Dormant i hope..

[Presto]

Hi everyone,

This will be my first dormancy experience...I think I just need a little hand-holding!  I'm nervous.

One of my plants is starting to blacken in a few spots...I can't decide if it's going dormant or getting sick for no apparent reason.
It did recently have a cricket meal that didn't sit well (the darn thing crawled halfway out of the trap) and that head is turning black understandably.

I'm in New England.  Are any other folks in NE starting to see their plants go dormant?

(my vfts are in a window, btw.  I moved them in from outdoors because it was windy and rainy last week)

 

[Alvin Meister]

All my plants have been blackening off during the last two weeks. Your plant will be getting ready for dormancy.

 

[jimscott]

Is there a way of posting a picture of your plant, just to see if there IS a problem or not? But yes, VFT's are in the process of dormancy. Is your plant being kept outside or inside, in a terrarium or on a window sill?

 

[chloroplast]

I live in new england but I grow my plants under lights so I don't have much experience with natural dormancy. You said it was growing on a windowsill--if the window is poorly insulated then it may be experiencing the shorter days and cooler nights we're having and so may be going into dormancy. Having both a temperature drop and lower light levels puts a plant into a quicker (and better) dormancy than one or the other alone.

However, a pic would help distinguish between this and disease or simple leaf turnover.

 

[Presto]

Here's a pic.

as you can see there are some new traps still growing.
this turning brown has just happened in the past week or so.

And it is being kept on a westward-facing windowsill right now.

 

[Presto]

sorry about the humungous picture

-Emily

 

[vft guy in SJ]

Looks like its going dormant to me. You will start to see the new leaves/traps are considerably shorter than you are used to, and they will tend to lay flat to the soil. Scottychaos has a very good description of how to do the "fridge method" of dormancy, complete with pictures, somewhere in the General Discussions area I believe.

Good luck
Steve

 

[jimscott]

Quote[/b] (Presto @ Oct. 18 2005,7:23)]sorry about the humungous picture

-Emily

Sure... and I pick this time to use the pc at home - dial up connection.... 10 minutes later...

Hey, the plant looks just fine for mid-October. You shoulda seen mine after I removed them from the butter keeper! The had this, "death warmed over" look to them. But a few months later I had flowers.

Yes, Mr. Chaos has a real good decription of how to do fridge dormancy, minus sharing space with Shedd Spread

 

[Presto]

phew, that's a relief!  thank you  

And as far as fridge dormancy, I'm going to avoid it if I can.  I'm a college student...between me and my three housemates, the fridge is a mold factory.

But since it seems to be going dormant on the windowsill, I'll just keep it there for the winter.

 

[jimscott]

Of the many things that make up the pie chart of VFT dormancy, light, or the lessening thereof seems to be the most important, followed by
low temps, followed by less water and food. VFT's come from N. Carolina and they naturally receive winter temps that go below freezing, but usually are in the 30's & 40's. So you should provide some semblance of temps along those temps. the window sill won't be cold enough for them. Before the butter keeper, I had them between the storm and inside window of our kitchen. but when we had sunny days, they were getting greenhouse effect, I was advised to get them colder. So I moved them to our screened in porch. That worked well until we had a cold snap and the soil froze. So then they went into exile - the butter keeper, uncovered. Though my wife wasn't exactly thrilled, she tolerated it for another month or so, until I brought them back to the lab fridge and then the coldest, draftiest window sill, and finally outside to flower.

Hey, how about cutting a deal with the fine folks in the dining hall or student center cafeteria? All ya need is a small spot in the back!

May I ask what your major is? Keep us posted on how they do.

 

[Presto]

wow...the presses have completely stopped on Cleopatra.  Her traps haven't developed at all since I took the picture.
so...yep...dormant.

unlike her counterpart Fang, who seems to have no clue what season it is.  (I rescued him from the verge of death from Home Depot back in August..he's recovered a lot!  ^_^)


but the real reason I wanted to post is to report I ate a cricket in my entomology lab yesterday.
They taste kind of like sunflower seeds...like if you leave the outer shell on...in case you were wondering.

so I guess I have...a special bond with my plants now?

