and it wasn't until mid to late summer when I realized that something wasn't working and I moved the plants to the backyard where they are shaded during noon sun. By that time though, most of my plants were already very stressed especially the plants I bought earlier that spring 2020. I let them all go dormant fully exposed to zone 7B and re-potted everything came spring 2021. A number of my mother pots didn't make it, but luckily, the divisions I took were all successful and some are now my mother pots. The Alien though didn't give me any divisions so I only had this one plant! Luckily, it's doing ok. I'm going to skip dormancy for this plant along with some new plants I bought late summer by keeping them indoors under grow lights. Hopefully, by the end of the next season, they'll be more robust to handle dormancy without the risk of being set back again.
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