Wally Venus flytrap growth rate over a year

Venus flytrap 'Wally' is meant to be low growing, with very large traps, vigorous growth, good colouration, and is meant to produce ample natural divisions over the growing period.

To me Wally sounds like the perfect Venus flytrap!

A very generous friend sent me two bare rooted divisions of Wally Venus flytraps.  I planted both in the same pot.  In hind sight I should have planted them in two different pots instead of the same one. 

These plants spent a bit of time in the post, then sat in my letter box all afternoon on one of the hottest days ever recorded in this region before I got home, and they still looked ok. 

Venus flytraps tend to handle postage surprisingly well.  Notice how good they looked when I planted them!

I figured I should photograph them every now and again to document their growth. 

01/02/2020 Minutes after being planted, I should have zoomed in more as the picture probably makes them look smaller than they really were.

Wally Venus Flytrap - the day I planted them

11/02/2020 ten days after being planted

14/02/2020 two weeks after planting, they grow fast

Wally Venus Flytraps - two weeks of growth

22/02/2020 three weeks

Wally Venus Flytraps - three weeks after planting

29/02/2020 four weeks

Wally Venus Flytraps - four weeks after planting

I am transitioning my Wally Venus flytraps outside where they get more sun and will be able to go dormant when winter arrives.  The traps have coloured up remarkably fast from a little more sunlight.

While they haven't grown massively since the last picture they have gained a lot of colour.  I should take another photo soon to show their colour and how much larger they have grown.

28/03/2020 two months

Wally venus flytrap - more colourful and slightly larger

The pictures don't do it justice - the colours are more vibrant in real life

Wally sure is a lovely Venus flytrap.  It hasn't produced any divisions for me yet, but it is strong and healthy so I am very happy with it!

One morning we went out and when we returned home all of the traps were mysteriously closed.  I am not sure if kids came and played with it, but it seems to have recovered well.

04/04/2020  just over 2 months.  Today I divided them.  One stayed in the original pot, the other is now in a different pot the same size.  Wally venus flytraps are just lovely.

Winter isn't too far away and these will go dormant for a while.  I can hardly wait to see how large these plants grow next summer.  If all goes well I should be able to divide them into more plants in spring.

11/04/2020 - not much growth in a week but look at the colours!!!

02/05/2020 - getting ready for dormancy

01/06/2020 - Wally venus flytrap going dormant

 

Wally venus flytrap going dormant

01/07/2020 - I wish I took photos in July while they were dormant but I didn't.  They look dreadful while dormant, which is normal and actually very healthy for venus flytraps.

01/08/2020 - the same plants starting to come out of dormancy. They are small but look strong.  As soon as the weather is right I think they will explode with new growth.

29/08/2020 - late winter after surviving frosts, hail, snow, ice, and odd heat

Breaking dormancy

Wally vft clumping

30/09/2020 - after growing them for 8 months they are breaking dormancy, clumping, sending up flower stalks, and ready to divide

Sending up a flower stalk.  I removed a small division and should divide again

The small plant removed from the pot above

Wally Venus Flytrap Clumping - I may divide them soon

01/11/2020 - it is easy to tell which one has been growing inside the house, and which ones have been outside. 

Wally out of dormancy and growing strong

Wally vft growing well and colouring up nicely

Wally VFT divided and clumping

01/12/2020 - seems as though I didn't take pictures in December.

02/01/2021 - they are all outside full time in full sun

Large colourful traps, vigorous growth, Wally vft looking good

Wally VFT grow pretty fast

One of the divisions seems to have died off, others are looking good

31/01/2021 one year of growth!

Venus Flytrap Wally

 

All divisions are growing, none had died

Tomato leaf comparisons

I wrote an earlier post comparing regular leaf tomatoes with potato leaf tomatoes.  This summer I also grew some woolly leaf tomatoes, so thought I would show some comparisons of these three tomato leaf types.

Regular leaf tomatoes are good, and there are heaps of types.  I like the look of potato leaf tomatoes.  The one below has relatively small leaves, I grow a few types with leaves that are far larger.  I imagine they would have issues growing in wet climates as they would have less air flow, but I live in dry climates so this is just an educated guess.

I love woolly leaf tomatoes, they look and feel amazing.  My kids can hardly keep their hands off the leaves.  Woolly leaf tomatoes would be well suited to a sensory garden!  They seem to cope better with heat, and they seem to do ok with less water than other varieties, but to be honest I don't know if they actually cope better or if I am just imagining it. 

