FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

there are a lot of new traps coming up but when they open, they are very short. is this from the flower stalk using up the energy?
they flower stalk has gotten bigger since i got back and is curving. there's also one trap that ate a lady buy, it's taking forever to open (more then 2 weeks).

you think my plant is ready for the flower?

yes, you will notice almost no real growth and tiny traps while the flower stalk is growing. Once the seeds are produced and the flower stalk starts drying out, normal growth will resume.

when i pollinate the flower, what flower is the best? does it matter?

Yep, that slow to no growth is due to the flower stalk.

When it comes to pollinating, you'll have to settle for which flowers are open at the time the stigma becomes receptive. Since you're self pollinating it, all pollen will be the same.

Does it make a difference if you use the pollen on the stigma of the same flower, or is it better to fertilize the stigma of another flower?

As far as my genetic knowledge goes, it would be exactly the same, but the genetic knowledge in the world is not complete, let alone that i know everything about the genetics that are already known. So anyone with experience concerning manual pollination willing to share their observations?

Venus Flytraps almost force one to pollinate from another flower (possibly on the same plant), because by the time the stigma is receptive to pollen, the filaments of the same flower have fallen backwards and almost all the pollen has already been carried away or has fallen from the anthers.

i dont really understand that.

What Steve means is that the flower that's got a receptive part that takes the pollen, the pollen in that flower is already been lost to insects and the thingies that it sits on have already curled up and are not easily accessible.

So what that means is when the flower begins to be receptive for pollenating, you have to use a flower that has opened up more recently.

what would happen if it opening a wile ago?

Do you only have 1 flower? Usually there's a bunch and they open up in a sequence.

are you talkin about in the same stalk? i see like 4 flowers developing on my plant. am i right about this?

Yes you get a bunch on one stalk. They open up in a series usually.