Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 07:42:16 -0500 From: "Susan Farrington" <sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2051$foo@default> Subject: Re: dying VFT...
Daniel,
>From what you write, it sounds like your plants are suffering due to a
lack of winter dormancy. They can't really go dormant kept at
household temperatures: they need to be at least 45 to 50 F (6 to 10
C) during winter nights. A lack of winter dormancy will not kill a plant
in a single year, but it will gradually reduce its vitality and eventually
the plant dies. If you think your plant can hang on until winter, and you
can then provide it a cool place to go dormant, then fine. Otherwise,
you may want to induce dormancy prematurely by refrigerating it for a
couple of months. This can run the risk of fungal infection, though, so
watch it carefully and/or treat it with fungicide. Also, VFT's and
Sarracenia both prefer to spend their summers outdoors if at all
possible, in lots of sunshine. (However, it's VERY important to
acclimate them to that full sun outside, which is so much brighter than
anything they've had indoors. Start them in a little morning sun, and
move them toward more sun over a week or two.) If you can't grow
them outside at all, you need to give them the sunniest window you
can manage, and do not grow them inside a terrarium (the sun will fry
them if they are enclosed in glass). Try to keep the humidity up by
sitting the Sarracenia in water, and keep the VFT's on a pebble tray
filled with water (so that the plant is surrounded with lots of water, but
is not sitting directly IN the water). Mist frequently.
Good luck!
Susan
> I have got the VFT for approx. 2 years. When I bought the plant, it
> had 4-6 green leaves with big traps. All the time the plant stand in
> my room together with some other cp's like Sarracenia or Drosera. I
> always used rain- or destilled (destillated?) water. The other plants
> grew very well, but the VFT only produced a few new leaves and the
> traps got smaller. In the last three months, there only were very
> small traps and just 2 leaves. So the VFT has not lost all leaves at
> once but in time. And also in winter, the plant had green leaves, so
> dormancy did not come.. Does VFT perhaps need more sunlight than
> Sarracenia or what? I do not want to kill my other VFTs, so please
> help me.
>
Susan Farrington
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis MO 63166-0299
susan.farrington@mobot.org
(314)577-9402
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