Regular tomato leaf and woolly tomato leaf

Regular Leaf (often abbreviated RL)

This is the typical leaf type that most people are familiar with, most varieties of tomato have regular leaf.  The leaf edges are serrated quite a bit.  There are a lot of variations on this basic theme in terms of the width/length of leaf depending on the specific variety, climate and growing methods.  Some leaves are very narrow and are sometimes called 'dissected', others are wispy or droopy or look like the foliage of a carrot.  These are easily recognised as regular leaf tomatoes.  They carry at lest one dominant allele C.

Left to right: Regular leaf, woolly leaf, potato leaf

Potato Leaf (often abbreviated PL)

These leaves usually have very few interruptions of the leaf edge.  They are fat and large leaves, some varieties have huge leaves while others are far smaller.  Newly germinated seedlings sometimes don't show their PL nature until they are a few inches tall, others show it as soon as they grow their true leaves.  PL leaves often have a thicker cuticle than RL leaves or a higher density of trichomes (which are tiny little hairs on the leaf).  Leaf shape can be different on a single plant with some showing more or less smooth edges, all of this is normal for PL. Potato leaf is recessive, so any potato leaf tomatoes must carry two copes of the c allele.

Underside of leaves: Regular leaf, woolly leaf, potato leaf

Woolly Leaf tomato, sometimes called Angora Leaf
These are pretty easy to recognise as the leaves, stems, and fruits are fuzzy.  There are several different alleles that can cause the woolly trait, most of which are dominant and most are homozygous lethal.  This meant they would only carry one copy of the dominant allele (if they carry two they do not survive).  Another rarer form of this allele is dominant but it is homozygous viable and heterozygous intermediate, meaning they can carry one copy and be a little fluffy or two copies and be extra fluffy.

I really love woolly leaf tomatoes.  The variety I grow appears to carry the dominant yet homozygous viable allele for woolly foliage/stems/fruit.  A cross between regular leaf and woolly leaf produces a leaf that is only a little more woolly than normal.  It is difficult to tell that the cross carries the woolly allele at all.

Regular leaf top left, woolly leaf top right, cross of the two under/between them

Woolly leaf tomatoes tend to have fuzzy fruit

Woolly leaf allele is on a different locus to potato leaf, so it is possible to have regular leaf woolly plants, and potato leaf woolly plants.  It is also possible to have any of these all in green or any of them can be variegated.

I think I am going to have to do some breeding with micro dwarfs with the aim of a woolly micro dwarf tomato.  Time will tell what the future brings, but at this stage it looks promising.

Venus Flytrap seedlings

I thought I would show some pictures of a few of my little Venus flytrap seedlings.  They don't grow as fast as I would like, but every seedling is genetically unique and I really enjoy growing Venus flytraps from seed.

Probably the most difficult part of growing venus flytraps from seed is getting the seed in the first place.  Most people online selling venus flytrap seeds don't have the seeds and will send you some other seed.  Ebay is notorious for fake seeds, never buy flytrap seeds from Ebay.  By the time you work out that you have been taken advantage of it is far too late to do anything about it.

Most of my seedlings look like a typical venus flytraps, the only real difference between them and store bought plants is seedlings are tiny and cute.  Some are far more vigorous than others.  I am told it takes 3 or 4 years for a Venus flytrap to grow from seed to a mature plant, from memory that sounds about right.

I think they are all pretty great.  Most of them look like the one below.

Tiny seedling already catching insects

The same plant but lager.  Look closely: it is already dividing

The one below has a bit of red on the leaves but you can't really see it in the photo.  Time will tell if it turns out to be more red or if it will only have a little red.  It was planted later so doesn't have as many leaves as large as most of the other venus flytrap seedlings.  It has grown a bit and has a few more leaves than in this picture, but you get the idea.

This seedling has a little red on its leaves

Below is another seedling, but this one is different to the rest.  This one has yellowish leaves and the traps are red.  The traps are all a bit of a weird shape and so far none of the traps have opened.

I am not sure if this will sort itself out as it grows and it will look more typical, or if it is going to grow into an interesting mutant.  I can hardly wait until it is older so I can see what it will become. 

 

This Venus flytrap seedling is interesting

Same plant but older.  Most traps are now red and oddly shaped, the leaf blades are yellow

None of the traps have opened yet, I am not sure if it is just slow or a crazy mutant

This seedling is very slow growing, but I really like it

All of these seedlings have grown since I took these photos, I just haven't gotten around to taken any more recent pictures. 

At some stage I will try to sell some of my Venus flytraps.  When I do I will make it clear if they were seed grown, or if they are named cultivars that were grown from divisions or leaf pullings.  When I so sell Venus flytraps I will list them on my for sale page.

Drosera capensis (cape sundew) seedings

About nine or ten months ago I planted some sundew seeds.  They were seeds from a relatively common and simple to grow sundew called Drosera capensis or 'cape sundew'.  They are native to the Cap of South Africa and often feature in people's carnivorous plant collections.  I quite like them.

