FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I found this cool time lapse video of a Venus Flytrap's one year of growth condensed into four minutes. It is very well done. Notice how the growth point shifts as the rhizome elongates and how the old leaves turn black. Watch it in full screen mode and turn the music up.

Brad

http://youtu.be/D9NBPXA-4SM

Nice vid BradR, there's one from that same guy doing one from VFT's from "seed", i think it was matt who saw this might not be true as the growth was different.
Anway great vid, and i send you a PM!

That's just great! Thanks for sharing!

I saw this video a few days ago and apparently the guy growing the flytrap hasn't made it go dormant for 10 years! Another thing I noticed is that it never divided either.

I'm wondering if it actually has gone into dormancy, but he's never really considered it dormant?

chazzbo77 wrote:I'm wondering if it actually has gone into dormancy, but he's never really considered it dormant?

That's my guess. Venus Flytraps will try to find a way to rest for a while each year, and if they aren't kept too wet (necessary to avoid rot) they can survive with a minimal or light dormancy, but they won't grow as fast or vigorously for a time after that.

This last year I split some Akai Ryu plants into two groups. One group I left in the greenhouse to experience a normal cool, dry-ish dormancy. The other group I put inside under artificial lights for all winter. They balked at first, seeming to want to go into dormancy, but after a few weeks the ones inside began to grow again. The leaves were long and more upright like summer growth, but the leaf production (new leaves emerging) was slower than during the growing season.

Then in Spring when the group of Akai Ryu's in the greenhouse were breaking dormancy and starting to grow well again, I took the group from inside the house that had been growing all winter and placed them with the Akai Ryu's that had just awakened from dormancy in the greenhouse. Those that had been in dormancy started growing very vigorously, while those that spent the winter under lights in the house almost stopped growing at all. However, they didn't die back; they just stalled for about six weeks and then began to grow normally again, and within a few weeks had almost caught up with their brother Akai Ryu Flytraps that had had a nice dormancy.

So a light or minimal dormancy can work, but the plants seem to compensate by not growing as vigorously for a time, whenever they feel like they can rest, it seems. It's important not to keep them too wet when they're not growing actively, because plants are almost forced to try to grow fast to use up excess water in order to keep from dying of rot: too much water is very stressful for plants that are trying to sleep (dormancy) or take a light nap for a few weeks (minimal, light dormancy).

Just some observations.

I've seen this video too much.