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Help me save my Gold Strike

So my Gold Strike is still alive.

This is honestly somewhat of a shock, as it was the smallest plant placed outside with my other VFTs, and not brought in anywhere near soon enough. It's spent the last 2 and a half Months in a small fridge in my bedroom closet, doing the dormancy thing.

I recently opened my fridge and looked at my plants. Outside of a pretty bad mold problem (need to work on that), my Gold Strike... actually has some white/purple.

All of it's leaves are black and more or less gone, but it's rhizome is still healthy.

Herein lies the rub. I can't replace it, at least not easily. So I really need to try and figure out how, in 1-2 months, to bring it out of dormancy safely. I would presume that I would want to wait until the nights hover above freezing and then just repot them outside, but is there a better way? I want to maximize the chance of all my plants surviving -- but especially this plant.

Other plans would be to put it in a domed pot in the windowsill (I have a few cuttings and whatnot growing in there, I also have a lot of LFS growing in there) until it's well and truly spring, or just put it in with the rest of my tropical drosera in the windowsill.
 
Cut all the rotten off and treat it like a cutting. IMHO It should regrow. Bury the bulb in moist media (leave the top showing) and put it under lights. That is what I would do.
 
Cut all the rotten off and treat it like a cutting. IMHO It should regrow. Bury the bulb in moist media (leave the top showing) and put it under lights. That is what I would do.

Hm, should I take it out and put it in with my current plants, in the 60-90 degree temps of my room, or should I put it outside once things stay above freezing at night, and put it in with the other VFTs that I'll be moving out?

We do have a garage that runs around 50-60 right now, I could install my plant lights out there again and put it under that, but I'm worried about the temperatures.

I'm worried that taking it straight from the fridge to the windowsill will shock it to death. Right now it's in a minifridge that's running about 38F wrapped in peat and paper towel, inside a ziplock baggie.
 
Should have went with my gut last time I saw it and pulled it out. Upon doing so this time, it basically fell apart into a offwhite, soggy mess.

I've placed the remnants into a pot of pure peat, after soaking them in Superthrive for a few minutes, but, well, we'll see.
 
Sorry bout that. Not much of a chance now, but don't give up!
 
Yeah... it has roots still, but basically the leaves all came off without any force at all. They're still red before they turn off-white. I'm hoping the off white is due to the peat moss not due to, well, rot. We'll see. I have a sad feeling it's rotted to the core.

It also makes me worry about the OTHER VFTs that I have in the fridge. It's still dropping in the high 20s at night here, but it might be time to put them outside.
 
why do u have them in fridge? they dont need cold in my experience the tigger for dormancy is the hours of light Because we in the winter wet up to 75 and the minums is 45 but i see ur weather put them in an window for next year i
 
why do u have them in fridge? they dont need cold in my experience the tigger for dormancy is the hours of light Because we in the winter wet up to 75 and the minums is 45 but i see ur weather put them in an window for next year i

Might try that next winter. I put them in the fridge cause I had left them outside for weeks and well, 20 degree days... yeah.
 
  • #10
You should have just mulched them(I'm assuming you live in a area that gets cold winters). Just trim them down and cover them with about 6" of mulch. Thats what I did and we had a couple of weeks in the single digits even below zero. When it stays above 20 degrees F you can unmulch them or if you want to take them out everytime it jumps above 20 for a week or so you can. This is my first dormancy year but all the plants seem to be okay nothing mushy. My sarracenias still have good color as well.

Anyway it sounds like your plant has a bit of a battle if it survives, best of luck.
 
  • #11
Well, I can't tell where the plant is in the pot, so I think it's gone.

I have taken the other VFTs out of the fridge. They're in the windowsill for now.

As for keeping them outside, well, here were the temps in December when I finally brought them in:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KTWF/2009/12/20/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar

It took 2 days for the pots to thaw out inside enough to get the plants out of them. I don't think even mulching would have helped.

My thought at this point is burying a quarter wine barrel planter and using that as a minibog. We'll see how that works.
 
  • #12
That doesn't look much colder then were I live. In fact we had like 3 weeks below 20 degrees. The frigde method does work though. Did you spray with funguscide?
 
  • #13
Last year I 'fridged' all of my vft's and come valentine's day, I simply repotted them, placed them under a fluo light and within a couple weeks, they were growing again, no issues. When warmer weather arrived, they went straight outside and enjoyed full sun. I wouldn't think they would get shock from coming OUT of dormancy, it's more of inducing dormancy that might be difficult. VFT's seem to appreciate being a little on the drier side in comparrison to sarracenia IMO.

Sorry to hear about your loss.
 
  • #14
That doesn't look much colder then were I live. In fact we had like 3 weeks below 20 degrees. The frigde method does work though. Did you spray with funguscide?

No, I don't have any funguscide, and dunno of any local sources.
 
  • #15
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41B1WPOvKsL._SS500_.jpg Thats the kind I have seen used. I didn't use any cause I don't think you have to when you mulch your plants so it's just second hand info from me.

Anyways I have seen it at my local ace hardware in the garden section, I think I also saw it at lowes. Might be at home depot as well.
 
