How do you feed seedlings?

[CopcarFC]

I now have about 200 mixed sundews and Sarr's growing in a tray under CF lights in my room. The plants are much to small to feed by hand and if I could it would take forever. All of the Sarr's still are in the process of growing their first pitcher and the sundews are tiny with about 4 or 5 tentacles apiece. Should I worry about feeding them yet? If so, how?

-Rail

 

[Bugweed]

Leave'em alone, CCFC. They will do quite well without ANY interference. At this size, springtails are going to die in the hundreds!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jimscott]

In the meantime, light and water are going a long way toward their growth and health. You might be surprised at what they may be catching on their own, that is small enough.

 

[CopcarFC]

But is there really enough tiny bugs for them? Keep in mind they are in my room and I'm a neat freak.

-Rail

 

[jimscott]

Remember, they are first a plant, and second a carnivoroous one. Light & water are their main source of what they need. If you're that concerned, bring one piece of fruit into your room and put it in a plastic container - and wait a few days. Really, I'm serious. I have exactly that going at the lab, right at the window sills. It works. I just tap the container and all these wonderful fruitflies  jettison into the inviting sticky leaves of my sundews & butterworts!

 

[*Barracuda_45*]

Quote[/b] (jimscott @ Oct. 23 2005,10:55)]Remember, they are first a plant, and second a carnivoroous one. Light & water are their main source of what they need. If you're that concerned, bring one piece of fruit into your room and put it in a plastic container - and wait a few days. Really, I'm serious. I have exactly that going at the lab, right at the window sills. It works. I just tap the container and all these wonderful fruitflies  jettison into the inviting sticky leaves of my sundews & butterworts!

I was wondering the same thing about such tiny micro seedlings since im new to this, but jimscott is right, Im a clean freak to but wow someone throws something into the garbage can and next thing ya know POOF out of no where the next day we have a few nats or fruit flies buzzin around the house, even in the coldest of winters i dont know where they come from.

 

[losfreddy]

this is just a guess, but sense CPs are green, it means that they still go thru photosythesis with produces gluton? or somthing like that and makes them green. so im just assuming that tiny plants will be fine until they are big enough to start eating flies.

 

[CopcarFC]

But if thats the case, why do they start making carnivorus leaves so early in life? I thought plants needed light, water, air, and nutrients to survive, but since LFS prolly has little to none they have to make carnivorus leaves early in life to make up for it. I did find that one of the sundews grabbed hold of something in the LFS but it's way to small for me to tell if it's a bug or not. All four of it's tentacles are meeting at a point off the leaf so maybie it got something

-Rail

 

[JanW]

I feed the rare sundew species with fish food.
Use tweezers to make small pieces of that flake stuff.

 

[Brian_W]

I have had excellent results feeding sundew seedlings freeze dried blood worms (available at pet shops).  I spinkle some on a sheet of paper and rub them with my finger until they are a fine powder.  I scoop up a little powder on the end of a tweezer and tap it over the seedlings.  The results are excellent.

All plants need sunlight, water and a source of nutrients. Eliminate one factor and the plants aren't going to grow at there best.

Brian

 

[jimscott]

Quote[/b] (CopcarFC @ Oct. 23 2005,2:17)]But if thats the case, why do they start making carnivorus leaves so early in life?  I thought plants needed light, water, air, and nutrients to survive,

Good point and Jan & Brian gave excellent suggestions. I've never attempted to feed seedlings and I haven't noticed any critter activity, either. Still, they've done well without intentional feeding. Perhaps they have caught small critters that I just haven't noticed. I do, however, set up rotting fruit stations to attract fruit flies.

 

[CopcarFC]

Quote[/b] (Brian_W @ Oct. 23 2005,2:29)]I have had excellent results feeding sundew seedlings freeze dried blood worms (available at pet shops).  I spinkle some on a sheet of paper and rub them with my finger until they are a fine powder.  I scoop up a little powder on the end of a tweezer and tap it over the seedlings.  The results are excellent.

All plants need sunlight, water and a source of nutrients.  Eliminate one factor and the plants aren't going to grow at there best.

