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Red piranha vft

Can a red piranha VFT be produced from a seed?
 
Yes. Apparently that name can apply to any all red plant with short teeth. There seems to be a delicate upright clone in circulation as well as a more robust clone.

From seed you will mostly get typical green VFTs. You will have to sow a lot of seeds and look out for red ones with potential.
 
Ok thanks. Someone told me that you can't so I thought I would ask.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Alvin Meister @ Nov. 22 2005,4:42)]From seed you will mostly get typical green VFTs. You will have to sow a lot of seeds and look out for red ones with potential.
Not entirely true. From a selfing of a Red Piranha I sowed 150 or so seed and every single plant is pure red with short dentate-like teeth. Some are even purple-black. Not a single green plant was produced. Maybe I was just lucky, but I figure that 150 out of 150 is a pretty high percentage.
 
I've never sowed any red VFT seeds, so I'm just posting the accepted wisdom.

It would be great to see a photo - I would love to see loads of little red seedlings!
smile.gif
 
How did you sow them? Inside or outside?
 
All of my vft seed are sown in trays and placed outside for a natural stratification period of several months. When the seed begin to germinate...usually around February/March, I place the trays in the greenhouse where they are grown on.

Alvin, I respect the accepted wisdom, but whoever is publicising this data has probably never conducted enough true controlled growth comparisons. I have on many, many occasions. I have grown out several hundreds of seed of selfings of Red Piranha, Green Dragon, and Red Dragon. In each instance I obtained seedlings that were as close to the parent's color and form attributes as one could get. The only difference I was able to detect in these seedlings was with the Green Dragon. Although all of them were very red there were many that had varying shades of red in the petioles and traps. The Red Piranha and Red Dragon all produced pure red seedlings.

I truly believe that growing conditions help contribute to the outcome of the plant's form and color. I grow all of my plants in extremely bright light. Being in central California really helps with this. I would love to show photos of my experiments but I do not have a digital camera.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Alvin, I respect the accepted wisdom, but whoever is publicising this data has probably never conducted enough true controlled growth comparisons. I have on many, many occasions. I have grown out several hundreds of seed of selfings of Red Piranha, Green Dragon, and Red Dragon. In each instance I obtained seedlings that were as close to the parent's color and form attributes as one could get. The only difference I was able to detect in these seedlings was with the Green Dragon. Although all of them were very red there were many that had varying shades of red in the petioles and traps. The Red Piranha and Red Dragon all produced pure red seedlings.

Well you can't argue with experience! People say VFTs don't hybridise in the same way as say sarracenia, but for example I have some upright plants x low growing ones and they've turned out vertical growing, but with short petioles. Seems like a 50/50 hybridisation to me.
 
Is there anyway you could hook me up with some seeds?
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JMurphy97 @ Nov. 25 2005,1:25)]Is there anyway you could hook me up with some seeds?
To whom are you making this request? If it is intended for me...I have already sown all seed produced this year. Sorry.
 
  • #11
Thanks anyways. Have another question though. I had some VFT seeds I tried to grow outside. The thing is I put some plastic wrap over them like this paper I got with it said to do. But that was if I was to grow them inside. So they didn't grow. I put them in the fridge with my other VFT. Is there any chance of them growing when I bring them out in the spring?
 
  • #12
Hard to say. How long have they been laying on the soil surface already??
 
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