Sunday 15 November 2020

VFT seedlings breaking dormancy

I grow a few different varieties of venus flytrap.  I like them.  When grown from seed they tend to display a lot of genetic diversity and each plant is different, but it takes a few years before they reach a decent size.  Unfortunately very few places sell seed of venus flytraps.  

Never buy venus flytrap seed from eBay or Gumtree, most of the time it is fake, they will send you seeds of grass or flowers and by the time you know something is wrong it is too late to do anything.

I have always been told that venus flytraps need dormancy over winter.  I knew people in places without winter who dug them up and put them in the fridge over winter.  I have always grown them in climates with cool winters, so mine have a natural dormancy and I have never had to think about it too much.

I grew a few venus flytraps from seeds, so over winter they went dormant and looked like they were dead.  Then once spring hit, they all started to grow actively.  Some seem to have come out of dormancy easier than others.  Some came out of dormancy well, but now appear to be declining.

I don't have many seedlings, but each is genetically unique.  I look forward to seeing what they grown into and if any are noticably different from any of the named varieties that I grow.

This Venus flytrap seedling was all red over summer
Short petioles, comparatively large traps, lots of traps, good colour - this seedling is a keeper

1 comment:

  1. I started scattering my VFT seeds over my live sphagnum table. They are germinating well this way and I will likely end up with a thicket of them around my sarracenia in time.

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