My dormancy plan-will it work?

[Nepenthusiast]

I've lost a lot of plants during dormancy. This year, I have a lot of Sarrecenia, Dionaea, and drosera growing in a minibog that will need one, and I am a tad scarred.
I have formulated a plan:
1. When plants show signs of dormancy, move them to the screen poorch.
2. Repot the Dionaea and move them to a cool basement windowsill.
3. Wrap the pot in a blanket.
4. Cover the bog bowl with hay.
5. Wait untill it warms up, then put them back in the yard.

Here are some questions I have:
1. Should I wait for the plants to show signs of dormancy or force them into dormancy this month?
2. How warm is "warm?" At what temperture can I bring the bog out of the dormancy setup and back into the growth season?

Thank you very much!
_demetrius

 

[scottychaos]

Where have then been growing all season up to now?
(inside or outside?)

Scot

 

[jimscott]

That's a decent plan, in general. One things about dormancy is that it is a process that takes several months, beginning, believe it or not, after the summer solstice, when the photoperiod begins to go the other way. In other words, your plants have been heading down that path for awhile now. I would say that when the forecasted overnight lows are going to be consistently below or significantly below freezing, that would be the time to mulch them.

To give you and idea of what have done, I had my Sarracenias, VFT's, and temperate sundews in a variety of buckets and hanging baskets outside, from April to November, being in Western NY. By November, the plants have pretty much slowed down to move them, as is, to our attic. I just placed them by a south facing window, without repotting, and watered them every once in a while. In late February, when the photoperiod has increased enough and temps begin to warm up, one by one, the plants showed new growth. It would be another ~6 weeks when it was safe enough to bring them outside again. The idea is to mve plants when there is comparable conditions, inside and out.

Now some people in our latitude (Wildbill) keep them outside all year long, with heavy mulching. Not sure what Scottychaos does anymore, with his VFT's and such. He's about an hour east of me.

 

[Nepenthusiast]

Scottychaos; They have been growing outside all season.
Jimscott; So it doesn't have to be very cold for the plants to survive dormancy? I thought it had to be in the 30's, 40's, and 50's for them to survive. How cold is your windowsill?

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

[scottychaos]

Ok..being outside all season is good!

If you have some Drosera Capensis, I would take them out, re-pot, and bring them indoors..(they dont need a dormancy)
I would leave all the VFT's and Sarracenia where they are..in the bog.

any dormancy temperature between 35 and 55 or so is fine..
IMO 60's is too warm..

1. Should I wait for the plants to show signs of dormancy or force them into dormancy this month?

You dont have to wait..they have been "going dormant" for months..thats the beauty of growing CPs outdoors! and dont even worry about looking for "signs"..I would put them in the basement windowsill as soon as it starts to fall below freezing at night..I leave mine outside for the first few frosts..(we had a ligh frost last night, I didnt even worry about covering my VFTs and Sarrs)

2. How warm is "warm?" At what temperture can I bring the bog out of the dormancy setup and back into the growth season?

Mid 30's at night outside..not heavy freezing.
March..as soon as night time temps start staying just *above* freezing..

the real key is "the plants are fine outside if its 30's or above"
you only need to worry about the 20's, 10's and zeros as far as temps..
thats when they need to be protected.

You say you have two possible places for dormancy..the screened porch and a basement window...what do you think the winter temps for both places are?

does the screened porch stay "screened" all winter?
if so, its probably too cold..
but if windows replace the screens, making it an unheated porch with glass windows, that might be fine..
because it will draw some warmth from the house, and it will be protected from wind.
If it stays in the high 30's or 40's all winter you are golden..

basement windows can be iffy..if they are sealed well, they might be too warm..
its better if they are a bit drafty!
better for the plants..bad for your heating bills.

Scot

 

[Nepenthusiast]

I think its probably too warm on the windowsill. :-(
The screen porch stays screened, but I thought if I mulched it and wrapped it in a blanket it might stay warm enough....?

 

[Anna]

Hi All:

What I do with my sarracenia's/darlingtonia's/dionea's is to wait until late November to take them in. I take them to my mom's house because her garage is underneath her house. It doesnt really get below 40 degrees in there. The one thing I have trouble with is fungus. I find that if I keep them too wet then I will loose them so I kind of just keep them moist if that makes anysense. Im in zone 5 so I cant really keep them outside.

 

[glider14]

i going to reattempt the fridge method. now that i have learned that plants have to be dormant before going in the fridge...i should have much less losses.

we had our first frost last night. came to look at my plants just a few mins ago with a light(had school and work) and i have minimum fatalities! out of 3 bunches of D. capensis. two are very alive and dont even seem to be harmed! still producing dew. multifida extrema is gone. but i have roots indoors. binata is alive as is my pygmy. i couldnt wait until the first frost which would have gotten rid of the weedy D. burmanni taking over the bog garden.... very few have died and most of them still look perfectly normal. everything else is still alive and kickin.

the capensis and burmanni shocked me the most.... i dunno. just a story to tell

Alex

 

[Nepenthusiast]

Actually, apparently my garage should work (it has a window). Not sure why I didn't see it before, sorry about that. I'll just have to wactch out for damp off.

 

[RL7836]

Dormancy is usually a challenge up here in the northlands. Even if you find a method that works for one winter, it may not work the next because our winters are quite variable.

Although others (even north of me) have found success w/ overwintering in in-ground bogs, I always lost some plants (usually some of my favorites). For more than 5 years, I've kept the Sarrs in an unheated garage (where they usually freeze solid) and the VFTs in a back room in the basement under lights (usually in the 40's). This is really not optimal & I hope to get to a place where this will not be necessary.....

Good luck in your efforts & consider checking with NECPS members and how they deal w/ MA winters (IIRC, there is a thread around here from one of them on the topic).

 

[Nepfreak]

it's time for certain now to move them. we had our first frost a few days ago... nothing happened with me. Everything seems totally fine and my sarrs are still growing! Glider, I've heard of capensis coming right back from the roots, so don't give up on the "dead" clump yet. So yeah... time to start thinking about dormancy after procrastinating all summer! Nepenthusiast, I don't think you'll be able to insulate them well enough through one of our winters. The temps get into negotive figures and everything containing a drop of water freezes solid. Can I use your garage window to overwinter my minibog? Hopefully it won't freeze solid. I'll go look for that NECPS member thread right now...

 

[jimscott]

I'm doing just that, a co-worker's garage, in front of a window.

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

I've got my VFTs in the fridge and the Sarrs by the front step. I'm hoping the concrete steps protect the the Sarrs from the wind and as a heat sink to keep the temps from getting to cold when I cover them on the really cold days/night.

 

[Nepenthusiast]

Errr My parents just moved oyr landlords car into the garage where I was going to put my plants so I guess I'll just stick with my original muchling plan.