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Sorry! more beginner q's!

R

roxytrap

Guest
i wanna know bout my VFT. i got it at a market bout 3 months ago and so far it looks ok. I live in SA and its winter at the moment, so apparently its ok if some of the traps turn black?! (i've been told&#33
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only bout two of them turned black anyway and there are still bout 6 traps that look really healthy! The strangest thing has happened to me,a small swarm of giant black flies has descended outside my bedroom window, but they are really slow and stupid, so i stunned one and fed it to my VFT, what i was worried about is if it will cope with that amount of energy expediture in its supposed winter "dormant" months... please help!!!
 
it should be dormant now..
but you need to provide it conditions for dormancy!
of course, that depends on where it came from..(was it imported from the northern hemisphere recently or has it spent its whole life in South America? no one knows&#33
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but ideally..in winter, whenever your personal winter happens to be, the plant should be dormant..

what are your winter conditions like? how cold does it get?
ice and snow or really mild? what are the winter temps like?
depending on your local conditions, you might be able to simply leave it outside in the winter..

so let us know what the climate is like where you are, and we can help some more!
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meanwhile, please read this..

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2460.html

Scot
 
Thanks for the reply Scotty, when I say SA i mean South Africa. Our winters, at their coldest, get to freezing. No rain or moisture in winter its VERY dry. Definitely no snow but frost yes. I'm not too sure where it came from, no in fact it was grown here. Someone at the market had been breeding them, but I suppose their origins are foreign, wherever they come from. The guy told me it was about 2 or three years old but its still tiny! The traps are about 12-15mm long and it stand about 20mm high. Regarding these giant flies, i fed it another one, only to read somewhere that they only eat about two or three flies a month!! i'm so scared that i've overloaded it and its gonna peg! and i dont spose you can pry a half digested fly out of the traps...
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anyway gotta run, thanks for your help!
Roxy
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Roxy,
well it sounds like you have good conditions and bad conditions..as far as dormancy is concerned.
your temps are fine, but the dryness might be a problem.
If I were you, I would simply keep my VFT outside all year round and let it go dormant on its own...to deal with the dryness and low humidity you would need to always keep water in the tray, even all winter...that would probably work fine.

or, you could always use the "refrigrator method" for winter dormancy..

other than low humidity, your climate sounds ok!
just make sure your plants always have water in the tray, and they should be fine.. if it does end up doing being too dry for them (air humidity I mean), you might need to go with a terrarium for CPs...but I would just try it for a year and see how the plants deal! if your VFT gets through one winter and starts growing in the spring, you should be set for life!

Scot
 
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