Vft health

[ruffryder85]

hey all,
i am new to keeping VFT and i bought this VFT from Focus/homebase(england shop) i wondering if any of you could have a look at these pics (small size) and tell me whether it is healthy or not. they seem ok to me, but need ur lots help...any feedback will be very grateful!!!

http://home.petflytrap.com/users/ruffryder85/VFT%201%20rs.jpg
http://home.petflytrap.com/users/ruffryder85/VFT%203%20rs.jpg
http://home.petflytrap.com/users/ruffryder85/VFT%204%20rs.jpg

kindest regards,
p.s i have had it for about a week, and are growing, i think.....

oh and what type of leaves are growing? are they the summer ones? hope they are

 

[peter]

Your Vft's look GREAT!  Keep up the good work, remember just to water with good water (R/O, distilled, ect.) and keep the conditions its in right now since it seems to work well. Where are you growing it?

 

[ruffryder85]

wow thanx, i thought it was looking rather ill

it on my room windowsil. im from eng, so the weather is a bit cloudy. last few days i have pitched a Cling film tent over it hopefully increase humidity. cant wait untill summer and things get movin and nice big leaves grow. these things are tiny

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Save the cling film for sandwiches. VFTs can handle low humidity as long as they are well watered or sitting in a shallow tray of water. Mine is outside right now and the humidty is 21%

 

[RandallFlagg]

NIIICE VFT!
Looks like you're doing great. Just keep this forum in your favorites and read up for tips and such. It's helped me.

 

[ruffryder85]

hey thanx all!! nice 2 know info is at hand, and ppl here are at hand thanx and will be postin further stuff as things progress... hey are there any particulaer tips you all could give that hs worked out for you. i really do need all the help i can get

kindest regards,

p.s y'all guys/gyals rock!!!

 

[Travis]

The more light you give your vfts the redder the traps become. Which I always find so cool. I give my vfts around 15 hours of lighting in a 10 gallon tank. They seem to love it...I would keep them outside but birds and other animals end up killing the plant. So I figure can not beat them, join them, so I feed them now *the birds outside*.

Nice to have you on board!

 

[ruffryder85]

so if your traps are not red is that bad? recently some are red (big traps )and some have a slight colour of red (smaller traps) .... is this ok? oh and when do summer traps grow and when is it ok to cut black leaves off?

kindest regards,

 

[RandallFlagg]

Quote[/b] (Travis @ April 15 2005,3:40)]The more light you give your vfts the redder the traps become. Which I always find so cool. I give my vfts around 15 hours of lighting in a 10 gallon tank. They seem to love it...I would keep them outside but birds and other animals end up killing the plant. So I figure can not beat them, join them, so I feed them now *the birds outside*.

Nice to have you on board!  

Easy fix. Just grow plants with traps big enough to eat the birds....
>;-D

 

[Travis]

Quote[/b] (RandallFlagg @ April 15 2005,3:51)]

Quote[/b] (Travis @ April 15 2005,3:40)]The more light you give your vfts the redder the traps become. Which I always find so cool. I give my vfts around 15 hours of lighting in a 10 gallon tank. They seem to love it...I would keep them outside but birds and other animals end up killing the plant. So I figure can not beat them, join them, so I feed them now *the birds outside*.

Nice to have you on board!  

Easy fix. Just grow plants with traps big enough to eat the birds....
>;-D

Great idea!

It is not true, they do not have to be red. I just think it helps the fact that they are healthier then one without red. Some vfts do not produce any red so it does depend on the vft.

 

[Travis]

I do not mean to insult your vfts in any way...those vfts look really healthy.

 

[ruffryder85]

well if thats your insult, i cant wait untill my VFT are big n healthy ....i'll be waitin for your compliments

ha ha ha

 

[Travis]

Does not take much...insults come and go...but complements, I end up drooling all over the key board.

 

[Bugweed]

Travis is right, and wrong, about the sun coloring up VFT's. Some do get beautiful in full sun. They are really fine looking VFT's. However, some of the plants do not color up in full sun. They require bright shade, and full sun in tandem. My typical VFT's sat around for years looking, well, typical. But, when placed in a greenhouse with the painted on shading, some of the plants suddenly got incredibly brilliant in color. When I put them out in straight full sun, they went typical on me again. Now, you never know which of your plants will react to this type of treatment, and you would have to experiment to see which of your plants will do this regimen. On some plants though, no matter what you do to them, or how you do it, they will never get much or any red in them. Some VFT's I placed in dappled sunlight (through a weeping willow tree) went absolutely nuts, and were some of the best looking plants I have ever had. Experiment with sunlight through grass blades, greenhouse shading, really bright full sun, and find out what works best for your babies! VFT's are really strange critters.

 

[ruffryder85]

ok....well how long does it take the VFT's to change colour at variabe sunlight? from my knoweldge VFT's (which is not much lol) i thought they all just love sunlight hours on end?

 

[Bugweed]

Plants, like people, have their preferences. It doesn't take too long for them to react to whichever situation you grow them in. You should know within a two week time frame, and maybe sooner. Just find out which situation will trigger the anthocyanin to color up, bearing in mind, that some plants will not react at all. YOU have to find that out. These are observations from over 43 years of growing. You still can't tell which will explode in color from sun or sun/shade, or very bright shade, so you should try them in many situations to see which will bring out that color, or if any color comes out at all.

 

[ruffryder85]

hmmm interesting....

another point thats buggin' me is, how come the heads on my VFT take time to close? they take around 1 or 2 seconds. So when i place a nice succulent, tender prime british ant (ha ha ha) it runs out before the trap closes  

i know cannot be healthy for the plant, how can i speed things up?
p.s i give it rain water, kept between 17-24 degrees and fairly humid conditions too.

 

[Bugweed]

Ruff, again I stress, the plant will let you know if it is happy. Trap speed is due to several things. Health. Preference. Environment. When the plant is healthy, living in preferred conditions, and is satisfied overall with its environment, then trap speeds will pick up. There is absolutely NO WAY you can force or make the plant do anything. YOU have to satisfy its requirements, and the plant will respond to that. Trap speed will then pick up. My VFT's (all 75 to 100 of them) grow together in an outdoor bog, and snap closed in the usual 1/4 of a second. They love their bog. Otherwise, the results would be drastically different. This fact does not change, whether they are my seedlings, 10 year old plants, 20 year old, or the 30+ year old plants that are growing out there. They react when they are not happy, and it is up to you to find out why.

 

[jhaluska]

I was thinking about the trap coloring. Maybe it isn't so much related to lighting as it is to temperature? For some people full sun brings it into the right range, and for others shade may keep it cool enough. Sounds like something worth investigating.

 

[Bugweed]

Possible. My first ones were in a climate controlled greenhouse though, and kept pretty much the same. When the greenhouse was painted with that white stuff, they were gorgeous!! The plants reacted to the bright shade. Temperature played little in this particular case. You going to experiment? Keep me informed.