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Hello

Hello, I am completely new to this site and to carnivorous plants. I really love the site and look foreword to owning a few. Any advice on how to start? I have a small tank I can use to start with. This site looks GREAT!!!
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Step One: Buy The Savage Garden, by Peter D'Amato.
Step Two: Read it.
Step Three: Buy some of the easier plants to take care of. I will tell you what my proven easiest for each genus is:
Nepenthes ventricosa (see my post about it in the Nepenthes section, and you'll see why)
Sarracenia purpurea
Dionaea muscipula (monotypic genus, venus flytrap)
Drosera capensis
Darlingtonia californica (monotypic genus)
Pinguicula moranensis
Ultricaria gibba
 
Welcome... add 1 more addict to the crowd.
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yo daddyo,
my advice would be forget about the "tank" for now.
most CPs grow much better outdoors in full sunlight.
(and they catch their own bugs that way too!)

start with Venus Fly Traps and/or Sarracenia (North Americian Pitcher Plants)
plant them in pots of pure peat, or pure long fiber spagnum.
(there are other mixes, but these are the simplest to get started with)
if you buy peat, make sure it has NO fertilizer added.
put the pots in trays of water outdoors where they get full sunlight.
use only rain water or distilled water to keep the trays filled.
thats it!
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thats the basic basics!
there is plenty more to learn besides that! ;)
but you could do your first CP season with that knowledge alone.
I second the idea of buying "the savage garden" book..

as you learn how to grow Sarracenia and VFT's, you can graduate to the more "difficult" species like Nepenthes..
and you might be able to use the tank for those!
but my advice would be to start very simple..
start with VFT's or sarracenia outdoors..
Scot
 
I wouldnt reccomend Darlingtonia for begginers, mainly for the reasons that its fussy and that its hard to keep the roots cool, and its roots must always be kept cool.
 
Starman's right with the Darlingtonia thing.

Anyway, the key thing to Carnivorous plants is not to use water that has minerals in it. Distilled, Reverse Osmosis(R/O), deionized, and rain water all work GREAT. Scotty neglected to mention info about the pots. DON'T use clay for those plants, it will leach impurities in from the pores in the clay. Plastic, or glazed terracotta work with no problems. After that follow Scotty's method and you are well on your way to be an addict like us!

Good luck!
~Wes~

P.S. I also recommend the Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato.
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Great info everyone, thank you! It surely will get me started in the right direction.:laugh:
 
D'Amato's book is OK for general growing. Like any book, it is only a guideline. Schnell's Book, "Carnivorous Plants of the U.S. and Canada", covers everything on the North American continent, and goes considerably deeper information wise. I think both books a must have to any CP library. Many fine growers here daddyo. Hang out, learn all you can, and love dem plants (as D'Amato is fond of saying.)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Wesley @ Mar. 29 2005,2:04)] Scotty neglected to mention info about the pots.  DON'T use clay for those plants, it will leach impurities in from the pores in the clay.  Plastic, or glazed terracotta work with no problems.  After that follow Scotty's method and you are well on your way to be an addict like us!

Good luck!
 ~Wes~
ooh! good call Wes, thanks..
yes, PLASTIC or glazed pots only!
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I just got an excellent new book:

Gardening With Carnivores: Sarracenia Pitcher Plants in Cultivation & in the Wild.
by Nick Romanowski
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it deals only with Sarracenia..
cool little book!
although the entire chapter on growing pitchers for the "cut flower industry" is a bit odd..I guess thats just something Nick is interested in, but it seems out of place to me.
99.99% of people who buy this book arent going to making their own sarracenia farm..
but still, I suppose anything that helps prevent further wild-collection is a good thing!

good book to add to your collection!

