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Experimenting with Fertilization

DroseraBug

Grow Pitcher Plants!
These need to be repotted because I put too many seeds in a pot. The seed was started same day/soil/stratification/temp/light/moisture. Can you tell a difference? I can. Have any of you experimented with fertilizing Sarracenia? My opinion is that it works for getting adults faster but furthur experimentation is needed. I'm going to start several replicates from this years seed. Which pot was fertilized and how can you tell?

Carnivores09030.jpg
 
The one on the right clearly, thicker growth, greener and plumper pitchers.
Can you tell us how you're fertilizing and with what? What are the seedlings?
Keep up the good work!
 
I tried a solution of Alaskan fish emulsion. Too stinky to use indoors. My seedlings are under lights via the "Bugweed" method.

So I just make sure there are springtails in the pots to feed the tiny seedlings. When they get large enough I just sprinkle on flightless fruit flies.

I've observed definite growth spurts after feeding. The problem with fruit flies is that there is no way to make sure all the plants get feed. It tried feeding the pitchers with betta food pellets but it is too labor intensive and the pellets often get coated with nectar and won't drop down the tubes.

Flytraplady5 mists/sprays with a solution of Miracid (I think she said 10% but it could be 20%).
 
Those results are very clear, what species is that?
 
I planted two pots full of seed from a cross I did last year. First I stratified with a moist paper towel in the fridge for 6+ weeks. Next, planted the seed on peat/pool sand mix under CFLs. After the first pitchers began to develop I started spraying them with orchid fertilizer once every nine to 10 days for about 4 months now. I'm using 20:14:13 orchid fertilizer atleast 20% of recommended rate (probably more like 30-40%) with rainwater from my rain barrel. I was not measuring anything very specific all though I'm going to with the next batch of seeds with several more pots (treatment vs. controls maybe) I definitely see faster growth and more robust plants. The cross was S. oreo x S. 'Dixie Lace'. I'm hoping a few of the seedlings will end up pretty colorful.
 
I'm personally convinced fertilizing the seedlings works wonders. I spray a Miracid solution on mine about once every 1-2 weeks. I put pics of my latest batch in this thread: http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117776

You can see some of them are gigantic for being a little over a year old, and that includes a 2 month dormancy period. I've had similar results in years past, although I've never done any experimentation. From what I've read, though, it seems they are larger than what would be expected for their age.

I'm not sure if you're growing those under lights, but another thing I would recommend is putting them in direct sunlight as much as you can. I started mine under lights, then moved them outside once the weather warmed up enough. They stayed outside all summer, where they get direct sun for about 10 hours/day, moved them into my garage around Nov., where they went dormant. Moved them into a greenhouse around Jan. 1, they started actively growing again by Feb., and I moved them back outside a couple of weeks ago. We just had a frost last night, so we'll see how they respond, but I'm not expecting any damage. One thing I will say if you're moving them from growlights to sunlight - acclimate them to the sun slowly, or you'll give them a good sunburn. Those seedlings look good - I'm excited to see how they end up looking. Should be some really nice plants.
 
I'm personally convinced fertilizing the seedlings works wonders.
Fertilization (foliar) works well but there are issues to watch for:
- aggressive growth of nasty/ugly stuff (like slime) on the media
- over fertilization can burn/weaken plants
- fertilizer salts can build up in media & cause plants to decline or 'crash'
 
Looking good. They don't look big enough to repot in my opinion though. You should be able to get another year out of them in those pots, no problem.
 
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