FlyTrapCare Forums

No, it's not one I got from FTS, it's a plant advertised as a B52, young plant which I have had about
a month.
It is doing very well, but it does not look like any B52 I have ever seen.
The traps are all light green and small to very tiny, biggest trap is only about 1/2'' (will post a pic when
I get home, @ work right now!)
And, it appears to be a cluster of plants which I did not seperate, there are a bunch of very tiny traps
on one side of the plant, and the largest leaves are only about 1'' long.

Looks like a normal to me!! cant tell you where I got it, but it's in the "legitimate sellers" list and I dont
remember

Anyway, it's a cute plant, and I can experiment a little w/o much worry.

So I left it outside facing the first morning sun just to see how it responds.

In time, and with more experience, I would like to have a nice big planter full of B52's

I have 2 mature ones from FTS, one is droopy and a bit wilted from sun exposer (it now stays on my South
windowsill untill acclimated), and the other one I just got yesterday, so its in a East window which only gets
some of the late afternoon sun, but filtered through a shear curtain so it does not get direct light for a few days.

is it a young plant? its hard to tell what type it is while its still young.

If you got it from FTS then it is a B52 If Not then you cant be sure...give it time.. even young plants have small traps. Check out the care sheets and if and Check in with Matt and Steve on care points. one morning of south sun will not be enough,, give it a season. These are plants Not animals they are are slow to respond.
sounds like a young plant.

I did not get it from FTS, but cant remember where it was.

It's not that young, I thought that too, but have seen very young B52's from Matt and Steve that looked way different
from this one and already started gettin fairly big traps.

Also, the leaves on this plant are much shorter then the young B52's I have seen.

Working on getting a pic posted

Here we go with a pic. That is a quarter for size compair.
What do you think?

Nats, this is a new CP grower question I've heard a lot. B52 is known for having 2" traps, but have you or anyone else ever witnessed it or seen pictures. It does indeed have big traps. That's just a small plant. If you think your B52 is not a B52, then you might as well think a VFT you grew from seed is not seedgrown. On my B52, the traps are larger than average but they also just appear to be large with the short petioles. I JUST compared them to Dentate, some Typicals from Lowes, and a lot of seed grown flytraps (a few other cultivars too). They are .25-1" shorter than most of the petioles on my VFT's.

Sky, If you got it from someone else, you can be sure. How are you sure Matt's plants are the exact clones? You can be 99% sure but never 100% without proof.

jamez wrote:How are you sure Matt's plants are the exact clones?

All of the B52s sold by FlytrapStore.com are tissue cultured clones or divisions of B52 plants originally obtained from the breeder of B52 himself, Henning von Schmeling, and tissue-cultured by David Conner of the San Francisco Bay area, California. We obtained our first B52 plants from David and have propagated them ourselves since then (for the last several years).

It looks like a B52 to me. Jamez is right, it's probably a young plant. Sellers usually don't wait until the plants are fully grown and mature to sell. As far as the color, my B52 usually has light green traps. The only time it really colored up was during the winter, then it got really dark red in the traps. Due to something about my conditions, my plants ALWAYS seem to be a bit greener than pictures that I've seen as well, so it depends on your specific growing conditions. Your leaves and traps look just like a B52 to me (although maybe a bit worse for wear), so just give it time.

As far as being sure the retailer didn't send you the wrong thing, intentionally or not, you just have to balance between healthy skepticism based on real observations, and trust that the retailer knows what they're doing/are honest. I pretty much trust Matt and Steve implicitly, after interaction with them here on the forums and purchasing from them several times, and I have no doubt that I have a real B52. There's a reason there's a post on here called legitimate plant suppliers, and it's to discuss things like this. But I think at this point (only based on the picture), you don't really have any reason to distrust the person/business you bought it from.

PS in the top left of that picture (behind the flower stalk), there's a B52 baby that I separated from the mother plant at the beginning of spring. You can see the traps are about the same size compared to the leaves as your plant, and my two plants are genetically identical.

Steve_D wrote:

jamez wrote:How are you sure Matt's plants are the exact clones?

All of the B52s sold by FlytrapStore.com are tissue cultured clones or divisions of B52 plants originally obtained from the breeder of B52 himself, Henning von Schmeling, and tissue-cultured by David Conner of the San Francisco Bay area, California. We obtained our first B52 plants from David and have propagated them ourselves since (for the last several years).

I was using that as an example. You can never take anyones word for something. Just saying if they got it from a reputable seller then it's just as B52 as FTS' B52.

Hmmmm, ok, I'm a bit confused, but that's my normal state anyway :\

So what you guys are saying is that I should just wait and see?!

