How do i put these babies to bed

[Anoxos]

Since the weather here is so unpredictable (on a climate line, on a river, at that one point where we get weather patterns crossing from both the Gulf and Canada) I'm thinking of dividing my babies. Hibernate half in the fridge, half outside. Insurance that some will make it, I hope. Don't have room for all in the fridge that need dormancy. We'll see how they do.

At this point though, the days are getting shorter, but the temps outside are still near 90F. I'm just going to start shortening the timer on the lights inside until the temps drop enough to transfer half to the patio for a hopefully natural drop into dormancy without too much shock.

Will this temporary lessening of light cause any problems for my non-dormancy CPs you think? I'm working on getting a second area set up for them eventually, but it'll be a few more months until I can manage it. For now I've just got the one set of lights for all of them.

 

[jimscott]

The non-dormancy plants also need the lessening of photoperiod and presumably cooler temps. As someone put it, they slow down. Plants like the Neps and D. capensis, spatulata fall into that category.

 

[herenorthere]

Photoperiod doesn't vary much in the tropics, so photoperiod doesn't provide as strong a signal and means little or nothing to many tropical plants.  And, if they do pay attention to it, it might be to signal something other than that it's spring and time to grow or that it's fall and time to shut down.  That's temperate climate thinking.

We have spring ephemerals in our forests that complete much of their growth cycle during the time they can get sun after temperatures have warmed but before forests leaf-out.  I've heard their equivalents in subtropical deciduous forests are winter ephemerals, doing the same thing but during winter.  So a decreasing photoperiod might be their signal to start a new season's growth.  Plants that go dormant for a summer dry season can take an increasing photoperiod as a signal to go dormant. I don't grow any Drosera but don't some them do that?