FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have recently transported my seedlings to water. I had about 6 then the water dried out by axident and I moved them to their soil, I was wondering how low it would take for the roots to ancore in so when I water the seeds they dont get moved around.

I'd recommend not top watering seedlings for a while. They don't seem to root well for quite some time. I can't really give you a good estimate, but a random guess is about 3 months.

I've heard people say that you shouldn't top-water a VFT seedling until it's bigger than a dime - how long is that (I've no clue)?

If you take a pot of, say, perlite and peat that doesn't have any plants rooted into it, and top-water it, what happens? A lot of the top layer of peat and perlite floats or gets moved around by the water until it soaks in.

Seedling VFT's only have very small roots and they certainly don't weigh much, so if you top-water a seedling that's only rooted into the top layer of soil, the soil around the roots gets moved around or floats away entirely, and the seedling can easily become unrooted that way.

I don't regularly uproot my seedlings, but when I have done some repotting of the little guys, I've been surprised how deep their roots are. They definitely grow deep roots before they reach the size of a dime. I just can't say for sure how quickly this happens.

About how old are they when they're the size of a dime? 6 months?

Valydius wrote:About how old are they when they're the size of a dime? 6 months?

I think older than that. It depends on the seedling, but on average, I don't think they get to be dime sized until their second year of growing.

Matt wrote:

Valydius wrote:About how old are they when they're the size of a dime? 6 months?

I think older than that. It depends on the seedling, but on average, I don't think they get to be dime sized until their second year of growing.

I had been misinformed.

Curses!

Valydius wrote:

Matt wrote:

Valydius wrote:About how old are they when they're the size of a dime? 6 months?

I think older than that. It depends on the seedling, but on average, I don't think they get to be dime sized until their second year of growing.

I had been misinformed.

Curses!

Well maybe the person that informed you is a better grower of seedlings than I am! Hah! My seedlings that I started a year ago are still very tiny. None of them are as large as a dime yet.

Matt wrote: Well maybe the person that informed you is a better grower of seedlings than I am! Hah! My seedlings that I started a year ago are still very tiny. None of them are as large as a dime yet.

Might depend on the source of the seeds too? I ordered and planted some ebay seeds in April, and now several of them are over a dime size, trap to trap anyways...

renesis wrote:Might depend on the source of the seeds too? I ordered and planted some ebay seeds in April, and now several of them are over a dime size, trap to trap anyways...

Wow, that's impressive! I'd say that nearly all of mine that I started last August are the same size and they're just under the size of a dime. I'm sure it is very dependent on their genetics. Steve_D sent me some seedlings that were 2 years old and several of them were huge! I mean full plant size huge!