• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

Carnivorous plants...

Rich Z

Rich Z

Internet Sanitation Engineer
Staff member
Connie and I are getting into a new hobby/interest. :D

Took some pics of the initial carnivorous plants we have. They are still in their original pots, as the tub we set up still needs more rain water to fill it before it will be ready to transplant the plants into it. Getting rain today, so maybe that will be enough. Otherwise will have to dip into the distilled water supply we have.

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The flytrap has been inside for a few months, and really needs to be outside in the sunlight. Just got the sundew a few days ago in the mail, and picked up the pitcher plant from a local nursery yesterday. Got them all just sitting on the porch right now to acclimate them to stronger light before putting them into direct FULL sun.

Got more on order, as I'm getting a variety of samples to play with.

I sure do hope that they find mosquitoes to be tasty. :)
 
I don't think I want to give them a taste for actual meat. They might cross-pollinate with the bamboo, and then I'd have BIG problems! :eek:
 
if those eat mosquitoes they should double or triple in size rather fast.... you'll have some obese plants before no time....
 
Yeah, probably so. Certainly the mosquitoes seem to be handing around the mini-bog we made up. They just have to hurry up and grow big enough to eat them. I'm still waiting on more to show up, but they aren't going to be very big, neither. But certainly there is no lack of bugs here in north Florida, so if their growth is directly related to how much they eat, I think we're in for some MONSTER carnivorous plants behind the garage.... :ack2:
 

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Just got in a few more plants to play with. Got an assortment of 7 flytraps, but only 2 sundews. Wish I had gotten a few more sundews, especially the thread types. Oh well, I'll see how these all do for me and go from there.

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This may be a dumb question but, if there are no insects for these plants to eat, what sustains them? Are they then like other plants in that reguard? You just water them and so forth?:shrug01:
 
Well, I think I'm doing better with the sundews than I am with the flytraps. The flytraps don't seem to actually be taking the full sun as well as I was led to believe. I put the new ones out to catch full morning sun and be shaded in the afternoon, but the morning sun burned some of them pretty badly.

The sundews out in my mini-bog seem to be doing just fine in full sun nearly all day long. One of them is getting a lot of red color to it and flowering. I haven't put the two newer ones out there as I was afraid they might get damaged by the sun.

I've got the flytraps sitting on the porch to catch some brief dappled sun in the morning, hoping they will bounce back. Maybe they just need to be better acclimated before tossing them into full sun.

Here's pics of the two original flytraps that are out in the mini-bog exposed to full sun most of the day.

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I'm leaving them there so I can see what happens. Maybe they'll bounce back and the new growth will be better able to withstand the sunlight.

Here's a pic of the mini-bog Connie and I set up. Nothing fancy, to be sure.

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The two sundews there look like they are doing just fine, I guess..

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Of the newer flytraps that got burned from that half day of full sun, these look the worse for wear.

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Of course the largest of the bunch was one that got really zapped by the sunlight. But hopefully they will bounce back for me.
 
Mark Dalton said:
This may be a dumb question but, if there are no insects for these plants to eat, what sustains them? Are they then like other plants in that reguard? You just water them and so forth?:shrug01:
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Well, they can die from lack of nutrients. They do get energy from sunlight, just like any other plants, but they need the nutrients that trapped insects provide. Unfortunately, trying to add nutrients via fertilizer in the soil apparently just kills them outright. People who grow them inside actually have to manually feed them periodically to keep them alive. Which is why I want them to grow outside. I really don't want to have mouths to have to feed. Had my fill of that when I had the snake breeding business.
 
Rich Z said:
Well, they can die from lack of nutrients. They do get energy from sunlight, just like any other plants, but they need the nutrients that trapped insects provide. Unfortunately, trying to add nutrients via fertilizer in the soil apparently just kills them outright. People who grow them inside actually have to manually feed them periodically to keep them alive. Which is why I want them to grow outside. I really don't want to have mouths to have to feed. Had my fill of that when I had the snake breeding business.
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What sort of mechanism do they use to attract prey? Is it coloring or a scent of some sort?
 
Mark Dalton said:
What sort of mechanism do they use to attract prey? Is it coloring or a scent of some sort?
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Actually both. And there is some sort of nectar that must be tasty to the bugs. Sort of a "last meal" offering, I suppose.

I'm actually leaning more towards the sundews than the other forms, as they seem better at getting rid of the numerous gnats that seem to be everywhere. Plus they are supposed to work well for mosquitoes as well. So these seem better suited for small insect prey.

It's a shame that the area around the stream we have on our property is so heavily wooded, otherwise I would try to relocate and establish some native sundews there. But I think they wouldn't get enough direct sunlight there for them to thrive.
 
You're probably right. From the pics I've seen of your property, there would be very little sunlight reaching them. It almost reminds me of pics Ive seen of the rain forest. The trees form such a thick overhead canopy that the forest floor is very dimly lit.:yesnod:
 
Well, I went and put a piece of fairly wide meshed burlap over top of the plants in my mini-bog to try to filter the sunlight a bit. I may move a couple of the others into the bogette to see how they fare there. Got the newer ones on the porch to just catch a bit of morning sunlight, but they still look pretty puny from their short stint in FULL sun.
 
navy2kcoupe said:
I have a 2000 coupe that, judging by the front end, is a VERY good predator
that likes to "eat" love bugs :D
Andy :thumbsup::wavey:
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Imagine how many love bugs there would be in Florida if there were NO vehicles killing them in droves. We probably couldn't take a breath outside without inhaling 30 of them.
 
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