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Growing and Cloning B52 Venus Fly Traps

Looking for advice on growing these cultivars quickly and cloning them.

I know how to pull a leaf and then stick it in some wet moss to form a new plant.

Is that the best way? I wan't many clones fast, and I don't want to hurt my plants.

I think I may have fried one of my B52 plants slightly, how much light is too much?

Right now I have 2 x 25 Watt CFLs. I recently removed an additional 10W LED bulb.

The temperature was 92 degrees!

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Are you trying to clone them or steam them? Open that thing up. They can take full sun all day long. You wouldn't want to pay the electric bill to make that much light artificially.
 
aside from leaf pullings, your best bets are flower stalk cuttings and natural division.
 
I would like to add a word of caution. Those plants look very new, as if they've been recently divided themselves. I would give them a few months to rest, at minimum, before removing any material to propagate with. Even then, at best, you can take only two or three leaves per plant, and then let them rest again for a while.

May I ask what the rush is? Division and leaf and flower cuttings are slow methods of making new plants. What is commonly done now to make the hundreds of plants in a little time to keep up with collectors is cloning, but that is expensive, and has a steep learning curve.
 
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:wave:
If you're trying to start a VFT B52 business, thats a great desire & I wish you the best of luck & success! You'll not find a cake mix recipe for success so easily because the answer is very complex.

My best advice:

How to grow B52 quickly:
1. :nono:
2. Research
3. More Research

Fastest way to clone B52
1. Research & spend $$$$$$ on lab equipment
2. What SubRosa said
3. What Lil Stinkpot said
4. Research?

Unless you're well knowledged & equipped for tissue culturing, then you might as well take it slow with the leaf pulls or get some VFT seeds. Also research :poke:
 
There is no "fast" or "rush" in our hobby, so +1 to what the others have written
 
And dude, you are going to want to open that thing up. As SubRosa said, you are going to end up steaming them in there, unless you live up in Canada or something those flytraps will be fine outside for the summer if you can give them 6 or more hours of direct sun per day.

Tissue Culture is the best. If you can't afford to do that, I'm just warning you, you are definitely not going to make a lot of money. If you are really serious, invest in a little home TC kit. That'll take you a long way towards what you want to do. I'm sure there are some TC experts here on this forum whom you could ask for advice.

Again, I don't want to discourage you, rather I'd like to encourage you, but there comes a point where something you try to do is either going to take too much time or be too hard to do, and that is the point you just need to think about it a little more.

Good luck!
 
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What is commonly done now to make the hundreds of plants in a little time to keep up with collectors is cloning, but that is expensive, and has a steep learning curve.

"Steep" learning curve? Heck no. It is an investment to begin for sure, but on another forum there is a guy who just started TC'ing a couple years ago. He has great success now, as is obvious in the health of his plants.
 
The learning curve for TC is not too difficult. It's the practice of sterile culture that can be challenging. Usually this requires much trial and error before being able to do it consistently without contamination. I would say that the "practice" learning curve for tissue culture can be both frustrating and can take a while to figure out. Other than that, it is not too difficult, depending on what you want to do ;)
 
  • #10
Not sure I have the patience to just let the B52s grow for a few months, but I will try.

Sterile cultures would probably be very difficult to keep sterile! I think I should stick to the old fashioned methods.

I opened up the terrarium a bit, but if I put the B52s outside I think someone would steal them.

How fast can VFT seedlings grow to a descent size with extra light?
 
  • #11
"Steep" learning curve? Heck no. It is an investment to begin for sure, but on another forum there is a guy who just started TC'ing a couple years ago. He has great success now, as is obvious in the health of his plants.

For someone asking for the fastest way to clone & propogate his/her vfts, plus currently growing them in an enclosed container, we can safely assume that this member is still in the learning phase for dionaea plants; hence, a leap directly into the world of tissue culturing would definitely be steep & is really jumping the gun here. I may be ahead of myself if he/she already has experience in TC, but I conclude not since the question with an obvious answer was asked.
There are two general approaches to tissue culturing (assuming you're a hobbiest). The first being the careful way involving time & effort in preparation. The second being simply jumping into it reading a few threads or maybe a tutorial on the subject. If the second approach is chosen, you'll most likely end up researching after numerous failures & questions or quitting b/c lack of foundation. Either way, you may as well read read & read b/c you will not start mass producing plants overnight. By the way, I'm not at all a professional as some may be. I learned about TC with much research as a kid & also learned about it in college, but I'm simply a home TC hobbiest of many years experience who is still learning.
 