Scot
 
  • #10
I am very impressed with all the help and info! Thank you! I must admit, I do have my heart set on a terrarium. Think I can handle it? I do have a decent amount of experience with aquatic plants. They may not be too similar, but as far as plants go I'm not totally"green." Please pardon the pun.:D
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] (TunaSurprise @ Mar. 29 2005,12:05)]Step One: Buy The Savage Garden, by Peter D'Amato.
Step Two: Read it.
Step Three: Buy some of the easier plants to take care of. I will tell you what my proven easiest for each genus is:
Nepenthes ventricosa (see my post about it in the Nepenthes section, and you'll see why)
Sarracenia purpurea
Dionaea muscipula (monotypic genus, venus flytrap)
Drosera capensis
Darlingtonia californica (monotypic genus)
Pinguicula moranensis
Ultricaria gibba
I forgot to mention. I have the aquatic Ultricaria coming in in a few days. I figured what better place to find the food it needs to survive than my catfish tank. Save for a few P. Senegalus I have at the top, it will be left alone.
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  • #12
i dont know why every one reccomends U. gibba for a starter Utric. i have a terrible time with it like most "easy" species. the terrestrials are far easier: U. livida, U. sandersonii, U. bisquamata, U. lateriflora, U. longifolia ect flower more often and take up much less space than the aquatics and are extreamly simple to grow. dont let these guys scare yah off Neps either. my first CP was a Nep. i find them easier than Sarrs cause yah dont have to worry about dormancy. if your interested in using a terrerium terrestrial Utrics and Neps do well. if you skip the Neps and keep the humidity lower, tropical Drosera and Pings will do fine but they tend to do better in less than 50% humidity. any more than that without GREAT air circulation you run into rotting problems. main thing is look for species that interest you most cause with out interest you will give up after awhile. 90% of the CP species you are going to find are easy to grow if you pay a lil attention to their needs. 10% have extreamly specialized needs(ultra highland and lowland Neps, Helis, Cephs, tuberous Drosera and Utrics, and annual Utrics) but these are far from impossible if you really want to try them down the road. good luck!

welcome to the forums from one of the handful of full blown Utric nuts!!
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  • #13
YO HO HO, DADDY-O!  Welcome to the forums!  
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Yet another addict-to-be...I can tell.  I can almost see the gleam in his eye!  He's sparkin'...he's lusting....yeaaaahhhhh baby!  lol

I'm glad you found the forums.  You'll have more advice flung at ya than...than.....well...stuff that flings.

Feel free to ask any questions.  We have separate forums for each genus as I guess you've seen.  The general forum is a free-for-all.

Kick back, read, make new friends and let us know what plants you get.  
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 Folks are pretty generous here too so your collection will probably grow.  (No pun intended either!)

I don't have a "terrarium" per se but I do grow most of my drosera in tanks.  Just about everything else is on a shelf or outdoors.

You are at the top of a very slippery slope....MUUUAAHAHAHAHAHA!  
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Enjoy the slide!
 
  • #15
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The general forum is a free-for-all.

That couldn't be anymore right than well... I dunno! The general forums are great though... it's like taking a deep breath and diving into chaos! They couldn't be better!!!!!.
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  • #16
Don't be fooled about the Neps they are indeed the kings of CPs. There are a couple that are tough to tottally kill off, N. ventrata, N. cocinnea (sp?).

Later man,
Joe
 
  • #17
Now wait a minute....the kings of CPs are DROSERAE! Sticky, glittery jewels of death. Don't listen to him, Daddy-O! Sundews! Sundews! Sundews!

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  • #18
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Drosera, thats funny............ooooh, I hope William didn't hear me.
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That reminds me, I was watching something about Ireland the other night and they had a 15 min. segment about Sundews and their native bogs - pretty cool macro shots they had.

Joe
 
  • #19
Well. I bought some pitcher plants. How deep do I plant them in peat and how most does the peat need to be? Do they need a lot of direct sunlight and high heat?
 
  • #20
They are Sarracenia sp. A brunswick bright and 2 Judith Hindle. Thank you everyone!
 
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