One other interesting thing about this plant. I got it already potted and transfered to a deeper one, but the plant required
no acclimation! I had it outside after potting in only 2 days in the full sun. Left out day and night.

If I did that with any of Matt and Steve's B52's (esp the young ones) it would look like wilted cabbage!

I already wilted one B52 (mature plant) simply by leaving it in the sun for only 2 hours (pics are in another post) even though it had been shaded for
a week or so. The plant will be okay, I am simply illustrating a point.

Repotting deals with repotting stress. Sunlight isn't a matter with it. Same for anything else that involves acclimating to. You don't have to re-acclimate it to everything after one thing. Just wait and see if the traps are above average.

Nats wrote:So what you guys are saying is that I should just wait and see?!

Like David (dmagnan), I think that your plant is probably a B52, just a fairly young one, that's all. If you grow it with plants you know or believe to be B52, and its growth characteristics at various times of year and in the same circumstances and environment as the B52's appears the same, then you can be fairly confident that it is a B52.

Regarding new plants, it's generally a good idea to be gentle on them regarding full sun, wind tolerance, and acclimation to a new environment, while you judge what their limits are. Then they can be accustomed to new and varied conditions without being initially shocked by them. It's great that your young B52 appears to already be fully hardened to full sun. Mine here in eastern New Mexico have had to be kept in the greenhouse many days this spring, rather than outside as they usually would have been, because we have had a severe drought (no rain from before January 1st up until a few days ago, the first of June, a full 5 months of absolutely no measurable precipitation) coupled with the most severe sustained and daily winds--very hot and dry winds--in the entire 20+ years I've lived here.

Therefore, the B52s I have shipped this year have not had quite the exposure to full sun as they normally would (the greenhouse diminishes the sun by 10-15% I believe, and diffuses it). At Matt's home in Oregon, many of the days have been cloudy and summer is very late arriving, so Venus Flytraps from "FlytrapStore North" have probably also had less exposure to full sun than they would otherwise, or might experience in the environment of a person who were to buy one. I guess that illustrates why it is important to be gentle on the plants for awhile when one doesn't know exactly what they have been experiencing for weeks or months in their previous home.

Steve_D wrote:

Nats wrote:So what you guys are saying is that I should just wait and see?!

Like David (dmagnan), I think that your plant is probably a B52, just a fairly young one, that's all. If you grow it with plants you know or believe to be B52, and its growth characteristics at various times of year and in the same circumstances and environment as the B52's appears the same, then you can be fairly confident that it is a B52.

Regarding new plants, it's generally a good idea to be gentle on them regarding full sun, wind tolerance, and acclimation to a new environment, while you judge what their limits are. Then they can be accustomed to new and varied conditions without being initially shocked by them. It's great that your young B52 appears to already be fully hardened to full sun. Mine here in eastern New Mexico have had to be kept in the greenhouse many days this spring, rather than outside as they usually would have been, because we have had a severe drought (no rain from before January 1st up until a few days ago, the first of June, a full 5 months of absolutely no measurable precipitation) coupled with the most severe sustained and daily winds--very hot and dry winds--in the entire 20+ years I've lived here.

Therefore, the B52s I have shipped this year have not had quite the exposure to full sun as they normally would (the greenhouse diminishes the sun by 10-15% I believe, and diffuses it). At Matt's home in Oregon, many of the days have been cloudy and summer is very late arriving, so Venus Flytraps from "FlytrapStore North" have probably also had less exposure to full sun than they would otherwise, or might experience in the environment of a person who were to buy one. I guess that illustrates why it is important to be gentle on the plants for awhile when one doesn't know exactly what they have been experiencing for weeks or months in their previous home.

Thanks Steve, I guess that would explain also why the mature B52 I got from you is taking so long to get sun hardened!?

Nats wrote:I guess that would explain also why the mature B52 I got from you is taking so long to get sun hardened!?

One thing to remember is that when a Venus Flytrap, especially one with vigorous leaf growth like a B52 usually has, is repotted, it takes a while for the roots to integrate themselves well into the new growing medium and become as efficient as they once were at supplying water to the leaves to keep them adequately hydrated.

Therefore, if one places a newly-potted Venus Flytrap outdoors in full sun, especially if there is any drying wind occurring at the same time, the plant will probably experience some dehydration (dry out to some extent) and that might be the problem rather than sunburn, or a combination of both.

So it's a good idea to let the plant and its roots acclimate and become comfortable in the new growing medium and environment for a few weeks, so that the roots are pumping water efficiently and the plant is used to the seasonal light, location, ambient humidity, etc.