'DCXL' vft and 'Wally' vft growth rate comparison

I wrote a previous blog post comparing different Venus flytrap clones.  I did my best to provide the best comparison that I could by using similar age plants grown side by side under the same conditions for one year.  

In that post I compared several different Venus flytrap varieties to 'Wally' as this is my standard as it is a very vigorous clone that I had a number of plants at various ages and sizes. 

At that time I also had a new DCXL Venus fly trap, but it was a poor comparison because the plants were not grown under the same conditions as anything else I had.  

I have decided to do a better comparison of these two varieties as they are both vigorous an excellent choices for new carnivorous plant growers.  One is low growing, the other gets tall leaves, they both get decent colouration, and both are pretty forgiving of less than ideal conditions.  

I took flower stalk cuttings of 'DCXL' and 'Wally' late in the year 2021, and grew them over winter side by side in the same pot.  After winter I repotted them on the same day into the same sized pots, in the same growth media.  I grew them in separate pots, side by side, in the same tray of water.  This is a good comparison as everything other than their genetics was exactly the same.  

Similar sized flower stalk cuttings were taken from both plants late 2021.  The flower stalk cuttings were planted into live sphagnum moss on the same day and kept in the same pot to grow a little.  The plantlets survived a very mild winter, and were repotted into damp sphagnum peatmoss mixed with sand on 11 September 2022.  Being in Australia, September is the start of Spring.  

The photos below show comparison of growth between the two clones.  I tried to take photos in the first week of each month to demonstrate the speed at which they were growing. 

Early September 2022 (September is the start of spring in Australia)

It is a little difficult to see in the photo below, but the two sets of tiny Venus flytrap plants are already very different to each other.  Below is a comparison photo, and a closer photo of each.  

Comparison: Wally vft on left, DCXL vft on right

Wally produced a lot more plants from the flower stalk cutting than DCXL did.  Each Wally plant has less leaves than DCXL, and at this stage has slightly smaller traps.  At this small stage the Wally flytraps look quite delicate.  While I was tempted to divide the little Wally flytraps I decided that the comparison would be better if I left them to grow as they were.  

Wally clones from flower stalk cutting 

DCXL flower stalk cutting produced fewer plants, but each has more leaves per plant and slightly larger traps at this stage.  At this tiny stage the DCXL flytraps appear small but robust.  At this point in time DCXL has more colour in the traps than Wally.

DCXL clones from flower stalk cutting 

From here they grew in these separate identical pots, side by side, in the same tray of water, and I tried to take a photo of them in the first week of each month.  

Early October 2022 

The traps of DCXL vft are now noticeably larger than those of Wally vft.  Wally is gaining more colour on all parts of the plant.  The leaves of DCXL are not yet what I would consider to be upright growth, but it is less prostrate that Wally.

I only took one photo in October as they had not done anything too incredible since the previous month.

Venus Flytrap Wally and DCXL vft - October 2022 

Early November 2022

While plants in both pots are still very small, DCXL now has considerably larger traps than Wally.  DCXL is also starting to put out some upright growth, while Wally is staying close to the ground.  Wally has more colour on pretty much every part of the plant, but both plants are colouring up quite nicely.

You can't tell by the photos, but there are a lot more Wally plants than DCXL plants in these pots.  Each DCXL plant is larger so from a distance it looks like there are more of them.  The DCXL plants are big beefy plants with many leaves and large traps.

It's clear even at this small size that both of these flytrap clones are very impressive varieties!  If I were only to grow two varieties of Venus flytrap then these two would probably be it.

DCXL Venus flytrap - November 2022

Wally Venus flytrap - November 2022

Wally and DCXL growing side by side 

Wally Venus fly trap 

DCXL Venus fly trap 

Wally on left, DCXL on right

Now that these Venus flytraps are out of dormancy and actively growing they should really take off.  I can hardly wait to see what they do over the next month.

Early December 2022 (December is the start of Summer in Australia)

The weather has been strange, and most of my venus flytraps are either not coming out of dormancy, or are growing flower stalks and non carnivorous leaves.  Some of my other varieties of venus flytraps are declining and some of the weak varieties look like they may die this year.  

These two little ones are not going as well as I would have expected, and Wally appears to be struggling a little.  They are still growing side by side, in the same tray of water, and conditions as as close to identical as I could make them.

Wally is getting a lot more colour, and is staying low to the ground as always.  DCXL is growing into an impressive looking plant with some nice upright growth, decent colouration of trap interior, and some decent trap sizes for such a young plant.  