 

[jimscott]

Quote[/b] (Presto @ Oct. 27 2005,5:03)]but the real reason I wanted to post is to report I ate a cricket in my entomology lab yesterday.
They taste kind of like sunflower seeds...like if you leave the outer shell on...in case you were wondering.

so I guess I have...a special bond with my plants now?

I am tuly LOLing! At first I thought it was a typo, but upon further review (the context of the sentence), you really did eat a cricket.

You were supposed to eat one, right? This wasn't one of those outlandish sorority stunts ?*flood of memories* Well, at least it didn't taste like chicken!

Glad to hear that one VFT has righted itself. O f couse you gave that one a female name and the confused one has been given a male name. Hmmmm.... coincidence?

Hey, what's you major?

 

[Presto]

well...

if you want to get REALLY technical, no, I wasn't supposed to eat the cricket.

my TA ordered them from hotlix.com, so we could enjoy them while we watched a movie on insect behavior.

but all his higher-ups said "Don't let the students eat the crickets. If somebody gets sick, they're going to sue, and you will lose your job."

So he told us, "I'm going to leave this box on the table. If they get eaten, I don't know anything about it."


and yeah, it's a coincidence...his name was Fang long before it was realized his basic train of thought is "Gee, it's dark and cold...I think I'll start growing like a weed."


and I'm a biology major

 

[jimscott]

Oh, soit was like eating popcorn? Did you have it staright or was it buttered? I prefer my crickets with bleu cheese, but if you lightly moisten them, and carefully daub them in romano cheese, they can be quite tasty.

Bio? Hey, either I am having a deja vu, or I explained that I was supposed to be a bio major - but got sidetracked. Can you recite the Krebs Cycle? how mant ATP do you get from cellular respiration?

What are you taking this semester? Whaddya think of dining hall food?

 

[Presto]

salt and vinegar.

yeah I ought to know the krebs cycle and ATP stuff...I just had a test on it...but I have them really confused now, due to learning about fermentation.

besides entomology I'm taking 2 art courses, a psychology course, and microbiology.

I'm convinced I have permanent intestinal damage due to dining hall food...that's why I moved off campus. blech.

 

[jimscott]

Hmmmm..... I've always associated salt & vinegar with potato chips,  but true genius is taking that which is common and applying it to other things. I suppose one could also try soy sauce or Worcestershire sause (coming from N.E, you have permission to correct my spelling) or Buffalo chicken wing sauce.

How well did you do on the exam? Was it a midterm or one of 3 or 4 for the semester? Personally, I hated courses that only had midterm and final. That's a lot for one to prepare. Fermentation? Did you have to do a project with that (every frat guy's dream!)? How about pyrolysis. Mind you, I haven't taken a straight Bio course since AP Bio in 12th grade. I DO remember that you get 36 ATP's from aerobic respiration and only 2 from anaerobic.

You are an artist? I flunked finger painting. I can only draw a hummingbird & a Betta. What types of art are you into?

I absolutely love Psych! I took the Intro course and one called Personality. I learned a lot about the different schools of thought (Psychoanalytical, Behaviorist,...) Psych is pure fun! To this day I like to playfully tease my friends and say things like, "Go with that thought." or "And what do YOU think the solution is?"

Intestinal damage? *O grosso meo* I have a differing perspective. My mom is an absolutely dreadful cook. She never got the hang of slower cooking at lower temperatures. Consequently, her sacrfices, I mean offerings had that burned on the outside and raw on the inside quality to it. Ketchup was my best friend! In light of 17 years of "get tough or die", dining hall food was generally okay - except for the pizza, of course, because nothing compares with NYC / LI pizza. The dining hall people also put out a plethora of cold cereal boxes for all 3 meals, so we always had a palatable substitute. But there is only so much Captain Crunch one could eat!

So do you gals cook gourmet stuff at the apartment or do you do a lot of Ramen Noodles and Dominoes?