The seeds I got were mixed 'typical' and 'alba', as a result I now have both typical and alba plants growing.  I prefer the look of typical capensis, but they are all nice in their own way.  I think growing both is nice.

One pot of my sundews

Sundew seeds are tiny, at first many grew but then winter came and a lot of them died.  Then we skipped spring and went straight into a really hot summer, and a lot more died.  Only the strong have survived, and these survivors have grown very well.

I have a few pots of these sundews, some inside and some outside.  I really need to repot them and separate them, but I enjoy having several plants in each pot so I will leave them for now.

Drosera capensis young seedlings

Some were too wet, they grew slowly

They grew larger and started to catch fungus gnats and other tiny insects

The more they caught the faster they grew, the larger they grew the more they could catch

Now they are large enough to catch house flies, moths, and other larger insects

Notice how the leaves curl around their insect prey

My little plants have grown even larger since the last pictures, they are really starting to look impressive and really need to be repotted into larger pots.

The ones I have growing outside are smaller than the ones I have inside.  I thought being outside would give them access to more insects, which it did, but they were also blasted by the heat of summer and covered in thick smoke for week after week.  Now that the weather is more mild the ones outside are starting to catch up in size and I expect them to surpass the inside plants.

Drosera capensis really is an easy to grow carnivorous plant.  I grew them when I was a child and loved them, I have enjoyed being able to grow them again.  They are hardy and forgiving and able to thrive in less than ideal conditions.  It won't be long before they are large enough to flower and set seed.

At some stage I will likely sell some of my sundews, and maybe some fresh seed.  When this happens I will list them on my for sale page.

Papalo days to harvest

Papalo is an ancient herb that is commonly grown and eaten in South and Central America but is practically unheard of here.  Finding seeds of this amazing herb in Australia was far more difficult than I had imagined.

Papalo has a unique and intense taste, it is often used as a substitute for coriander leaf but they taste different.  Young papalo leaves are mild and older leaves are more potent.  I love the taste of papalo, it is one of my absolute favourite edible herbs.

Unlike coriander, papalo grows well in the heat of summer.  It is said to be drought tolerant, but mine wilts badly on hot days and picks up nicely after it gets a bit of water.

Papalo leaf showing oil glands

There is a bit of confusion over the binomial name, I a told they were Porophyllum coloratum but there is a chance that they may be a different form of Porophyllum ruderale.  Until I am a little more certain I will only list the genus.

I planted two batches of seed, both had dreadfully low germination rates, which is meant to be common in papalo.  Papalo grows vigorously and its smell/taste is remarkably strong so you only really need 1 or 2 plants.  This summer was incredibly harsh so these days to maturity may not be representative of an average year.

Days to maturity papalo (Porophyllum sp)

Seeds planted       17/08/2019       Day 0
Germinated           03/09/2019      Day 17

These died off before the first true leaf stage so I planted another batch. I think heat/sun killed them.  I gave the second set of seeds protection from the afternoon sun, and they fared much better.  In a less intense year they would do fine with full sun, but this year we skipped spring and went straight from winter into a raging summer which isn't great for small seedlings.


Seeds planted       01/11/2019      Day 0
Germinated          18/11/2019      Day 17
Harvest start         22/12/2019      Day 51
Flowering             28/03/2020       The growing conditions are not ideal, I assume they should flower earlier than this

Papalo starting to flower

I started to harvest earlier than I should, but I couldn't wait to taste papalo.  I am guessing a decent harvest would have started around day 80.

Click here for a full list of vegetable days to maturity when grown from seed, this includes vegetables, fruiting vegetables, culinary herbs, berries, and carnivorous plants.

Quillquiña days to harvest

Quillquiña (also spelled quilquiña, quillquina, quilquina, and probably a few other ways) is an ancient herb that is similar to papalo.  While papalo is virtually unheard of in Australia quillquiña is even less common and no one seems to know of it.  They smell and taste pretty similar to me.

I was told that they are classified as Porophyllum ruderale but there is some confusion over the binomial name, and there is some confusion regarding if this is a different variety of papalo, or a different subspecies, or a different yet highly similar species.


Much like papalo these seeds displayed a dreadfully low germination percentage this year, but this is meant to be representative of these herbs so I was expecting it.

Please note that the days to maturity listed were recorded in my garden in Australia, these numbers will be slightly different under different weather conditions and different years.  They are intended only to provide an indicative guide.

