What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Trim Sarracenia?

Hi! I'm new to CP's, and acquired a red dragon vft and a scarlet belle sars last september. They have both survived their dormancy, and are starting to awake now. The VFT was easy to trim back, as everything above the surface died, and I simply plucked stuff off as it died back. However the sars never really died back any. The pitchers are dry and brown, but still look alive. I want to trim it back to allow room for new growth, and for aesthetic reasons. I will be repotting both the VFT and sars in the next few weeks, and would like to trim the sars soon. Any info or advice on trimming a sars would be greatly appreciated. :)
 
Most growers I have seen cut off living pitchers before dormancy too. I think you can just hack way all the old leaves at the base. (a wee bit above the soil.)
 
Thanks for the reply! can someone confirm this before a take the scissors to my sars?
 
thanks for all the help everyone! the plant is trimmed and ready for spring!
 
It really varies by species. With your plant, you can happily trim off whatever material you want. If there are leaves that look fine, then I would simply leave them. Leaving some growth may allow the plant to A) do some photosynthesis B) re-mobilize the nitrogen for the spring pitchers.
 
wow, they are already coming out of dormancy!? *looks at calendar and estimates another 2-3 months for mine*

I cut my sarrs back before dormancy, its their first with me, im sure yours will be fine!
 
yep, my vft's are coming out of dormancy as well... I'm hoping we don't get another cold front through here :/ I wasn't expecting to see them again until late feb / early march. This will be my first successful dormancy with CP's (knocks on wood). Next year, I will cut mine back before dormancy as well, since that seems to be the general practice. It just looked so green that I was hesitant to cut it...
 
It is awfully early for things to be coming out of dormancy. Where/how are the plants being stored? Do you see new growth? Or what is it that leads you to believe that they're coming out of dormancy?

As a rule, I don't cut back green living tissue unless it's unhealthy, infested, or otherwise adversely affects the plant. You can always remove it once it's dead, later.

The one exception is S. rubra which I need to pretty much burn to the ground to keep manageable.
 
I always trim the dead material before dormancy and end up trimming what I left on, 6 months later.
 
  • #10
The one exception is S. rubra which I need to pretty much burn to the ground to keep manageable.

I'm interested in this as I have S. rubra also. Do you just light it with a match? Do you burn in the spring or winter? Thanks for your help.
 
  • #11
I'm interested in this as I have S. rubra also. Do you just light it with a match? Do you burn in the spring or winter? Thanks for your help.

Burn?! No!

Just trim the pitchers. By burning them, you could:

1. accidentally burn the rhizome.

2. The ashes might enrich the soil too much. In the wild these plants survive and even thrive when wildfires raze down competing brush, but there is a constant flow of water that washes these nutrients away. Unless they're in an open system that would leach away nutrients, I would just trim away those pitchers.
 
  • #12
I'm interested in this as I have S. rubra also. Do you just light it with a match? Do you burn in the spring or winter? Thanks for your help.

Alas, I cannot literally burn them to the ground and they're in plastic pots. If that's something you're interested in doing, you'd want to use some ceramic (or other non-melting pot) and a lot of precaution. Also, if you were to burn, you'd probably want to do it when you normally trim. So long as you get the burn in before the plant comes out of dormancy (and starts putting out flowers or new pitchers,) you should be fine. But I've never done it before myself...

No, for now I stick with scissors, but I have a hard time every year. There's so much low down on the rhizome that can't be removed, and that makes things difficult for the coming growing season since there's a million nooks and crannies for pests to hide. Might be worthwhile to divide them in to smaller clumps to make it more manageable.
 
  • #13
Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll stick with the scissors also. Still quite a bit of green near the bases of my S. rubra, so I will wait a few more weeks.
 
Back
Top