  • #16
I'm always hesitant to do the fridge method. It just seems wrong putting any plant in pure darkness for that long. Anyway I think putting them outside in the weather shouldn't be too bad, maybe in a few weeks when it gets warmer. I'm not familiar with this "Gold Strike" is it a very uncommon cultivar? anybody have any pics?
 
  • #17
I second what Dex and some of the others have said. I know Idaho is a little more intense than the coastal NW, but I really think you'd have better luck outside. There are methods for dealing with the cold; mulching, big containers, earthen berms, etc. You should be saving your time and energy for growing kickass ultra-highland Neps with all that cold weather. I know it's hard to do something new and risky with plants that you really like, but I think that you'll be a better grower for it. Try to think of it less as a gamble and more as an adventure. :D
The worst that happens is you lose your temperate plants, which seem already to be a source of frustration for you. But if your posts are any indication, you spend a lot of time trying to make those work; think of what you could do with that time if you focused it on stuff that's easy in your climate. I hope you've read swords' various posts on his window-vented terraria. (If you go searching for them, remember that he liquidated his Neps back in 2008(?) and switched gears so a lot of useful information will be in fairly old threads.) I think you should get yourself some crops of N. lowii, rajah, the toothy species and some other finicky highlanders; start selling cuttings to starry-eyed newbs and watch the cash roll in. You won't need to dote over your temperates all year long - you can just replace them every year!
If you're dead-set on growing North American species, perhaps you could try the inverse of swords' method. Set up a temperate enclosure (like a cold frame) outside your window, leave the window cracked all the time, and run a duct from the window to the enclosure with a gentle fan. Heat loss will make the cold frame much colder than indoors, but room temperatures and household humidity levels will eliminate almost any risk of a hard freeze. (I'd be surprised if you saw frost inside at all, except maybe on the walls of the coldframe itself.) As a bonus, because warm air carries so much more moisture than cold, you'd have super solid protection against dehydration, which is the biggest risk in your type of climate from what I gather. If you wanted to be extra clever, you could place metal or stone condensers above each of your plants to capture excess humidity and use it to automatically drip-irrigate your pots.
Best of luck - I imagine your struggles could get pretty frustrating. The biggest problem I have around here is the threat of birds stealing my Sphagnum and deer munching on the tops of my Darlingtonia (not as much of a problem now that I'm back in a third-story apartment.) :D
~Joe
 
  • #18
All that potting and unpotting and putting in unnatual darkness in your refrigerator is not good. Leave them outside! Your temps are not too cold for them. It's not the "cold" that kills them, it is being frozen and not being able to drink, and when the winds are blowing it can accelerate the dehydration, so that is when you should perhaps have them covered to protect from the wind so dehydration will not happen so fast. I've had extremely cold temps here in mississippi, which is unusual, but it doesn't look like I've lost a single plant. I didn't do anything special for them at all, not even when they stayed frozen solid for 2 weeks straight without thawing out during the daytime because it never got above 32 degrees. Plus it has snowed 3 times this year (unheard of!) and they have been buried in the snow without any protection whatsoever at any time this winter. I never covered them, mulched, nothing - and all are still alive.
 
  • #19
even when they stayed frozen solid for 2 weeks straight without thawing out during the daytime because it never got above 32 degrees. Plus it has snowed 3 times this year (unheard of!) and they have been buried in the snow without any protection whatsoever at any time this winter. I never covered them, mulched, nothing - and all are still alive.

Haha, frozen solid or covered in snow is actually what you want in adverse weather. That's like automatic tarping/mulching. It's hovering around freezing or freezing with no precipitation that makes things hard. You've got it easy!
;P
~Joe
 
  • #20
Resident of Arkansas:
I'm always hesitant to do the fridge method. It just seems wrong putting any plant in pure darkness for that long.

Resident of balmy coastal Washington state:
I second what Dex and some of the others have said. I know Idaho is a little more intense than the coastal NW, but I really think you'd have better luck outside.

Resident of Mississippi!!:
All that potting and unpotting and putting in unnatual darkness in your refrigerator is not good. Leave them outside! Your temps are not too cold for them.

yes, the temps are too cold..Mississippi is to Idaho as Florida is to Siberia..not even remotely close..

you guys just dont seem to understand that those of us who do "the fridge method" dont do it just because we feel like it..we do it because we MUST do it..
you really, really, really, really, seriously, not kidding, for real, not joking, cant leave VFTs and Sarrs outdoors in zones 6, 5, 4 and colder..

If you guys lived where we do, you would understand this..

the reason the fridge method keeps being talking about is because it works..
its works great..I have been doing it every winter for 17 years now..
and for many people its the only option..

the pitch darkess is not a problem..because the plants are at 35 degree F..they are not growing..they are not disturbed, they handle it just fine..

how often do we have to keep talking about this before those of you living in very warm climates believe us? :scratch: :headwall: we have been talking about it on this forum for about 10 years now..some us just really have to do it..outdoors honestly is not an option..

why is this so hard to understand? ???

Scot
 
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