Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 08:12:47 -0400 From: Rand Nicholson <writserv@nbnet.nb.ca> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg909$foo@default> Subject: Re: VFT Dormancy
>Greetings,
>
>I have been reading this thread on VFT dormancy with interest as I have
>certainly killed my fair share of plants this way.
>
>I would just like to add that in my experience it is important that your
>plants are acting like they are ready for dormancy before popping them in
>the fridge. If new leaves are still emerging then in my experience,
>putting them in the fridge is a very successfull way of killing them.
>If they are still producing new leaves in December then I just don't
>force dormancy on them that winter. You can get away with this for 1 or
>2 winters. To induce dormancy, decrease the photoperiod and try to cool
>them off especially at night.
>
>Anyway, that is how it seems to go for me. Your experiences may differ.
>
>Richard Ellis "ricell@juno.com"
>Boulder, CO
I agree. I used to store many of my CPs in the veggie crisper, but there
were always losses due to rot and fungus, even when the plants were kept
almost dry. Too dry and they died from dessication.
My large and old clump of VFT are kept in a pot year round. In the fall
watering is greatly reduced (barely moist) and the pot is put indoors on a
cool (sometimes freezing) windowsill. The plants have suffered no ill
effects over the years and grow and bloom very well, even after having half
the pot frozen solid a few times each winter overnight. In New Brunswick,
Canada, the photoperiod is naturally reduced and the winters regulate the
temperatures on the windowsill, with a little help from an adjustable
louvre on the storm window.
Sarrs, a Ping and a Drosera are also overwintered in this manner. My 3 year
old Darlingtonia is still in the experimental stage, but seems quite perky
in this coming spring, with a growing point now visible and _no_ loss of
leaves through dessication. By the time the windowsill becomes too warm for
this cool rooted grower, I will be able to put it outside in a patio
cooler-bog planter.
Although, the longer you can keep these plants in dormancy the better for
them when they are being taken indoors for their dormancy periods, I do not
believe that many of them require as strict a dormancy period, or as cold a
one to induce dormancy, as they usually have in their natural settings.
Nature is a moody thing, as our relatively balmy February here
(traditionally the coldest month of the year in this region) has shown.
Kind Regards,
Rand
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