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Anyone else experienced this? - VFT plants die back but produce loads of offshoots

Cindy

Cindy

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Well, I have to admit that I haven't got much time to keep an eye on my plants for the past few years so they are mostly on "survival mode" i.e. light and water only with no TLC. But when I looked for my VFT 'Bristle Tooth' plants yesterday, I realised that the whole container of them are GONE! Each of them was replaced by many small plants/plantlets in clumps, being camouflaged mostly by the sphagnum as well as the bog club moss.

The VFT 'Cross Teeth' did a similar thing but it wasn't as drastic in the sense that I still have plants around but they are like half the size of the adult. So that rules out the possibility that bog club moss is bad for VFT....LOL

Could it be the fact that these plants were TCed and kinda went bonkers? Or has anyone observed similar behaviour due to climate/weather conditions?

TIA!
 
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Well my whole job 9-5 is re-potting flytraps and I find this to be common whenever they go through some kind of environmental stresser. If the moss is packed in too tight or they go a little too long with improper watering/light they tend to die back and focus their energy into producing many offshoots. Also I would say TC might have an effect on this but I doubt it. At work I re-pot both TC plants and seed grown and I see this happening equally to both. We usually just un-pot the flytrap, divide it into however many babies it produced and re-pot them individually. Good way to double your collection lol :p
 
Some of mine do this and others don't. I have a pot of Colorado Giant that this year never got larger than spring out-of-dormancy plantlets. Came back as a large clump in spring and never did anything else. Last year it was putting out 2" traps. Nothing changed afaik. This year has been milder than last year so I doubt it was any environmental stresser as a cause. I think it's pests.
 
Thanks for the input! I am getting A LOT of offshoots and little plants. LOL

My concern will be them dividing themselves to death. They haven't gotten their dormancy rest ever since they arrived last August because I live in year round humid tropical conditions.
 
KNepenthe said:
Well my whole job 9-5 is re-potting flytraps and I find this to be common whenever they go through some kind of environmental stresser. If the moss is packed in too tight or they go a little too long with improper watering/light they tend to die back and focus their energy into producing many offshoots. Also I would say TC might have an effect on this but I doubt it. At work I re-pot both TC plants and seed grown and I see this happening equally to both. We usually just un-pot the flytrap, divide it into however many babies it produced and re-pot them individually. Good way to double your collection lol :p
Click to expand...

Hi KNepenthe,

Forgot to ask...why and when do you repot the plants (of course, other than it being your job LOL)?
 
I studied my set-ups (below) and think that like you said, the moss is packed in too tight. I water from the top all the time as the containers are undrained. The sphagnum moss is trimmed back but I find today that the layer just below the top inch or so is pretty squishy-mushy (though not rotten) and compact.

T5_setup_Apr27_zps89de489c.jpg
 
The three main reasons we re-pot are because 1. The plants are too crowded in a single pot and need to be divided up 2. The planting mix (We use pure LFS) is packed too tight or 3. We had to un-pot multiple plants to get the one desired for a customer out :p We do our re-poting year round but all the flytraps are in a cold frame so their dormancy is shorter than usual.
 
Mine do the same thing in a standard peat/perlite/sand mix. Not even LFS.
 
So KNepenthe

Are you saying that if the LFS did not did not become too tight one could leave them in the media without having to repot every 2-4years. As I have a nice set up I wanted to use as for VFT's I don't think that there they are packed so tight that plant could not push through. If the LFS get too tight why not just pull out some in between that the then create space...
 
  • #10
KNepenthe said:
I find this to be common whenever they go through some kind of environmental stresser.
Click to expand...

I second this and would like to add that, in my experience, they seem to divide more when there is too much water. This of course is the scenario that an overly dense, too tightly packed media would cause.

Add perlite or sand to your moss or simple do not pack it as tightly.

Steve D. over at another site--and presumably an associate of KNepenthe--recommended to me once to let flytraps stay slightly more dry that Sarrs and most sundews. Since I began following his advice my flytraps have grown larger and more robust in a shorter time. In fact, I never allow water to sit in their trays.

Hope this helps!
 
  • #11
Just an update...

The separated plantlets are growing much bigger on their own although a couple are still doing the multiplying/clumping act. The weather is much cooler but I have the lights on for the same period as before...not sure if that plays a part too.
 
  • #12
Some clumps to be separated and planted out yesterday.


Shark's teeth/Bristle Tooth (can't really tell)


Cross teeth (distinct cup-like traps and skinny petioles)


The whole container of these crazy growers!
 
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