FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Why so few pics?

Your plants are looking good. Do the Sarr's get partial sunlight through that window? If so, how many hours a day? I'm watching their growth closely and may have to ask you to remind me what lights they're under.

The Sarrs that are flowering are putting most of their energy toward the flower; it's normal that those are not doing much with pitchering yet.

A side note - unless you just watered all your plants prior to taking the pics, your flytraps' soil is far too wet and is going to cause problems/rot later. If you aren't doing so already, be sure to let it dry out a bit, down to "just moist", whereas the water tray has been empty for a couple days to a few days, prior to watering the tray again.

Sarrs and sundews, on the other hand, have a blast in soggy soil.

Why so few pics?

Sarcasm I love it!

Do the Sarr's get partial sunlight through that window? If so, how many hours a day?

Yes the sarrs actually get a good direct sunlight from sunup which seems to be around 7amish - until about 1 or 2 pm then they just get indirect sunlight until sundown which is around 8:30ishpm. Mostly my entire middle shelf where all my main(strong sun loving) plants are, they get this indirect and direct lighting from the sun ontop of the LED's that are their main lights. Two LED panels are covering a 4ft by 1.5ft shelf/grow area. One 240w model Lighthouse hydroponics Blackstar model HO veg light with another Lighthouse hydroponics brand Blackstar 90w HO veg light aswell while the bottom shelf contains one Tek Light four t5 2ft fixture with two 6500k lamps and two 3000k lamps good mix, Sunblaster t22 basically a 2ft two bulb t5, and a single 4ft t5 bar all are HO t5 lamps.

your flytraps' soil is far too wet and is going to cause problems/rot later.

Well Ive been doing experiments with watering basically most of the flytraps that are in pots are in actually a oxygenated reservoir that they sit in which has two air stones being pumped with air and is kept at a constant water level with a gravity irrigation system. So far the flytraps have seem to love it but my eldest VFT maybe showing signs of overwater? The outer edges of the leafs and traps are all a tint of yellow with a nice green in the middle. My geuss it could be a Calcium, magnesium or iron deficiency? It is showing the most sign of growth with over 7 new leafs with traps being produced right now if you couldnt see in the picture also it is the most fed of all my traps so far for obvious reason it can eat a lot more.

I'm not sure if that's due to water but all the other VFT's have shown that they only like it no signs other then yellowing a bit on my eldest flytrap. Im thinking with the water is that it should be fine with having pumps pump oxygen in the water constantly which in turn would prevent the VFT's from developing rot root due to having plenty of oxygen in the water/soil/roots. I also have two airstones and a separate pump for the sarr's and droseras. Also I thought it should be okay because their is a lot of direct lighting on them aswell. How soon could I expect to see signs of root rot or damage because of my watering methods? Basically been trying to understand more about how to apply hydroponics/aeroponics to CP's which are geared completely different in nutrient gaining compared to other plants.

Had a quick question about Sarr's when they start opening their hoods can I start feeding them since they live inside right now because of the coldness of outside cant let them hunt properly yet. Would it suffice just dropping lets say dead or living insects inside the open hood of the sarrs pitchers?

Again thanks all for viewing the pictures and giving helpful advice especially you Veronis! Would not have made this massive collection in such a short time and gain so much knowledge in such a short time. More updates will come as I progress growing CP's.

Godly wrote:

your flytraps' soil is far too wet and is going to cause problems/rot later.

Well Ive been doing experiments with watering basically most of the flytraps that are in pots are in actually a oxygenated reservoir that they sit in which has two air stones being pumped with air and is kept at a constant water level with a gravity irrigation system. So far the flytraps have seem to love it but my eldest VFT maybe showing signs of overwater? The outer edges of the leafs and traps are all a tint of yellow with a nice green in the middle. My geuss it could be a Calcium, magnesium or iron deficiency? It is showing the most sign of growth with over 7 new leafs with traps being produced right now if you couldnt see in the picture also it is the most fed of all my traps so far for obvious reason it can eat a lot more.

Hmmm. It sounds like you may want to rethink the flytrap watering. Having them sit in water full-time is a recipe for disaster. If the reservoir is keeping the soil that wet, regardless of other factors, your flytraps may suffer from root rot. If the yellowing leaf is an older leaf/trap, that leaf/trap may simply be reaching the end of its cycle and may die soon. In fact, just about every leaf on every flytrap you see now will be dead and gone by the growing season's end, by natural cycle, and will all be replaced by new leaves/traps.

As far as feeding - flytraps color up well when in full sun. They also color up to attract bugs when they haven't eaten in a while. If you feed them regularly, they may not be as colorful. Make them work for their food.

At most, one bug in one trap every week or other week is plenty; bug should be up to about 2/3 the size of the trap. More than that is unnecessary.

Godly wrote:

Do the Sarr's get partial sunlight through that window? If so, how many hours a day?

