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New Utric

Hya,

i just received some U.Vulgaris and have no idea on how to grow it or any other kind of utric. do i just put it in a container of distilled water?

thanks
mike
 
Mix one cup of peat moss per gallon of distilled/RO/rain/good pure water (you can also consider adding a small handfull of LF sphag.) Mix well and allow to settle out and then add the plant. That is the 30 second lesson, for a more detailed lesson go to Dodecatheon's webpage and look for the section on aquatic Utrics. I know there is also alot of info in this sub-forum in reguards to other aquatics so you might want to do a search in here for: aquatic, inflata, radiata, purpurea, vulgaris, etc.
 
Pyro's advice is fine, but you might want to bear in mind that U. vulgaris is a temperate species that forms a winter resting bud (turion) for the winter, the rest of the foliage dies back.

You won't be able to maintain this species long-term in cultivation if you don't allow it to do this. I don't know how cold it gets in GA in winter, you may need to over-winter the turions in the refridgerator. Maybe someone growing this plant in a warmer climate than mine in the UK could help. U. vulgaris grows as a native plant in nutrient poor water in my county, Cambridgeshire, so I have no problems over-wintering it.

Also, this is a big aquatic Utric, so give it plenty of room.

Cheers
Vic
 
Hi Vic,

My own experiences with such temperate aqautic Utrics. as U. macrorhiza, U. purpurea, and U. intermedia seem to contradict the accepted idea that they *must* be allowed to form turions. In particular, I have been growing the same batch of U. purpurea in the same jar for 3 years now without ever having induced or otherwise seen turion production. The plants are healthy and fill the jar. They have however not produced flowers, but then neither have any turion raised plants that I have grown either, so I cannot make any definite claims about whether or not it will affect flower production. My feeling says they will still produce flowers under the proper circumstances, but I'll need to investigate this to be sure.

From my little 'experiments', it seems that turion production begins at 18 deg. C. I have also had some indication that turions may be formed during adverse conditions regardless of temperature, such as over abundance of some kinds of algae, or poor general water quality. Turions produced because of poor water quality seem to be of inferior quality than those produced solely because of low temperatures, but they are still viable, and in fact will begin to form full plants within several months, even if not given any cold treatment.

But despite my experiences, I still do prefer to take a small batch of each species I have and put them outside in the fall so that they will form turions, which I store in the fridge. This gives me a backup should anything happen to my main collection.

Take care!

Chris F.
 
Hi Chris
According to both Slack (Insect-Eating Plants and How to grow them, 1984) and D'Amato (The Savage Garden, 1998) U. purpurea, which has a range from Canada to Cuba, and only forms turions when subjected to cold weather and will otherwise remain in constant growth. So it is perhaps not surprising that your plants remained healthy without forming turions for three years.

I'm not sure what the trigger is for turion production in U. vulgaris, it could be temperature, or day-length or a combination of the two. My plants grow outside, so I just let nature take it's course. However, if Mike's newly aquired plants do form turions he will have to deal with them, or if he keeps it in growth without a dormant resting period and they die as a result, I wouldn't want to be responsible. Hence, I gave him advice based on accepted published wisdom and what works for me. If it is possible to maintain U. vulgaris long-term without a winter rest I would be very interested to hear about it, but I wouldn't advise anyone to undertake this experiment with a new plant.

Cheers
Vic
 
Hi,

I've done it with U. macrorhiza as well (closely related), but just not for as long. (only a couple of years) U. intermedia also seems to show the same tendency, but I always end up losing most of it to algae for some reason.

I wasn't trying to tell Mike to skip the plant's dormancy, just trying to offer him another view. Ideally from my stand point, anyone with a new Utric. should definitely allow it to go dormant, but if you have extra material, or break off a small 'leaf' for division, it's worth trying to grow a small amount of it without a dormancy to see how it reacts.

Take care!

Chris
 
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