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  • #341
It might be related to how much prey there is for the Utricularia humboldtii to feed on. It makes sense that there would more microorganisms in water with decaying or just organic material in it than just plain water, so that might be why putting just a little bit of medium in the water is better than putting nothing at all. Of course, if you fertilize your plants that is a different story.
 
  • #342
While on the subject of growing Utrics in standing stagnant water...

U. asplundii growing in a "Insert popular chain hardware store name" Deathcube. Many years back I was not able to remove all the bladders from the homemade net pot it was growing in and since I just can not throw out a perfectly good plant part I dumped it into this cube and forgot about it. Generally it has about 1" of water in there at all times, its never been changed and only gets topped off.

It has flowered on and off for a few years and is not exactly a "healthy" plant.

Another one of those not the best way to grow this species disclaimers. My main plant IS NOT being grown like this.

DSC_0121 by randallsimpson, on Flickr

The current flower is not completely open yet but.

Utricularia asplundii by randallsimpson, on Flickr
 
  • #343
Hmm I didn't know they made deathcubes out of glass or such high quality plastic. Nice flower, although the color of the stolons looks a little bit off.
 
  • #344
Very interesting..... I use the cubes to grow the long-rooted plants like pygmy and tuberous sundews.....
 
  • #347
Beautiful! It looks similar to Utricularia jamesoniana's flower.
 
  • #348
Yep, beautiful plant. I really hope I can get mine to ever start growing and being healthy again... :(
 
  • #349
Looking good Randall. My U.asplundii has 3 or 4 nice stalks right now, should see some flowers in a few weeks. I'll post pics when they open. Also looks like there's a hitchhiker in with your x 'Jitka'. U.nelumbifolia maybe ?
 
  • #350
Back in April of 2008, Pyro & Barry worked together to share a bunch of U. humboldtii seeds. Not long after, I was able to get a few tiny plants from someone who decided they weren't interested in them. They grew very slowly for some time. At some point, I repotted the most robust clone into a 4 x4 netpot of live LFS. This combination of live LFS & netpot had worked great for most of the other Orchidioides - so I figured I'd try it. The plant lived but never thrived for several years. During this time, I allowed a few runners to colonize the live LFS & general muckiness in the bottom of the 75 gal tank (more on this in a minute). I finally tired of the plants struggles and planned to toss it out - but on a whim, I stuck the netpot in a small plastic tub of water & plopped it on my east-facing windowsill (had nothing to lose since I was going to toss it anyway - right?). I never figured that it would handle both the heat of the summer sun as well as the very low humidity of the winter. To my surprise, those tough paddle-leaves not only handled the rough environment but gave me two stalks of flowers the following spring (here's a pic). A few weeks ago, I noticed that it was sending up another one for this year's spring flowering (it's hidden in the paddles somewhere).

While the rough windowsill conditions make for a less-than-optimal plant, it's amazing what these 'delicate' plants can actually handle. Here's a pic from earlier today. Some of the leaves have been there for over a year. I could make it more attractive by hacking off the half-dead leaves but I allow them to stay as they're still providing energy to the main plant (check out the cool scissor-leaf in the back) .
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The stolons that 'escaped' to the bottom of the 75 gal morphed into a plant that really liked what it found. For years it has put up it's paddles between all the other pots - but never flowered. The paddles it puts up are quite huge (imo). This one is roughly 18" (46 cm) tall.


Based on the windowsill plant, I figured that it must need the seasonal clues that the original plant now gets on the windowsill (changing daylength & temperatures). A month or two ago, the plant decided to prove that theory wrong & send up a stalk. As you can imagine, keeping the stalk out of the lights was an adventure. It's now been flowering for a few weeks and is a bit over 4 feet long (& is once again almost in the lights --- aaargh). The flowering end of the stalk (at least two lower blooms have already dropped off)


I would love to be able to duplicate the conditions the plant likes from the bottom of the tank in a more controlled setting (ie: in a pot) but haven't been able to find the magic sauce. After multiple mediocre years in various pots, I unleashed my broadleaf clone into the live LFS of my 40 gal tank last year. It's now colonized about 75% of the tank.