Yes the sarrs actually get a good direct sunlight from sunup which seems to be around 7amish - until about 1 or 2 pm then they just get indirect sunlight until sundown which is around 8:30ishpm. Mostly my entire middle shelf where all my main(strong sun loving) plants are, they get this indirect and direct lighting from the sun ontop of the LED's that are their main lights. Two LED panels are covering a 4ft by 1.5ft shelf/grow area. One 240w model Lighthouse hydroponics Blackstar model HO veg light with another Lighthouse hydroponics brand Blackstar 90w HO veg light aswell while the bottom shelf contains one Tek Light four t5 2ft fixture with two 6500k lamps and two 3000k lamps good mix, Sunblaster t22 basically a 2ft two bulb t5, and a single 4ft t5 bar all are HO t5 lamps.

Sounds like you've got plenty of light going on lol

Godly wrote:How soon could I expect to see signs of root rot or damage because of my watering methods?

In as little as a few weeks. If the flytraps never appear to go into decline; e.g. high trap death all-around, growing very small traps compared to what has been growing, and sickly-looking coloration (beyond your yellowing leaf on your eldest), they're likely already rotting from having the soil too wet. The air stones may or may not combat this enough to be effective at preventing root rot. I'm guessing not, because air stones like that I believe are more for hydro - they are not meant to penetrate deep soil in pots, are they? I'm not sure how much of that air is actually getting to the flytrap roots. Maybe you can edify me in this area so I understand, or just keep a close eye on your flytraps.

They are loving the light, but if the soil is in fact too wet (looking at the photos, it is), it would not be long before you started seeing adverse affects, if root rot is to set in.

Godly wrote:Had a quick question about Sarr's when they start opening their hoods can I start feeding them since they live inside right now because of the coldness of outside cant let them hunt properly yet. Would it suffice just dropping lets say dead or living insects inside the open hood of the sarrs pitchers?

They don't start developing mucilage/prey attractors until the pitcher matures, if I recall correctly. I've rarely seen bugs in any almost-fully-but-not-quite developed pitchers; only in fully developed pitchers. The energy is being used to make the pitcher; its digestive properties may not be fully developed until later.

I don't think it would hurt, as the bug will just sit there until the pitcher can digest it, but personally I wouldn't bother - the bug may start to rot too long before the pitcher can do anything with it.

However, you might find this article interesting, since you're the experimental type:
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/ ... zation.php

Just use caution and remember that those are your only Sarrs, and this experiment was done on juvenile Sarrs. I don't know how old yours are.

Hello all Ive been gone for quite a while due to other important matters but now Im back and my CP's are coming out of winter. Even though they look quite pitiful right now they will liven up soon!


Also I came to realize that I had a very well established colony of CP's with my previous setup. As Ive done more research Ive came to understand that I had a colony of white springtails and the airstones that I had in the deep water reservoir created enough helpful bacteria to out compete the bad ones. With a higher then normal oxygenated water the bad algae/bacteria have a harder time competing with the already good ones I had. Ontop of this the springtails and other helpful organism that I did not realize at the time were greatly helping and causing my plants to thrive! Hard!!! Just my .2 cents!

Thanks and more pictures will be coming soon!

Right on, glad the airstones are working well. Your mini greenhouse looks good.

Keep the pics coming - I see you've got at least one Sarr flower stalk coming up.

What kind of lights are you using and what's your on/off cycle for any given growing season?

Hey Broham! Inside the mini green house is ontop 4 HO Tek Light fixture with two 6500k and other two 3000k t5 bulbs.The bottom contains two mongol socket with reflector 24w florescent 6000k CFLs. I wish I could jam more lights in there or my LED's but the frame isn't that sturdy and I haven't felt like messing with it much. Ive also been studying/researching invertebrates and amphibians which inturn has made me starting to collect them. I have aquired two tarantulas and one White's treee frog. I have one adult female Brachypelma emilia also called mexican redleg, and a juvenile Grammostola rosea or better know as chilian rose hair.

Being that I love plants and animals that could only lead me in one direction which was straight into displaying them and presenting them to everyone else! Im talking about vivariums and paludariums. They are basically a way to display the plants and animals that you love to the rest of the world however you'd like! So I started to build a small vivarium for the White's tree frog, which is a 30g 18x18x24in. Ive only begun the background but soon will be finishing the rest.

Ill have lots more updates soon just keeping very busy!

Also Im keeping the lights on a 12hr cycle for right now because of winter until it is a bit closer to spring Ill kick it back up to 16. I use to have them on "o-natural" light of my outdoors which was probably about 12hrs during the summer then went on the decline until 4 months later I bring them out of dormancy.

Sorry for such a slow reply Ive been very busy and planning to travel soon!

Also these are the future vivariums and paludarium.

Added a new LED to the grow room!

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