Brian

I've got a jar of f/d bloodworms that I use for my bigger sundews, I think I will try your method. The only issues now are how am I gonna feed the baby Sarr's and I've got well over 100 baby sundews, I wish there were a quicker, easier way to do this.

-Rail

 

[*Barracuda_45*]

If you can use fish food or FD bloodworms can ya do the same with FD brime shrimp, Krill or even daphnia? If ya powder it up fine enough for the tiny baby CP's? What would happen if you used a high redning color fish food? Would the color intensify in a VFT or if sprinkled on a dews sticky tenticals? I know i know these are probably stupid questions but hey im curious..

And no im not trying any of these things i mentioned was just wondering thats all...

 

[Takahashi]

hey i second this topic. this is a good question. seedlings seem to grow pretty fast on their own but i wonder if the adult plants would be different if we would have fed them or not. okay so that last sentence was worded terrible and i hope none of you understand what i said.::

 

[RL7836]

Bugs and the others are right that most of the plants will grow well w/o any help. As JanW and Brian_W noted though - they do benefit from some choice tidbits.

One of my pots of pet-complex actually germinated and I've got some D. derbyensis babies coming along. Based on previous posts by Pingman & others, I ground up some dried bloodworms and gave one of the plants some on one arm/trap. The difference in growth rate was astounding. The arms nearly doubled in size in a week. This type of feeding is a real pain but the results make it worthwhile. This method also has the benefit of precise location control - you can place small amounts of fishfood on a trap and not feed the media and encourage slime like the next method.

Another type of fertilization id foliar feeding. Spray a dilute (very dilute) fertilizer mix on the leaves, pitchers, etc. I think it was Peter D'Amato who wrote a CPN article on this a few years back. As many who have tried it will testify - one of the beneficiaries of this process is the slimy algae / mold that grow on the surface of the media. Wet media, weak fertilizer and slime takes off. I know a lot of people who have tried this method but not too many who keep it up for long...

 

[sarracenia]

i "feed" my Sarra seedlings a dilute solution of Miracid. I just mist it on the leaves. Seems to really accelerate their growth. I do it about every other week.

 

[jimscott]

Quote[/b] (*Barracuda_45* @ Oct. 23 2005,7:39)]If you can use fish food or FD bloodworms can ya do the same with FD brime shrimp, Krill or even daphnia?

What stood out to me, and I am only piecing advice together, is that brine shrimp and krill may have salt in it and that could be a potential problem. Not that it couldn't be rinsed welll...

Ron brings up another good point in that food that lands on the soil will at nutrients to the soil and that could lead to algae

 

[Brian_W]

I've tried daphnia on butterworts and didn't get the same kind of response as the blood worms.  The bloodworms dissolve in digestive juices, but the daphnia just sat there.  There must be something that the butterworts didn't like.



[/QUOTE]I ground up some dried bloodworms and gave one of the plants some on one arm/trap. The difference in growth rate was astounding.

I've seen seedlings reach maturity and flower within one season.  

Brian

 

[*Barracuda_45*]

Quote[/b] (jimscott @ Oct. 24 2005,6:56)]

Quote[/b] (*Barracuda_45* @ Oct. 23 2005,7:39)]If you can use fish food or FD bloodworms can ya do the same with FD brime shrimp, Krill or even daphnia?

What stood out to me, and I am only piecing advice together, is that brine shrimp and krill may have salt in it and that could be a potential problem. Not that it couldn't be rinsed welll...

Ron brings up another good point in that food that lands on the soil will at nutrients to the soil and that could lead to algae

Thank you jimscott, thats good advice as pertaining to the salt content in the Krill and shrimp.

As for fish food droping on the soil it seems it would mold quickly if its wet, i know this dont pertain to CP's but when my land hermit crabs get food all over the ground media it quickly molds/gets fungus and i have to remove it fast, so it seems it would do the same thing on the soil of CP's.

 

[CopcarFC]

Call me crazy but I feed my sundew seedlings with bloodworms yesterday and I can already tell a differance. Wow, and *Barracuda_45* I'm gonna try feeding a portion of my sundews with red flaky fish food to see if they color up. Takahashi, I also will leave a portion of them alone with no food to see how they turn out.

-Rail