FlyTrapCare Forums

Joseph,


Great picture!

I have a similar cultivar called "Shark's Teeth" that I hope looks as beautiful as 'Jaws' one day.


Giovanni

Nice looking plant Joseph. Where did you get that one? I was lucky enough to have someone give me one in a trade and I love it. It's a very robust grower.

This is a photo I took a little while ago - I believe I obtained this plant in a trade with BobZ. I have since lost the plant to spider mites, but I have small offsets that I managed to produce before it passed. I am growing them up now to full size, restoring this beautiful cultivar to my collection.

I'd imagine that spider mites would be a serious problem growing in the deserts in Tucson. I had a pot of Red Dragons that got really hammered by spider mites. Thankfully I was able to treat them with Orthenex this winter and they have come back very strong so far this spring.

I too obtained my Jaws plant from BobZ. It's one of my favorite plants because of the deep red color of the traps and how vigorously it grows.

Joseph Clemens wrote:This is a photo I took a little while ago - I believe I obtained this plant in a trade with BobZ. I have since lost the plant to spider mites, but I have small offsets that I managed to produce before it passed. I am growing them up now to full size, restoring this beautiful cultivar to my collection.

Beautiful photo, Joseph! Glad you were able to get a few divisions before the parent plant died. Pentac is a good insecticide for spider mites. Is a "wettable" powder that sits on the surface of the leaves and very effectively kills the mites. Several applications are necessary 7-10 days apart to kill the mites emerging from previously laid eggs, however.

Thanks for the information about dealing with spider mites. I appreciate learning how others deal with these tenacious pests. It will certainly come in handy after our next wet Summer.

Here in my area spider mites are only a problem after Summers with lots of rain. Wet Summers that provide enough moisture for the wildflowers to grow three to four feet high are responsible. As the wildflowers grow, apparently so do the populations of spider mites feeding on them. Then in late Summer after the ground dries up and the wildflowers start to die, the spider mites that were feeding on the wildflowers go looking for food. They don't have any trouble getting into our house, and my plant room. I keep some of my propagules sealed inside Ziploc bags with the double seal. This seems to protect them from the spider mites. Since the last time the spider mites invaded, I've installed an evaporative cooler in the window of my plant room, perhaps the lower temperatures and increased humidity provided by the cooler will help reduce any future spider mite invasions. And now I have a few other ideas to try, thanks.

My best remedy, thus far, has been to submerge the VFTs into sealed containers, then place them into the refrigerator for a few months of wet "dormancy".

Very nice plant! Best of luck on the offshoot! Hope to see more from you and welcome to the forum...

hb

Great photo and a nice looking plant. Sad about losing it to spider mite hope the off shot takes off.

How come it's sitting in so much water? Isn't that bad for the roots?

Adam,
I'm a bit of a rebel; I often grow my Dionaea muscipula partially submerged in water. I've kept small trays of them like this, sometimes for several years at a time, just sealing them up, water and all, and placing them into the refrigerator for a few months of dormancy. Hasn't caused any problems, yet. Most problems happen after I let them become somewhat dryer, then the spider mites start causing problems.

Adam, it might be important to not that Joseph lives in the desert in Tucson, Arizona. I think I remember him saying that he has a grow room, but even so, the air is very dry there. Spider mites are much more of a problem when the air is dry, so keeping them wet is one way to protect them from the mites. Also, if he doesn't keep all of his plants in the grow room, putting them outside in the hot sun would surely dry them up fairly quickly if they weren't exceptionally wet. I'm just speculating, but I don't think a similar growing technique would yield good results in a more temperate and wetter climate like that of Vancouver.

I lived in Tucson for 8 years and I think that if you took the plant in that photo outside, within a few hours, all of the standing water would be evaporated.

Matt,
It seems you have a very accurate recollection of the conditions here in Tucson. When I first arrived here with the intentions of staying, about fourteen years ago, I had a nice collection of Sarracenia plants, which I tried to maintain outside (I had no other place for them at the time). They would all fit inside one of those plastic children's wading pools. So I built a 10' x 10' x 8' area enclosed in plastic shade cloth, covered on all sides, to keep out some of the hot sun and any animals that might cause difficulties. I put in the wading pool, then I installed the Sarracenia plants and filled it with R.O. water. The Sarracenia plants, in their pots, filled the pool so that they held each other upright, otherwise they might have tipped over and drowned. At that time I only had a 50 GPD R.O. unit, so I connected it so that its output was feeding directly into the wading pool. Sad experience - the R.O. unit was not enough to maintain the pool. It did okay for a few days, but then the winds had blown so much dust into the pool that it became a toxic mud pool and the R.O. unit couldn't produce enough water to flush out the mud and keep the plants watered.

Soon, I plan to try something similar again. I have a 600 gallon water storage tank, filled by a 10,000 GPD R.O. unit. I built a 14' W x 18' L x 10' H greenhouse-like structure that I will cover partially with plastic panels, partially with shade cloth. I have a system to pressurize the R.O. water into a delivery system, similar to how tap water is delivered, but inside this structure, and I have a 1000 PSI fogging system which should help cool and humidify the area near the plants. I am building plastic lined benches with 2x4 sides and plastic sump tanks of R.O. water that will periodically and automatically flood, then drain the bench trays. Growing CP is just a hobby, but I'm trying to get a little more serious about it. Tucson, Arizona is not my favorite place to try to grow CP, I once lived for nine years in Oak Harbor, Washington, but my wife only wants to live here. So I need to help Tucson become more like Oak Harbor.

Wow Joseph! It sounds like you're getting really serious with growing your plants. Are you planning on opening a nursery or something? A 10,000 GPD R.O. unit and a larger greenhouse is a huge investment. I'd love to see some photos of that setup.

Where in Tucson do you live? I'm guessing it must be on the outskirts of town because that setup would take up some space. I still own a house in Sahuarita that I am currently renting out. My wife and I may end up back in the Tucson area some day, but we're going to try Southern Oregon for a bit. I shouldn't have to do much to create a good habitat for CPs there.

what are the diffences between "jaws" and typical flytraps? It seems that jaws had slightly shorter teeth, but what else?