Days to maturity quillquiña (Porophyllum sp)

Seeds planted       17/08/2019       Day 0
Germinated           03/09/2019      Day18
Similar to my papalo, these seedlings all died when tiny so I planted another batch.  I gave the second set of seeds protection from the afternoon sun and they survived and went to to produce large plants.  In a less intense year they would do fine with full sun, but this year broke many heat records.

Days to maturity quillquiña (Porophyllum sp)

Seeds planted       01/11/2019      Day 0
Germinated          19/11/2019      Day 18
Harvest start         29/01/2020      Day 89
Flower start          01/04/2020

Quillquiña, they were larger than this when I started to harvest the leaves

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity when grown from seed, including herbs, berries, and carnivorous plants, please click here.

Target hops Australia

This summer has been exceedingly harsh and many of my plants did not cope.  One of the few plants that coped this summer was hops (Humulus lupulus).

Hops are commonly used in brewing beer, but they have many other uses.  The young shoots are said to be the world's most expensive vegetable, it is used in pillows to aid deep sleep, and it is used to make a calming tea.  I have read that hops has a heap of other uses such as providing summer shade, is useful as livestock feed, when fed to cattle reduces the amount of ammonia produced, can be planted in a way that reduces soil erosion and stabilises banks, and is meant to hold potential for producing biofuel.

Target hops quickly grew tall

Hops is dioecious which means individual plants are either male or female.  The unfertilised flowers from female plants are used in beer.  Most hops plants for sale are female plants as they are the most useful.

Hops female flower - this will eventually turn into the cone

Male hops plants are incredibly difficult to source in Australia, and I know of nowhere reliable that sells seeds in Australia (I am sure there are plenty of thieves on eBay making money from fake seeds), so backyard hops breeding is out unless I can find a male plant.

Hops leaf - similar to grape leaves

There are a handful of different varieties of hops available in Australia and each tastes different.  I wanted to grow a variety that was fruity and floral as that sounds interesting.  I also wanted to grow something that is a little unusual as that would be more useful to home growers than the more common varieties.  If you are going to grow something, you don't bother growing something that is the same as you can get in the shops when you can grow something better/unique!

The hops variety I have is called 'Target'.  Target hops is said to have been bred at the Hop Research Institute at Wye College in England, and released to the public in 1992.  Not many places sell target hops plants in Australia, and homebrewers who grow target hops tend to rave about it.

I have read on the internet that target hops have "very very complex fruity flavours and aromas with hints of Floral".

Another source says "I get stonefruit, passionfruit, pineapple, kiwi fruit, melon from this. Perfectly complements any type of English ale. Especially English IPAs and Pale Ales".

A place that grows and sells a lot of hops varieties site states that Target hops are "Extremely good for dry hopping to add some fruity aromas. Goes very well mixed with Columbus or Chinook to offer a much more rounded flavour profile. Probably my favourite varieties we grow here. Crops pretty well for a UK variety. The numbers are similar to Columbus however the armoas and flavours are worlds apart as in new and old world! I love the stuff personally cannot get enough of it".

The place I bought my plant from tests their hops regularly and said their Target hops contain 9.5% Alpha acids with 35% Cohumulone.

To me that sounds like target hops is very fruity and floral, and rather different from the kind of thing that is easy to find at shops, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Target hops also sounds as if it is well suited to home growers.  Not only is it unique and tastes nice, it is also meant to be one of the more vigorous varieties, one of the easier varieties to grow, and one of the heavier croppers that are easy to harvest.  Target hops sound like a winner to me.

Target hops growing in a large pot of soil

Hops can be grown in the ground, or it can be grown in a pot of soil.  I have heard of hops spreading underground and being difficult to contain.  I also wasn't sure where I wanted to plant hops long term, and I want a few other named varieties and don't want to mix them up, so I chose to plant hops in a large pot of soil enriched with aged chicken manure.

Growing in a pot will likely result in a smaller plant with a lower yield than if it was soil grown, but it will be simpler to control and easier to divide over winter.  It will also mean that I won't mix up different varieties in the future.

Hops needs a tall and strong support on which to grow.  I have toyed with the idea of growing it over the chicken run to provide shade and I think that it could be well suited to that use, but for now I am using some long sticks tied together.

I have a photinia hedge that has the occasional plant of privet that pops up each year.  The privet grows rather tall before I notice it sticking out of the top of the hedge.  These long straight sticks make an ideal climbing structure.  Some of the photos have one stick, some have two or three.  I added to them over the growing season and eventually made a teepee out of them tied with string at the top.  This works really well and is easy to replace each year.

Target hops scrambling taller every day

I have taken a few cuttings from my hops, and if the plant is large enough may be able to divide the rhizome over winter.  If I have extra plants I plan to list them on my for sale page along with other perennial vegetables and interesting edible plants.