FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I’ve been thinking about this lemme know what everyone thinks. When doing the vft leaf pullings it’s better to use a newly opened trap right? Well what if you say fed that trap and let it start digesting for like a day or two and that way the leaf is pulling nutrients down the stem of the leaf(petiole?)to the rhizome, could this possibly speed up the process or increase chance of strikes since it has nutrients inside of it? Then of course cut off the trap to avoid mold and such? Or with sundews you could feed it with maxsea first before cutting? And with max sea there’s less chance of mold? Does this make sense?

I don't think I've seen a report of results from a pullings/cuttings comparison of new leaves vs freshly fed leaves. Your theory is intriguing.
Maybe you should give it a try on a typical VFT and a typical Cape.
Wait until the two newest traps/paddles are fully opened, then feed/fertilize the second newest trap/paddle, but nothing to the newest trap/paddle. Wait two, maybe three days, then harvest the two newest traps/paddles and set them both in the same conditions; ie., peat/perlite mix or pure LFSM, side by side, same temps, same light, etc. On the VFT's, cut the traps off to avoid mold (as you already surmised).
This experiment should be short, one season, two at most. Let us know what you find.

Interesting idea! Here is what I think:
First the plant loses energy when the trap closes. Then, it starts digesting wich will burn up some energy too (I think). But it gets more energy after the food has been digested.
So it could work (I think). Just that the plant will have to first burn energy and then gain more.
I may be just dumb and not understanding the digestive system of a VFT but it is all just theoretical anyway.

Never thought of it that way. But I´m guessing the energy will be stored in the rhyzome so the bulk of it will be lost to the leaf anyway. Hope you´ll find the time to test out!

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-A226B met Tapatalk

Update: possible strikes on my fed leaf and still nothing on unfed leaf. Today is the 1 month mark. The leaves are in water as I felt that would be the easiest way to make sure they had the same conditions. I took the leaves from 2 capes that are pretty much the same size and were both unfurling leaves at pretty much the same time. I fed the one leaf with max sea, waited 2 days and then cut them both and put them in separate water containers and under my light. I’m not sure why but the fed leaf started curling up in the water and the end is turning brown( tentacle end not petiole end) and the unfed leaf is still completely green and rather flat so i dunno if the max sea had anything to do with this? I’ll definitely give another update in a week or two now that I see there might be something to this.
I think I’m going to do another trial run now that I made my max sea mix stronger too. I’m wondering what would happen if I added some max sea to the water the leaf is floating in. Has anyone ever tried this or would it just make the water mold or algae? Sorry for rambling super long post I’m just kind of exited that my science might actually be working lol