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  • #12
Not sure I have the patience to just let the B52s grow for a few months, but I will try.

Sterile cultures would probably be very difficult to keep sterile! I think I should stick to the old fashioned methods.

I opened up the terrarium a bit, but if I put the B52s outside I think someone would steal them.

How fast can VFT seedlings grow to a descent size with extra light?

If they're actual seedlings, and not pullings, then 2-3 years. Maybe a little less if you consistently hand-feed them and trim the traps when they start to blacken to preserve the leaves.

If pullings, with hand-feeding and trimming, you can get a mature-sized plant in around 6-8 months (assuming the pulling was from a mature plant itself).

Secondly, if you have no patience, you're in the wrong hobby. :p

Not really, the plants grow fast enough to keep even ME interested, but propagating is another matter entirely. That takes time, pure and simple.
 
  • #13
For someone asking for the fastest way to clone & propogate his/her vfts, plus currently growing them in an enclosed container, we can safely assume that this member is still in the learning phase for dionaea plants; hence, a leap directly into the world of tissue culturing would definitely be steep & is really jumping the gun here. I may be ahead of myself if he/she already has experience in TC, but I conclude not since the question with an obvious answer was asked.
There are two general approaches to tissue culturing (assuming you're a hobbiest). The first being the careful way involving time & effort in preparation. The second being simply jumping into it reading a few threads or maybe a tutorial on the subject. If the second approach is chosen, you'll most likely end up researching after numerous failures & questions or quitting b/c lack of foundation. Either way, you may as well read read & read b/c you will not start mass producing plants overnight. By the way, I'm not at all a professional as some may be. I learned about TC with much research as a kid & also learned about it in college, but I'm simply a home TC hobbiest of many years experience who is still learning.

You're correct, I didn't think about that. Sorry. :blush:
 
  • #14
You're correct, I didn't think about that. Sorry. :blush:

Thats ok, I'm actually glad you mentioned it b/c otherwise I would have been too lazy to add my input =P
 
  • #15
I would start here, in Barry Rice's FAQ. Look under advanced. It does not discuss tissue culture, but it gives you a great overall look at making more little flytraps vegetatively.
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2000.html


As others have said, horticulture is all about patience. Again, what's the rush? Sit back, enjoy your B-52s, and watch them grow. In next to no time, botanically speaking, they'll start filling out, and you can take the *occasional* leaf pull or division. If you want to wait a bit longer, let your plants bulk up so that you can let them flower and set seed. Remember, though, that seeds of B-52 does not a B-52 make. 'Tis the nature of cultivars and seedling variety.
 
  • #16
I am definitely interested in making some B52 seeds. Genetics is fascinating.

A seedling of a B52 could be the next best cultivar =)

My cat tried to kill my butterwort, so I thought a box would be a good idea.

I have a slightly smaller box with no top at all, but I think VFT will grow just fine in a 100% enclosed terrarium.

I definitely do not have 2 or 3 years worth of patience, but I think I can cut that estimate in half with enough light.

I grew a Sundew from a tiny plant with just a few leaves to flowering in 4 months with just 24 little RGB LEDs.

One time I captured a very fat fly and hand fed it to my venus fly trap. After a week or so the trap rotted and I noticed some maggots coming out of it.

The VFT and the Fly's both benefited from this encounter, so I see the two as having a symbiotic relationship.
 
  • #17
The times we gave you are for plants grown in the most optimal conditions, including light. Be careful with the enclosed box, it can get too hot, and not let in enough air circulation. Fungus is not fun, and it can take hold very fast.


The sundew sounds like a D. capensis, a very fast plant. But don't compare any sundew to a flytrap, they are completely different, and grow at different rates.

The maggots can be expected. House flies especially are known to hold eggs until they find a suitable place to lay them, and they sometimes hatch before they are laid. The trap turning brown before the meal was finished probably means that the trap was too old to finish the deed. I wouldn't call this a symbiotic relationship, the fly never laid it's eggs where they were supposed to go, and they have since perished for lack of food. Momma wasn't enough, by far.
 
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  • #18
Perhaps it was an old trap, but these maggots were protected and nurtured much more than normal.

Maggots eat the same stuff that VFTs grow in, so its not a far drop to their next meal.

The Sundew was a Cape Albino. I wish my B52s would grow that fast!
 
  • #19
Actually, house fly larvae don't eat peat, they eat protein, ie flesh.

Drosera capensis var. alba. A very fast grower indeed! Be careful, it may become weedy.
 
  • #20
One time some birds ate my B52s so... yeah. Also:
 
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