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Removing flowers

I've had 2 D. paradoxa plants flowering for the past 2 weeks or so. Rather than flower every day, they seem to almost alternate with maybe both flowering together every 2 or 3 out of 5 days.

My question: is there any harm (or benefit) to removing the flowers that do not get fertilized? Since they are not self-fertile, removing the unfertilized blooms will make it easier to keep track of the flowers that I actually attempted to pollinate. (While I did create a tracking list - I know I won't trust it 100% and will end up scouring all of the spent blooms for seeds anyway).

I'm thinking that the harm to removing the unfertilized blossoms would be minimal but wanted to check to see if anyone has any thoughts or experience in this area.

While these stalks are close to finished - there are more stalks coming...

Thanks!
 
Mine flowers like mad too.....but I find this isnt a battle that can be won.
Whenever I pinch out a flower stalk, it just sends out another one within the same week
I must have pinched out about 4 now.....but after the plant replaced every single one in a few weeks I just gave up
Dino
 
BTW mine has 2 flower stalks with another one rapidly shooting up, but the plant is growing fabolously and its beautifully coloured
 
he's talking about removing only unfertilized flowers and keeping fertilized flowers on the same scape, not removing an entire scape.
 
Then that should be fine.....if the plant recieves no shock after removing a whole flower stalk then removing some unfertilized flowers from a flower stalk shouldnt be a problem
 
he means will removing unfert. flowers hurt the fert. flowers.
 
I've never tried this myself, so I have no advice based on emperical evidence.

But, anytime you cut a plant, you increase the probability of an infection and damaging adjacent tissue. Seeing as how the stalk and flowers are delicate structures, if the stalk contains both fertilized and unfertilized flowers, I'd keep them all attached to play it safe.

But again...this is just advice based on theory.....
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ July 13 2005,1:18)]he means will removing unfert. flowers hurt the fert. flowers.
No, Ive done it before on several sundews
 
I've been removing unfertilized flowers on my D. paradoxa plants since July (just before the original post) and have seen no negative impact on the plants. The fertilized pods are filled with seed and both plants keep flowering and sending out more leaves and scapes.
 
  • #10
Just a thought, but wouldn't that slow down the drain on plant?
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ Sep. 24 2005,6:16)]Just a thought, but wouldn't that slow down the drain on plant?
Possibly, but if you think about the unfertilized flowers from the plant's perspective - they're pretty useless material. The plant puts a lot of energy into getting the flower to bloom and get pollinated. If it fails in its mission, the plant minimizes any further energy expenditures and just lets the unfertilized flower wither away. I'm just speeding up the process a little. As chloroplast mentioned, I am opening up the plant to potential infection, damage, etc. However, based on my initial results (5+ scapes), the risk / reward for removing the spent flowers is definitely worth it for me (cuts down on seed harvesting time by a significant amount).
 
  • #12
I'm one who as analogy for just about everything and this sounds far too similar to something else in human physiology!
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