Years ago, I copied elgecko & placed a pot of U. longifolia in a jar of water. While interesting, the overall experience was underwhelming as the bladders were very small & the curvature of the round jar caused distortion if I tried to take a pic or look very closely at the bladders. To address those deficiencies, I made some small, mini-tanks for the 4 x 4 netpots that I normally use. Last fall, I planted a piece of the broad-leaf U. humboldtii in one & placed it on the windowsill. Hopefully, over the next year or three, I'll get to see some large bladders & then maybe even a flower (currently the plant has just started to send a few rolons into the water column beyond the pot). When there are enough bladders in the water (especially large ones), I'm planning to get some daphnia for food ...

Here's an empty tank & netpot


Later edit:
.... and I created a separate thread as a followup to this post - showing the humbo bladders and a captured mosquito larvae.
 
Last edited:
  • #351
Randall,
Beautiful pics of your U. asplundii! Don't you love how the colors get darker toward the edges to create an outline for the flower?
 
  • #352
Ron, once again your Utricularia skills prove to be inspiring!
 
  • #353
Randall,
Beautiful pics of your U. asplundii! Don't you love how the colors get darker toward the edges to create an outline for the flower?

It really is a nice clone you sent me. A lot of the other asplundii flower photos out there are just plain by comparison. It actually looks better in person. For how easy it is to grow its on my short list of keepers when I have to downsize again. I added it to a vivarium a while back and its finally starting to expand out some, I need to add more light for it and I've bought LEDs for it twice...but I keep using them for other things.

I really hate random mosses...

DSC_0144 by randallsimpson, on Flickr

That is one HUGE humboldtii paddle you have there, WoW! Those photos will actually help me out a lot on two of the projects I'm working on.

I find it really interesting that so many of us end up growing these plants in much the same way. Here is a quelchii but the concept is really similar to what you built. Its only been in there 3-4 months but initial results are promising.

Utricularia quelchii by randallsimpson, on Flickr

DSC_0139 by randallsimpson, on Flickr

Utricularia quelchii by randallsimpson, on Flickr

This should looks really neat in a month or three.

Utricularia quelchii by randallsimpson, on Flickr

Utricularia quelchii - Closeup by randallsimpson, on Flickr

Here is my original "proof of concept" Utric from many years ago, it was a tiny section of quelchii when I moved it in there. Tall net pot inside a solo cup with a sphagnum wall for the Utric to live on. Probably 1/4"-3/4" of water in the bottom cup at all times. I've NEVER changed this water, I have emptied some of it out over the years but never more than a 50% change and I'm talking about once to twice a year. I've revised this further by adding a smaller net pot inside the taller one, the extra pot seems to help. I really think this is the way to go if you wanted to mass produce a lot of these Utrics. You could drill a hole at the desired water level and just mist them once a week, remove the top net pot for packing/shipping and replace with a new net pot. There would be enough material in the bottom taller net pot to reseed the new pot.

Utricularia quelchii by randallsimpson, on Flickr

The entire outside edge of the net pot has leaves like this, there is a lot more plant is there than the I can show in a photo.

Utricularia quelchii by randallsimpson, on Flickr
 
  • #354
Beautiful pictures, especially of the humboldtii. I hope mine is able to flower someday. The quelchii bladders look like they are arranged so orderly.
 
  • #355
Although it seemed to take forever and a day, my U. campbelliana has finally started to open flowers - this is the start & there are many more on the way (hopefully they keep on opening - LOL).

I've included two pics - one from an iPhone & one from a Panasonic. While I took many images when I had the plant out, most did not look like what I was seeing with my eyes. These two are fairly close to reality. Either way - you get the idea - they were worth the wait (iPhone 1st)

 
  • #356
Great job Ron ! Gorgeous !
 
  • #358
:hail: Excellent work as always Ron
 
  • #360
Congratulations Ron on getting this flower shy plant to flower.
 
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