pitcher plant and venus fly trap

[itssg]

bro, for vivariums and for the ease of keeping CP(carnivorous plants), choose the asian specimens.. for pitchers, get the nepenthes variety.. far east flora has them but if u got problems, can find me, i can order them for you, on-demand.. price range around $15- $18... to mix flytraps and pitchers is quite a chore as flytraps have dormant periods and you have to maintain a certain level of humidity.. IMHO, having at least 3 varieties of nepenthes in a 2ft vivarium would be interesting and relatively easy to handle... for my nepenthes, i dun fertilise them as i prefer the natural process of it attracting insects to it... more "natural".. for the problems of flytraps turning black, its becos of the presence of nutrients in the substrate or the insect it has captured is too big..

Hi,
Any method to cure or safe this venus flytrap from turning black?

[dts_spawn]

its becos the insect it has captured is too big..

I think this is the case....



i fed the plant with this and after a few days the of the plant turn black. But why would this happen? too much food?

[betta_luRver]

IMHO, it is the incapability of the trap to metabolise the insect.. anyway.. how's the vivarium coming up?

[dts_spawn]

my vivarium is doing ok. Only thing is that some part of the fly trap is turnning black, but that seems to be arrested. Another thing is my pitcher plant is not producing pitchers.

[betta_luRver]

great setup bro!! hmm.. about the pitchers, dun really worry, juz ensure a good humidity level by mist spraying them at least twice a day and maintain intese lighting.. Btw, how long have they been planted in there?

[dts_spawn]

thanks! it's been planted for about a month.

[betta_luRver]

oh ok.. then, dun worry too much bro! remember keywords! humidity and intense light!

[dts_spawn]

humidity, check. Intense light, is 13W for 1ft cube enough?

[jonpoh]

Interesting post on Carnivorous plants I must say.. I used to keep alot of cps last time and I mean alot. :P My friends and I would order 2 shipments per year from Australia and each shipment would cost $100+ for each of us.
I have grow them in a terrium before but not a vivarium.
I'm rather inspired to see one of the pic on the post. My question is:
1) Do you water the plants? Is there any forms of drainage?
(As far as i'm concerned.. Cps such as Dioneae Muscipula aka. Venus flytrap and Nepenthes aka Tropical pitcher plant does not like water-clogged soil. Flytraps on another hand prefer root-bound soil, which means that their roots are confined in a small pot.)
2) Do you cover the tank? Do you provide extra lightings apart from sunlight?
(Abit of information which I can share is that Cps requires high lightings to thrive well. Part of the reason why I have stop keeping them now is because of the new area that I have moved in. Also note that we should not water Cps with tap water.. the least you can do is to aged the water overnight. I used to collect rain water for them and they grow very well on it.


regards
Jonathan

[dts_spawn]

.
I'm rather inspired to see one of the pic on the post. My question is:
1) Do you water the plants? Is there any forms of drainage?
(As far as i'm concerned.. Cps such as Dioneae Muscipula aka. Venus flytrap and Nepenthes aka Tropical pitcher plant does not like water-clogged soil. Flytraps on another hand prefer root-bound soil, which means that their roots are confined in a small pot.)
2) Do you cover the tank? Do you provide extra lightings apart from sunlight?
(Abit of information which I can share is that Cps requires high lightings to thrive well. Part of the reason why I have stop keeping them now is because of the new area that I have moved in. Also note that we should not water Cps with tap water.. the least you can do is to aged the water overnight. I used to collect rain water for them and they grow very well on it.

I think you're talking about mine.
1)I don't water them. The running "waterfall" would provide with the humidity. If i on it for a day, there would be a pool of water at the front. don't know what's causing so much watch to evaporate from the small tank behind.
2) yes, the tank is covered and where i'm placing the tank, there's no sunlight, only a 13W light.

[jonpoh]

Hmmm..Where does the source of water comes from? Is it recycled from the water collected at the bottom?
Do you guys have any method of removing the nutrients/minerals build-up collected over time?

regards
Jonathan

I think you're talking about mine.
1)I don't water them. The running "waterfall" would provide with the humidity. If i on it for a day, there would be a pool of water at the front. don't know what's causing so much watch to evaporate from the small tank behind.
2) yes, the tank is covered and where i'm placing the tank, there's no sunlight, only a 13W light.

[dts_spawn]

Hmmm..Where does the source of water comes from? Is it recycled from the water collected at the bottom?

I hope this ans your question. I have a small tank at the back. So, the water gets pumped up, and flows back in.

Do you guys have any method of removing the nutrients/minerals build-up collected over time?

haha.. i've never thought about this. will it be a big problem?

[jonpoh]

That's a smart idea..Cool..


Yes..and No. Minerals build-up is fine for normal plants but not so for carnivorous plants. Carnivorous plants requires low-minerals soil, basically it is un-fertilized soil. Hence repotting them once a year is important for growth. It is like changing the water for a fish tank in order to reduce ammonia and nitrite buildup

regards
Jonathan

haha.. i've never thought about this. will it be a big problem?[/QUOTE]

[primavera]

Too bad the pictures are not working.

I'm crazy about carnivorous plants too. I have Sarracenia (temperate pitchers), Nepenthes (tropical pitchers), Flytraps and Sundews.

Well the climate here is a bit different, as i can grow the relatively cool growing ones on the windowsill (excluding the nepenthes). Just stood the pots in water. I've tried the temperate ones in terrariums too, but most if not all do badly, as it gets too hot, humid and stale in terrs. Although they are from high humidity environments, IMHO they need some fresh air too. In fact I open a gap in my window to let in air, and most of the time wind blows in as i live quite high up. It dries the water they stand in quickly, but i just have to refill every 3 days (up to 1-2 cm depth, like growing crypts emersed). At least for orchids, ventilation is needed to cool the leaves exposed to strong sunlight, especially the sun loving ones. I would presume the same for the pitchers and flytraps, and considering they like to be sun-blasted, I would keep them with more air flow.

Perhaps one can rig up a computer fan to blow gently at them in a terrarium. I grow the tropical nepenthes this way last year. They dont pitcher at all outside, in fact they looked really sad with black half dead pitchers when i bought them from chain stores, but once in a terr, and a fan, they pitcher with almost every leaf. I had (notice 'had') N. veitchii x spathulata, N. spathulata x alata and N. ventricosa. Growing well until I had to go back home for holidays. Put them into a bigger plastic box with Fluorescent light on top and a bit of ambient light from a window. But the box lid was not airtight, came back 3 months later to a dry flower...er...pitcher arrangement.

Anyway, now keeping a N. alata in an airtight container. Managed to find it languishing in a suburban hardware store for half price early this year. Got a few pitchers from it, then it started to grow its vining stems, so no pitchers to date.

Go for tropical pitchers IMO. They are so low maintenence in terrs, and were a subject of botanical fantasy in Victoria England (I like plants that have a historical value too, one day I'll grow me a Victoria amazonica waterlily, muahahaha). Here's a link that got me hooked on them:

Nepenthes University

Regards
Min