Wally and DCXL comparison

DCXL vft December 2022

Wally vft December 2022

DCXL Venus flytrap 

Wally Venus flytrap 

Early January 2023

The weather has been all over the place.  A lot of my little plants have been suffering and burning off.  Some of my typical venus flytraps have died.  

Wally continues to push through, and DCXL continues to grow larger.  Clearly these are both excellent varieties for new growers. 

Wally on the left, DCXL on the right

DCXL

Wally

DCXL Venus Flytrap

Wally and DCXL Venus Flytrap comparison

Wally Venus Flytrap

Early February 2023

After six months these have not grown as much as I would have expected.  That being said, they are both larger and healthier than many of my other Venus Flytrap cultivars.

DCXL has far larger traps, and longer leaves, than Wally.  Both plants have decent colouration.  

Some of the smaller Wally plants appear to have died off, while it appears all of the DCXL plants are still alive.

The weather has been all over the place here.  One day will be sunny, hot, and 35C, the next cold, windy, and 19C.  As well as the temperature fluctuating rather dramatically form day to day, it has been really dry here for the past few months.  This isn't a huge issue as I grow these in a tray of water.  I was watering using bore water for some time and there was some salt build up as we didn't have any rain to flush it away, I am back to using rain water and they are looking better.

I think my little plants are getting ready for dormancy as DCXL has stopped producing any upright growth.

DCXL flytrap

Wally flytrap

Wally on left, DCXL on right

DCXL VFT February

Wally VFT February

Early March 2023 (March is the start of Autumn in Australia)

No more upright growth.  Both of these pots would have grown better had I divided them instead of leaving them together.  

We had very strange weather this year so lots of plants are already entering dormancy.  Things will probably look run down from here until Spring.

Wally

DCXL

Wally plants from flower stalk cutting

DCXL plants from flower stalk cutting

Wally on left, DXCL on right

The difference between these clones is incredible

Early May 2023

Winter is just around the corner, so dormancy isn't too far off.  Neither clone looks great while dormant, but that is ok.  Moss is growing more than I would like, but I won't try to do anything about that until closer to Spring.

Wally VFT going into winter

DCXL VFT going into winter

Early June 2023 (June is the start of winter in Australia)

Venus Flytrap Comparison - Wally and DCXL

Wally VFT start of winter

DCXL VFT start of winter

Early July 2023

Being winter, all of my Venus flytraps look dreadful as they are mostly dormant.  Other than the moss, everything is as it should be.  I plan to repot these late winter/early spring and when I do I will remove as much moss as possible.

Early August 2023 

As you can see, the plants are dormant and look horrible.  This is normal and healthy for Venus Flytraps over winter here.  Spring is around the corner, once the weather warms and there is more sunlight I expect these plants to grow and look good once again.  

Dormant VFTs, Wally on left, DCXL on right

Wally VFT late winter

DCXL VFT late winter

Wally and DCXL flytraps over winter

12 month Comparison

Here they are repotted, and ready for spring growth.  Side by side, Wally VFT on the left and DCXL vft on the right.  Below is the initial phot, as well as photos of where they are now.  

Ideally I would have divided them a year ago, but I wanted to show what they would do if left as is.  

September 2022: Wally vft on left, DCXL vft on right

August 2023: Wally vft on left, some of the DCXL vft on right

August 2023

From the Wally flower stalk cutting I ended up with four healthy plants and a couple of tiny ones that could be divided once they start growing in warmer weather.  Four of them should be flowering size perhaps this year but probably next year.  This past year the growing conditions were not good, and the crowding only made things worse and many of the smallest plants died.  Had I divided these earlier I would have ended up with many more plants.  

From the DCXL flower stalk cutting I ended up with six healthy plants.  Each should reach flowering size this year or at the latest next year.  Even though the weather was not great the past year, they did not suffer as much from crowding as they started with less plantlets.  

This past year the weather was not ideal for flytraps.  Both of these varieties fared much better than any of the other varieties, named or unnamed, that I am growing.

Venus Flytraps: Wally on left, DCXL on the right

DCXL flyraps ready for spring

Wally flytraps ready for spring growth

DCXL Venus Flytraps largely dormant

While venus flytraps are all the same species, there are many different varieties, each of which grows differently, looks different, and performs best under slightly different conditions.  Wally stays low to the ground and divides well, and gets a lot more colouration with more light intensity.  DCXL has tall summer growth, large summer traps, and produce big beefy plants.  Both varieties produce decent sized traps.  Both varieties are great for beginners as they are forgiving of difficult growing conditions.  

From here these plants will break dormancy, and put on some active growth.  I will probably leave some as they are, and I may attempt to divide others.  

