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Can a cp be grown hydroponically

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PYRO213

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As the title says, can you grow a venus flytrap, pitcher plant or any similar plants hydroponically? I want to try with one of em' to see if they get really big or something like that. What do you guys think?
 
Umm, no it wouldn't work. You could grow them with just rock wool and water, I don't see why that wouldn't work out for some plants, but with a true hydro set up, you're pouring a whole lot of nutrients and chemicals into the water to make up for not having the "soil" media for the plant to obtain what it needs.
 
Greetings 213,

Vertigo is correct in that true hydroponic growth would probably not be possible with CPs due to the fertilizer/suppliment load that is utilized. However, that said I would think it wold be possible to try a hydroponic-like setup that lacks the addtional factors in the water. YOu would probably want to try and acidify the water a bit though, maybe use a peat tea solution or something
 
Darlingtonia californica might be a good guinea pig for it actually. A lot of people seem to make semi-hydroponic systems to keep the roots cool over the summer.
 
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq3710.html , you gotta love that webiste , very imformative
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. anyways , i agree , hydroponics is not the way to grow cps , to much fertilizers , but then again , takes those fertilizers and other stuff out and it just might work , although i think sarracenia would be a better guinea pig for this expriment . i also hear that its possible to grow a few cps in pure sand because some live that way in the habitat so i might try to do my own experiment .
 
Hydroponics: the growing of plants in nutrient solutions with or without an inert medium to provide mechanical support.

A proper nutrient solution would be needed to grow cps hydroponically. If time and money permit, I may try a couple of methods.

I believe Nepenthes would work well for this. I have two N. gracilis cuttings that have grown about 4 inches and produced pitchers in a cup of water. A bit of diluted fertilizer with trace elements would make the water a nutrient solution. One could possibly argue that adding no nutrients to the water is still a nutrient solution; one with zero nutrients.
 
Thanks for the replys but I think I am going to give it a shot, I have two pitcher plants and mabye Ill try with one of them.
 
What type of hydroponic setup would work best? NFT, aero, ebb and flow... ? Or are NFT and ebb and flow the same?
 
very interesting!
lets say that you would grow the plants in pure water. ever acidify it, if need be. how could this work? i always hear that the roots of cp's will rot if kept permanentally waterlogged. at the same time, i have also heard that if the "soil", and presumeably the roots, dry out too much, the plants will die.

maybe a very humid terrarium, with a changing watertable (with a very small amount of nutrients in the water) might work...

peace,
technoracer
 
  • #10
I do think it is possible to grow carnivorous plants using hydropinic methods, with modifications. However, it would not really be practical as the setups would not be easily transportable. The systems would be rather large compaired to current methods of growing.
 
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