FlyTrapCare Forums

I'm reading a review article titled "Mineral Nutrition of Carnivorous Plants" (Adamec, 1997), which investigates the different methods of nutrient absorption by CPs. I found it interesting that a large number of carnivorous plants (but not all) obtained a significant amount of their mineral nutrition from the soil. In many plants, feeding them insects resulted in more biomass and nutrients in the plant, but foliar feeding was only supplementary to root nutrition in a lot of cases.

For people interested in developing CP substrates, this might be a field worth investigating.

Just some thoughts.

Do you know what nutrients VFT's need? Thanks

Actually the report said that Venus Flytraps might be one of the plants that rely heavily on leaf nutrient uptake.

Keep in mind that you shouldn't go around adding nutrients to the soil if you don't know what you're doing. Soil in natural carnivorous plant habitats is generally nutrient poor, but not completely devoid of nutrition. I'm just saying that some problems might arise if you try to use completely inorganic, synthetic or otherwise nutrient-free substrates, as many species do rely on soil nutrition.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, I meant what nutrients VFT's need most when feeding them.

The report didn't specify

Thank you anyway