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Has Anyone Else Noticed This?

Plant Planter

The Most Uncreative Name in the History of Ever
My typical and "Dentate Traps" Venus flytraps both have generated at least one flower stalk with me; the former I cut off. My typical plant began making a SECOND, which I also cut off (which you'd know if you've looked at my Grow List and Eat Counts recently). Both times, only a couple weeks after, THIS happened:
<a href="http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Flytrapfarmer/media/IMG_0015_zpsfcd95569.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag152/Flytrapfarmer/IMG_0015_zpsfcd95569.jpg" border="0" alt="Crowded Rosette 1 (Low Quality) photo IMG_0015_zpsfcd95569.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Flytrapfarmer/media/IMG_0016_zpse2cf6b68.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag152/Flytrapfarmer/IMG_0016_zpse2cf6b68.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0016_zpse2cf6b68.jpg"/></a>
(Sorry for huge images and bad quality.)

The centers of my plants became WAY crowded with growth! I'm pretty sure that my typical flytrap has divided several times and that it has something to do with me sacrificing the flowers. Are the plants desperate to reproduce or is it something else? That's really all I can think of. If you've ever experienced this in your plants, post a photo! I'd like to see it.

I would greatly appreciate any facts, opinions, personal anecdotes, blah, blah blah :blahblah9xm: about this topic! :D
 
Flowering exhausts Dionaea. When you cut the stalks off, the plant can concentrate on dividing and producing new leaves.
 
yep , i pinch off all flower stalks and seem tog et much better growth :)
 
What I don't understand is that my other Venus flytraps haven't flowered, so they're not exhausted, yet they have not divided. I still think that this happened IN RESPONSE to me getting rid of the flowers. Also, even though my typical plant already has flowered and currently is making seeds, somehow it STILL has energy to divide, and several times, at that!
 
It is in response to you cutting the flower stalks. The plants convert the energy intended for flowering into energy for growth.
 
So it's almost like adding fertilizer: energy intended for one purpose is left unused, and so the plant has extra energy left. Right?
 
Yup. That's pretty much it in a nut shell.
 
Flowering exhausts Dionaea.

I would have to dispute that. Dionaea is a flowering plant, it has been flowering and producing seed for millenia.
Allowing the plant to perform it's natural cycle will only affect it negatively if the growing conditions / regime are less than optimal.
I never remove the inflorescence unless it gets in the way.
 
I would have to dispute that. Dionaea is a flowering plant, it has been flowering and producing seed for millenia.
Allowing the plant to perform it's natural cycle will only affect it negatively if the growing conditions / regime are less than optimal.
I never remove the inflorescence unless it gets in the way.

Many growers would dispute that! ;)
yes, its "natural" for a VFT to flower..same as any other plant..but its also pretty clear and obvious that flowering
and seed production uses up a lot of energy, and if you remove the flower stalks early, that energy will not be used for
flowering and seed production, and can instead be used for more leaf and trap production, which means more photosynthesis,
which can result in a healthier and more robust plant..

flowering = more energy used for seed production, which does not benefit the individual plant.
not flowering = that same energy instead used for leaf production, which does benefit that individual plant.

making seeds is good for the *species*..but not necessarily good for the individual plant..
(In the same way, I would argue that having children is good for the human species, but not necessarily good
for the health of the parents! ;) actually, many women die from childbirth..and they wouldn't have died if they hadn't been pregnant.
procreating can be a dangerous business..its a net *loss* of energy for the parent organism..

Many people have experienced VFT's dying after flowering..sure, perhaps those plants were in sub-optimal health to begin with!
but even so, flowering was probably the one thing that pushed them over the edge..if they hadnt been allowed to flower and set
seed, they would have had a much better chance of surviving..because a lot of CP hobbyists, especially newbies, are in fact growing plants that might not be in optimal health..
not every VFT is in perfect growing conditions, and perfectly healthy and robust, and can flower with no problems or adverse effects..
many of these plants can definitely benefit from having the flower stalks cut off! its a very good thing to do for a large
percentage of CP's in captivity..

I dont think it can be disputed that flowering and seed production uses a lot of energy,
and that cutting off the flower stalks early prevents that energy from being used for flowering and seed production.
(you cant flower and make seeds if the flowers don't exist! ;)

We can debate "the health of the plant matters" when it comes to flowering..and sure, it does..
but its still a fact that cutting off the flower stalks is *good* for the mother plant overall.
IMO that really is not debatable..

Scot
 
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  • #10
Well said Scot. The fact that flowering exhausts Dionaea is a very well documented piece of cultivation information on the species.
 
  • #11
I would have to dispute that. Dionaea is a flowering plant, it has been flowering and producing seed for millenia.
Allowing the plant to perform it's natural cycle will only affect it negatively if the growing conditions / regime are less than optimal.
I never remove the inflorescence unless it gets in the way.


I understand the point you're making, but it should be understood that reproduction almost always works to reduce individual fitness by natural selection. Although a tremendous amount of energy is used to produce the flower, it's not so much "exhaustion" as the fact that florigen inhibits vegetative growth hormones and causes cells in the shoot apical meristem to differentiate in favor of the flower. Not unlike removing the apical bud of a plant to promote axillary growth, removing the flower prevents the inhibition of auxin and cytokinins that promote leaf (or trap) production.
 
  • #12
Do you mean that because it's been repeated many many times it is well documented? I will repeat, if the plant is grown correctly there is absolutely no reason to remove the inflorescence. If your Dionaea are becoming exhausted then I suggest you re-examine your cultural methods. The plant is not an annual in nature.
 
  • #13
I think what Mato is saying, and what I would agree with, is that alothough it is completely 'natural' there are certain side effects of flowering/seeding that cause a plant to be below it's highest level of health. It's like if you asked a woman if she was 100% healthy immediately after carrying a baby around for 9 months.
 
  • #14
It's like if you asked a woman if she was 100% healthy immediately after carrying a baby around for 9 months.

Have you heard about the female distance runners who win Olympic medals and break World Records after giving birth? ;)
 
  • #15
lol this thread is going nowhere fast. agree 100% with scotty, we learned about this ad nauseum in school. true for all perennials



if my vft can run a marathon after producing seed then ill give you a gold star :lol:
 
  • #16
Have you heard about the female distance runners who win Olympic medals and break World Records after giving birth? ;)

I have not, actually. Would you mind linking me to these soon post-birth olympic medalists?
 
  • #17
Every year when my VFT tries to flower I usually cut the flower stalks off as soon as I see them and my plants always divide themselves after that. I've never taken photo's of this, just figured it was a natural response of the plant.
 
  • #19

me too! but the reason it is "going nowhere fast" is simple..
Fred is simply deliberately ignoring all the good points that have been made against his assertion..
if you ignore rebuttals to your argument, you never have to admit you might be wrong..

(well..technically he isn't wrong..but he is only right if plants are in perfect health..
the other side of the coin is..plants are not always in perfect health..)

Scot
 
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  • #20
me too! but the reason it is "going nowhere fast" is simple..
Fred is simply deliberately ignoring all the good points that have been made against his assertion..
if you ignore rebuttals to your argument, you never have to admit you might be wrong..

Scot

I'm not ignoring any good points Scotty, I simply haven't seen any. :D
 
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