When they send up flower stalks I will probably try to take more cuttings.  I may allow them to flower and attempt to gather seed from them, but I tend to have low success having flytraps produce viable seed.  Growing Venus Flytraps from see is fun as every seed grown plant is unique, it also takes years to get a decent sized plant.  

Venus flytraps handle bare rooted postage well.  If you are in Australia and would like to swap some varieties with me, my contact detail can be found on my for sale page.

Hopefully this comparison is useful for someone wanting to grow Venus Flytraps.  

Leafy vegetable comparison

I have trouble growing spinach over summer, and I'm not great with lettuce, so trialed a few leafy vegetables that may be able to replace them.  It is currently winter here, which is not the greatest time to grow much, but it is the only time that there is space in the vegetable garden, so winter is when I ran my little trial.  

While most are very common, I have not grown a lot of these vegetables before, so this comparison was a lot of fun.  I will need to set aside some space to grow these in the summer garden, and see how they hold up to the heat as well as see how they cope with cabbage white butterflies.  They all survived frosts and temperatures down to -8C with no observable damage.  

These seeds were all planted in the garden on 09/04/2023, two months later (11/06/2023) I took the comparison picture below.  

From left to right: Spinach, Yakuna savoy, Senposai, Tokyo Bekana, Hon Tsai Tai, Bok Choy 

Various leaf vegetables, seed planted on the same day

In August, four months after planting the seeds, I took the comparison photo below.  All of the plants other than spinach are flowering.  Some leaves on each plant are far larger than the ones in the photo, while others are smaller, I tried to pick an average sized leaf from each variety.  The senposai for example has several massive leaves per plant, a bunch of leaves similar to the photo, and a few smaller leaves.

I didn't remember to include a tape measure in the photos.  To give you some idea of perspective, the spinach leaf is about the same size in both photos but with a longer stalk.   

From left to right are: Spinach, Yakuna savoy, Senposai, Tokyo Bekana, Hon Tsai Tai, Bok Choy.

Comparison after four months of growth

I grew spinach partly to act as something to compare the other leaves against, and partly because it only seems to do well here over the cooler months.

I will ty to briefly compare these, going from left to right in the photo.

Spinach Oriental Summer Jade: inconsistent growth rates between individual plants, some plants were large while others were tiny.  On average it seems to be a productive variety but takes up a fair amount of garden space.  This spinach has arrow shaped leaves that from a distance look a lot like sorrel.  Flat leaves don't trap dirt as much as regular crinkled spinach.  This taste like regular spinach (ie it's nice enough) and is meant to hold up well to summer heat.  

Yakuna savoy: this one took time to grow, and is growing far too slowly for my liking.  The plants were still all tiny while all the other vegetables had become rather large.  These are meant to be very resistant of extreme temperatures.  I didn't like the taste, it is mildly spicy and I found it a bit too cabbagy/mustardy/something for my liking.  It never got large as it bolted to flower as soon as the weather warmed.  They may do better if planted earlier or growing in warmer weather.  

Senposai: this is a cross between komatsuna and cabbage.  Fast growing plants and can become rather large.  These plants are vigorous growers, take up a lot of room, and produce a lot of food.  I don't like this (or any cabbage) raw, but it makes a good cabbage substitute when cooked.  I plan to keep growing this as it is one of my favourites.  

Tokyo Bekana: this is an Asian cabbage that looks like lettuce.  I had hoped it would taste more like lettuce than it does.  In a mixed salad this would do ok, and it can be used any way a cabbage would be used.  These fast growing plants are not slowed down by frosts and look really nice in the garden.  They don't take much room to grow a lot of these.  I plan to grow more of these.  

Hon Tsai Tai: this is a flowering choy that is grown for broccoli like flower heads, and the leaves are usually only really used as a secondary crop which is a waste.  The leaves taste almost sweet, and I prefer them to most of the others listed here.  These grew very fast, and look a bit raggedy and messy in the garden.  This one flowered through the depths of winter and was very pretty when in flower.  I like how sweet these are, and plan to grow more.

Baby Bok Choy: this is one of the prettiest looking vegetables I have grown.  These taste ok raw, and became sweet after hit by some frosts.  These are good cooked and I am told they are great in fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi.  These grow very fast and I love how they look in the garden.  These are compact and productive plants, a lot of plants can be grown in a very small area.  I need to grow more bok choy.  At this stage I'm not sure which variety is best for my needs.  Perhaps one day I will grow out a bunch of types and see which I prefer.

Tokyo bekana and Senposai 

Bok Choy and Spinach

All of the above leafy vegetables grew reasonably well over winter.  All of them are meant to be very nutritious and all are far more nutritious than lettuce.  

