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This year's experiment

FlytrapGurl

apple rings.. what more can i say?
My experiment for this year (did I even have an experiment last year?) has begun! Hypothesis: that a clipped flower stalk will root and form a new plant.

I've cut off my Red Mouth's flower stalk and poked it in extra peat/perlite in an empty pot (from when I repotted something else), and I'm tray-watering it and giving it full sun with the other CPs. Right now the flower stalk is just growing and forming buds, that's all. It's TOTALLY unaware of the fact that it is no longer part of the plant.

I'll update you on the progress and let you know if it roots and grows! Wish me luck!

Greetings,
           FTG, a.k.a. lovesick Kenny-Chesney-lunatic
 
Wow, that's interesting. That may mean once a trap flowers you can still get seeds and not kill the plant by doing this.
 
Well, that would work, if only one of my others would actually bloom too. But the others are too weak from last year's "ant-spray follies" and "greenhouse fall down go BOOM" incidents. The Red Mouth I got after these follies, so it's the only one that had the strength to bloom.
 
Will you use rooting hormone?
 
u should try rockwool for this experiment
its great for cuttings
whenevr my VFT flowers, i wanna try it
tounge.gif
 
I highly doubt it would work... plants DO know when a part is seperated, also, the flower stalk grows from the bottom up
tounge.gif
 
I didn`t know that spec,thanks for sharing:)
 
I think this will just be a really energy costly leaf cutting for the plant.
 
Gotta love thinking outside the box! Who has that Thomas Edison quote in their signature? Right on FTG! You grow, Gurl!
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Nflytrap @ April 18 2004,8:11)]I think this will just be a really energy costly leaf cutting for the plant.
How so?  If the flower stalk is already removed from the plant it wont cost the mother plant anything. I've read reports of people getting sprouts from just a severed trap (no petiole or rhizome part at all) so I think it would be possible to get sprouts from a section of flower stalk. Im curious now it would be possible to get sprouts from doing them like Drosera cuttings in a glass of water. I may have to try that this year. Good luck with your experiment FTG..  keep us posted on the results.

Cheers
Steve
 
  • #11
I agree with Steve, FTG's experiment is very interesting, and has quite a good chance of working (and no, it doesn't weaken the parent plant). Both VFTs and Sundews can form plantlets on their flower stems. Good luck FTG!  
biggrin.gif
 
  • #12
Spec, you no fun!

LoL.. Anyhoo, thanks for the comments.. I'll keep you posted! Oh, and no, I'm not using anything to help the rooting, I'm just doin' it the old-fashioned way! ^_^

Greetings,
FTG, a.k.a. lovesick Kenny-Chesney-lunatic
 
  • #13
I believe there is a chance the flower stalk might produce a new plant. This occasionally happens with the stalk still attached to the mother plant. If so, the plant will likely form on the scape there the sepals join the stem, up where the flowers come out.

Its a fine and valuable experiment.
 
  • #14
Can one bend the stalk to the substrate and pin it to induce roots?
 
  • #15
[b said:
Quote[/b] (droseraholic @ April 19 2004,1:27)]I agree with Steve, FTG's experiment is very interesting, and has quite a good chance of working (and no, it doesn't weaken the parent plant). Both VFTs and Sundews can form plantlets on their flower stems. Good luck FTG!  
biggrin.gif
yes, but not in this case. the plantlets formed on flower stalks were from sprouted seed in the seed pod. the flower would have had to have already opened and gotten pollinated, and set seed, for this to work
 
  • #16
Party-pooper alert! *siren goes off*
 
  • #17
Spec I think you are misunderstanding what FTG is doing..  or I am..  From what I understand, she is not trying to get the flowers to open or set seed, she is simply trying to use a flower stalk as a "leaf cutting". I see no reason why it cant work. Its quite common in Drosera to get plantlets to sprout from all kinds of parts of the plants including flower stalks. I say go for it FTG..  drat the naysayers!!  lol

Good luck
Steve
 
  • #18
[b said:
Quote[/b] (vft guy in SJ @ April 20 2004,6:02)]Spec I think you are misunderstanding what FTG is doing..  or I am..  From what I understand, she is not trying to get the flowers to open or set seed, she is simply trying to use a flower stalk as a "leaf cutting". I see no reason why it cant work. Its quite common in Drosera to get plantlets to sprout from all kinds of parts of the plants including flower stalks. I say go for it FTG..  drat the naysayers!!  lol

Good luck
Steve
yes, but unless she got a peice of the white rhizhome, its not going to work
 
  • #19
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]yes, but unless she got a peice of the white rhizhome, its not going to work

Says you! FTG wants to try it, and we'll know if it worked for her then.
 
  • #20
Spec, You are talking way beyond your knowledge. I have learned with all CP species to never try to put them in a "behavior box". These plants will do whatever they can do to survive. Even if it means thinking outside your behavior concept, and surviving in a situation that one may think cannot be done. Plants don't read, and have never been told they can't do something. Invariably they turn around and astound us with their audacity to survive in ways beyond our comprehension. FTG's experiment may or may not work. But the fact she is trying at all speaks volumes about her need to know and curiousity. Don't confine your plants to a set of hard and fast rules. They will fool you everytime you think you know it all. And, VFT's do form plants on the flower stalk, and sprouted seed in the pod had nothing to do with it. Nature had everything to do with it. Strange babies, our CP, but that is one of their interesting features.
 
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