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VFT Experiment

This thread inspired me:

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107934&highlight=turned+2+vfts

i decided to do my own little experiment a week or 2 after reading the thread in late April.

I went down to the local nursery and paid $16.80 for a single pot of VFT. Then I plucked up the courage to pull the whole thing apart after paying $16.80 for a nice healthy VFT.

I dumped the leaves in water and snipped off every trap.

Then I waited. And waited.

After a month I saw roots. A week later I laid them out on to the substrate. Then I moist them daily morning and night. I had 1 bulb from the main plant that I replanted directly and 2 pups. ( I didnt pull apart all the way to the core of the VFT, I left the little bit of main bulb cause if all the leaves failed at least I still have the bulb to regen for my sunken cost of $16.80. ) All other growth is from those leaves. I think I have some 20 odd clusters or so right now. :boogie: I'm on my way!

Now if each cluster multiplies two plants I'll be doing as well as Presto when he did this. If not, I'm still happy! With some luck at least one of these will survive dormancy or I could rip em all apart before that happens and end up with quite a bit of leaves to propagate when they grow up!!

Image 1 is when I first planted them. Image 2 is some time later.

Image 3 is the original bulb and 3 pups that came with the plant. I just replanted those straight away while the leaves soak.

Image 4 is a smaller container containing some nep seeds and I put some VFT leaves in here. These leaves turned brown the first week. Good thing I didnt throw them out! Some grew!

Image 5 is the main pot, taken today!

Thanks to Presto for inspiring me! And thanks to Cindy who inspired Presto!

Its going to be some time before mine mature to the size of Presto's, but I'm glad I didnt end up with a bunch of dead leaves. This really worked out nicely. But I cant count them all yet. They need to mature before I consider this a success :)


Shot with unknown at 1969-12-31


Shot with unknown at 1969-12-31
 
congrats dude! there you go..multiple VFT's. :D

I can never cut up one of my plants like that., but I guess I made VFT cuttings that did strike with a very good success rate. :)
 
It'll take about 3 years before the plants are mature enough for pullings but nicely done.
 
I did this same thing, except I started with very unhealthy VFTs. I got two that were in the process of dying at wal-mart on 50% clearance (~$5 for both - 3 plants total).

That was two months ago and now I have about 20+ plantlets. A healthy vft pulling does seem to go faster, but the unhealthy work too :)
 
acutally i took pullings off an unhealthy one..and both of them died. :(
 
The majority of mine turned brown and decomposed, then 2-4 weeks later little shoots started popping up :)
 
dammit....I should have saved that green dragon :(
 
If this works on unhealthy plants since CPSinSC succeeded I wonder if it works on stressed ones too. Lets say i make an order of a vft and it ships a week in the mail. Wonder would it kill a designer vft if i pulled it apart straight away to propagate. I have lost many mail order vfts to transport stress and if this improves the survival rate ....

Now to pluck up the courage to do this to a pink venus or something rare. But in Presto's thread the folks weren't having success. The direction the discussion was going in Presto's thread suggests to me that typical is more robust than the rare stuff and this won't work on the rare stuff.
 
Good job B.T. Thanks for sharing.
 
  • #10
It works best with mature and healthy plants. Some cultivars are bred/choosen for there vigor and are better growers than "typicals". That's not to say you won't have success with a sickly plant - it's just your odds are better with a healthy one. Besides you could just wind up with a bunch of sickly clones.
 
  • #11
Great job with them!
 
  • #12
wow, they look great! what conditions do you have them in?
 
  • #13
Here's an update of them. Long way to go before they start reaching maturity. I might have to move some out when they start getting bigger. Oddly enough I spaced em out when I planted them but they seem to have started clumping together and migrating across the substrate surface toward the center...


Shot with Canon PowerShot G7 at 2007-06-30
 
  • #14
wow, some of those are putting out multiple plantlets. That looks good!
 
  • #16
A leaf that's been pulled off, including the white petiole.
 
  • #17
The white basal tissue at the very base of a VFT leaf is the best "reproductive" tissue. So you take a VFT leaf and gently pull downwards so the leaf tears off as close to that white tissue as possible. Toss the leaf in a bag of moss, forget about it..and in a few weeks you'll have plants. :)
 
  • #18
Hey b.t.,

Did you use a rooting hormone? If so, how did you apply it?

Matt
 
  • #20
I did the same experiment and had good results (12) plantlets and learned some donts.
1. use lfsm instead of peat moss like i did.
2. dont fuss over them to much.
3. clip the traps, they tend to blacken and mold easily.
this is a great way to get many plants if you have the patients.
 
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