All of them would be great as green manure, and all of them are adored by chickens and are very nutritious, meaning if you don't get around to eating them or if you dislike their taste they would certainly not be wasted.  

It didn't take long for them to grow large

Not much space is wasted 

Leaf vegetable comparison 

All of them, other than senposai, are commonly available in Australia.  They all grow easily from seed.  All are simple enough to save seed from if you isolate them to prevent crossing.  Or you could let them cross, and plant out mixed up seed.  

Poultry manure benefits in the garden

Ever since I was a kid growing vegetables I would dig out manure from the chicken house and add it to the vegetable garden.  Poultry manure and sheep manure were the only fertiliser I had access to back then, and they seemed to do the job.  

Even when I was young I knew (from experience) that if I used poultry manure straight away it would burn plants.  Instead, I would dig it into the garden, and let it sit over winter to do whatever it needed to do.  When the weather had warmed enough that I could plant out summer crops the poultry manure had aged enough not to cause any damage.  It worked well and I did this for years.  

I few years ago I bought some soil to top up a few raised garden beds.  This new soil is dreadful.  One of its many issues is that plants growing in it show obvious signs of nutrient deficiencies.   

Poultry manure is great fertiliser

These days I probably could buy fertiliser if I wanted to, but I don’t want to.  I grow everything organically.  To increase soil fertility I still use poultry manure from my chickens, I also use home made compost, vermicompost, and green manure.  

I have a few chickens and clean out the chicken house from time to time.  I added their manure to the soil to age over winter.  I wondered if poultry manure would be enough to fix the nutrient deficiency in my soil, or if I also need to add something else.  

I used to know a few soil scientists who I would love to talk to about this topic, sadly I have lost contact with them so have to work out this problem by myself.  I don’t remember what nutrients are in poultry manure, or if it is missing anything important for plant growth, so I did some research.  I figured this may be helpful to someone else so decided to put it in this blog post.  

Poultry turn weeds and insects into fertiliser

 
The thirteen essential nutrients for plants growth are nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulphur (S), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), chlorine (Cl), boron (B), iron (Fe), and molybdenum (Mo).  According to everything I read, poultry manure contains all 13 of these main nutrients needed by plants.  Poultry manure contains roughly 3-5% nitrogen, 1.5-3.5% phosphorus, 1.5-3% potassium, and a considerable amount of each of the micronutrients.  This means that mixing poultry manure through the soil should add everything that is missing in amounts that are worthwhile.  Adding poultry manure should go a long way to fixing any nutrient deficiencies of my soil.  

Some nutrients may be present in the soil in good amounts, but are not available if the pH is too high or too low.  The soil in my raised garden beds is currently a bit too high.  The pH of poultry manure is usually 6-7.  Adding poultry manure certainly won't correct my pH problem, but also won't make it any worse.  

 

Even these cuties produce a lot of waste

When I clean out my chicken house, I am not just scooping pure manure.  What I am digging out is probably better called 'chicken litter'.  Chicken litter contains feathers and straw and things that are mixed in with the manure.  This not only provides essential macro and micronutrients, it is also rich in carbon.  All of this is good for soil health.  

Nitrogen comes in a few forms, and this is important to know.  The 'inorganic forms' of nitrogen (ammonium and nitrate) can be immediately used by plants, while 'organic forms' of nitrogen (I am using the scientific definition of an ‘organic compound’) must be mineralized (converted in form by soil bacteria) before it is available to plants.  Don't be confused by this, I am not talking about farming organically vs using synthetic fertilisers, I am talking about organic compounds and their need to be mineralised prior to being available to plants.  

From what I read it appears that most of the nitrogen in poultry litter is in an organic form (about 89%), but poultry litter also contains ammonium (about 9%) and a small amount of nitrate (about 2%).  Poultry litter contains 3-5% nitrogen, of which about 11% is immediately available to plants, while the rest is slowly converted to usable forms by soil bacteria.  This nitrogen becomes available to plants as they need it throughout the growing season.  This is all good for my soil.  

As well as adding all the nutrients required for plant growth, adding poultry manure to the soil generally tends to attract earthworms and other soil life.  I grow everything organically, and try to encourage some of this soil life.  These soil dwelling critters seem to make the soil better in a number of ways.  

Based my research (and from years of personal experience), it appears that poultry manure/chicken litter is excellent to use in the vegetable garden as long as it is properly aged.  Poultry manure works well as a quick acting fertiliser, a slow release fertiliser, it improves soil structure, and increases soil health.  

I have a few chickens.  As well as laying cheap and nutritious eggs, eating food scraps, disposing of pests, and being happy little friends for my kids, my chickens are producing manure every single day.  I may as well use this manure for something good.