- Wed May 04, 2022 3:26 pm
#410001
Howdy, my name is Ed and I'm located in south central Alabama, USA. This is the second time having a VFT under my care. The first one, probably 30 years ago died a quick death. Well, "Gigi" took our granddaughters shopping the other day while they were spending the weekend with us. Seems the middle one, our 10-year-old jumping-bean tumbler, returned with a tiny VFT. She has researched the stew out of taking care of it, making notes and diagrams and really investing her time. Secretly I've always wanted to get a another VFT but figured they were short-lived critters...now, I see that I murdered the one we had years ago!<the sound of a funeral dirge playing softly in the background>. Anyhow, as I mentioned, my middle-granddaughter is in a tumbler and a pretty good one, too! Her cheer team won a shot to compete at a large competition in south Florida so I'm suddenly babysitting her brand new baby VFT for the next week!!! I guess this is our Great-grand-flytrap!!!
Great-grand-flytrap , on Flickr
I've been tasked with repotting (if needed) and the care of the plant until her return. Basically, my intentions are:
1. - Not to kill it.
2. - To possibly repot it into a larger pot.
3. - Not to kill it.
4. - Did I mention "Not to kill it"?
I've learned so far that it appears that the two most important things are water and growing medium. Use rainwater or distilled water and to use basically a sterile growing medium consisting of perlite and peat moss. Also, it seems highly recommended to grow them in plastic containers rather than clay pots...or in well-glazed pots, due to possible leaching of minerals into the growing medium.
Anyhow, I tried to find some perlite and peat moss locally but being in a rural setting, well, somethings just aren't readily available so I ordered some soil off Amazon (before I found this spot).
It is stated as "Carnivorous Plant Soil Mix" and had good reviews...it is a 50:50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and perlite. We also got a gallon of distilled water from a dollar store.
I've been trying to keep the flytrap outside in the sunshine but we're having some cloudy/rainy weather and not a lot of sunshine so it's kind of an "in and out" routine. When inside it sits in an east-facing window where it gets a couple of hours of direct sunlight...not optimal, but better than nothing while inside. It looks like Sunday we move back into sunshine, though! Another concerning thing for me is blasted squirrels!!! We have a bunch of them around here. Do they tend to go for flytraps?
The flytrap came in the standard plastic tube in an (almost) 3" diameter pot. I've currently got it sitting in an old glazed pot, propped up so the 3" plastic pot is level with the top of the glazed one. Should I worry with up-potting it to a larger pot now, or let it go a while in the current pot? Also, I watched a video and these plants don't have much of a root system, do they? The video I watched stated to knock off most of the old medium and basically plant it bare-roots...it seemed to be a guy that knew what he was doing...this sound correct, rather than retaining the growing medium around the roots???
Well, that's probably more info than needed but I wanted to throw it out there for any feedback I can get.
Thanks!
Ed
Great-grand-flytrap , on Flickr
I've been tasked with repotting (if needed) and the care of the plant until her return. Basically, my intentions are:
1. - Not to kill it.
2. - To possibly repot it into a larger pot.
3. - Not to kill it.
4. - Did I mention "Not to kill it"?
I've learned so far that it appears that the two most important things are water and growing medium. Use rainwater or distilled water and to use basically a sterile growing medium consisting of perlite and peat moss. Also, it seems highly recommended to grow them in plastic containers rather than clay pots...or in well-glazed pots, due to possible leaching of minerals into the growing medium.
Anyhow, I tried to find some perlite and peat moss locally but being in a rural setting, well, somethings just aren't readily available so I ordered some soil off Amazon (before I found this spot).
It is stated as "Carnivorous Plant Soil Mix" and had good reviews...it is a 50:50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and perlite. We also got a gallon of distilled water from a dollar store.
I've been trying to keep the flytrap outside in the sunshine but we're having some cloudy/rainy weather and not a lot of sunshine so it's kind of an "in and out" routine. When inside it sits in an east-facing window where it gets a couple of hours of direct sunlight...not optimal, but better than nothing while inside. It looks like Sunday we move back into sunshine, though! Another concerning thing for me is blasted squirrels!!! We have a bunch of them around here. Do they tend to go for flytraps?
The flytrap came in the standard plastic tube in an (almost) 3" diameter pot. I've currently got it sitting in an old glazed pot, propped up so the 3" plastic pot is level with the top of the glazed one. Should I worry with up-potting it to a larger pot now, or let it go a while in the current pot? Also, I watched a video and these plants don't have much of a root system, do they? The video I watched stated to knock off most of the old medium and basically plant it bare-roots...it seemed to be a guy that knew what he was doing...this sound correct, rather than retaining the growing medium around the roots???
Well, that's probably more info than needed but I wanted to throw it out there for any feedback I can get.
Thanks!
Ed
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