Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 19:47:37 -0700 From: "Christensen" <chrst@srv.net> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg4003$foo@default> Subject: my VERY tolerant VFTs
Honestly, for the last month my VFTs were
growing well- and still are. The banana peel
incident hasn't caused anything bad to happen, yet.
When I had VFTs for the first three years, I didn't
worry much about their dormancy. I was careful to
always give them strong sunlight and keep water in
their tray. Actually, accidently I sometimes let
their tray go dry. Mostly, I kept those two rules
for my Dionaea- water and sun.
Now, when I think back, I guess they did have a
'mild' dormancy. The photoperiod varied with the
seasons. The temperatures varied too. I had to keep
the plants near a window for their sun. Small
drafts provided a change of temperature.
Everything was fine. Then I found bugs in my
houseplants, treated everything with Disulfoton,
played with grow lights, repotted a couple times,
and tried a 'stronger' dormancy on my VFTs. In the
end, I lost 2/3 of my Dionaea plants. Now, I'm
growing four plants.
I had some Dionaea that persistently would not grow
the wide petiole leaves after I brought them out of
their 'stronger' dormancy. To make things worse, the
angle of sunlight changed so that it missed my
Dionaea plants. I didn't notice at first because I
was in the room only in the morning. Then, I noticed
some plants weren't well. Thought about why, and
finally discovered there wasn't much sunlight in the
room, most of the day. The plants that adapted to
the situation and grew wide petioles were healthier
than the plants that only grew thin petioles.
I had two kinds of Dionaea: grew wide or thin
petioles and had a white flower; grew only thin
petioles (observed) had a yellow flower and advertised
to have a short dormancy and larger traps.
I think thin petioles are okay. The plants that grow
them appear to grow larger traps, too. However, those
plants may not be tolerant of less sun, compared to
the other Dionaea with wide petioles.
I know, that was long.
However, I thought it was experience worth sharing.
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