FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello all. I’ve been experimenting with fertilizers on a typical VFT I got from a local plant store. For the past month I’ve been applying a 95 ppm solution of Dyna-Grow Foliage Pro once a week. I apply the solution using a dropper directly into a few traps. Not much was happening to the plant until last week when I noticed a huge increase in the number of new traps. I was wondering what other, more experienced growers thought about my experiment and if this new growth is actually due to the fertilizer.

Could it just be coming out of dormancy?

That was my alternative hypothesis. What are your thoughts on my fertilizing method? I'm trying to get an idea of the effectiveness of it since there aren't a lot of insects for my traps to catch.

Well, unless you had a control plant, same cultivar, same size, same media, same light, same everything (or as close as you could get), then right now you only have a theory that your fertilizer regimen is the potential cause for the growth.
I'm sure that the fertilizer is a factor, but since it's the time of year that they are exiting dormancy, hydrolysis is converting starch to fuel new growth, new leaves are photosynthesizing, you just can't pin it all on the fertilizer.
I divided a VFT over dormancy, one plant became 14. Just today, I had to repot them all because I underestimated their growth; they all exploded from quarter sized plants to four inch wide plants. Some even divided again.
Maybe next year you could take that plant and give it no fertilizer over dormancy. Take two divisions of that plant, pot them into identical pots, in identical media, and separate them, but make sure the lighting is the same. As they begin to exit dormancy, fertilize one and leave the other to nature. That way, you should be able to test your hypothesis of the efficacy of your fertilizer regimen.

Thanks for the advice ChefDean! I'll stop my experiment and wait until next year when I can control my variables. I actually do have a division of this trap in the same soil, lighting, etc BUT I repotted it last month so its not a good control. I bought this trap back in February and he was in the back of the store in a tiny little pot. He's grown consistently since (in a much bigger pot) but then had this explosion in growth recently. Pretty cool. Im new to VFT's so everyday is a new experience!

A lot of my plants will grow decent the first year while they're "settling in", then take off the next year. However, I'm finding that a lot of temperate cp's like the environment in Tennessee, so that may help them grow themselves up.

I rehydrate dried mealworms and bloodworms with a weak Miracle-Gro/Miracid mixture and feed them to my traps. After a few days of digesting this concoction the new growth is off the charts.

Big-Jack wrote:I rehydrate dried mealworms and bloodworms with a weak Miracle-Gro/Miracid mixture and feed them to my traps. After a few days of digesting this concoction the new growth is off the charts.

I do the same. I mix 1 teaspoon of Dyna-Gro into 1 gallon of water and then use it to rehydrate bloodworms. The resulting growth in Sarracenia and Flytraps is astounding!!