Venus Flytrap - how I grow them

Much like most people, when I was a young child I was given a Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). I was in awe of this marvelous plant and I instantly gained a deep love of carnivorous plants and gardening in general. I spent hours staring at the plant, thinking big thoughts, and imagining all sorts of fantastic and impossible things.

Just the same as happens with most people, my first Venus flytrap died.

A few years later I got another one, I can't remember if I bought it or was given it. This time I was a little older and I read everything there was to read about them - which was limited to the high level information on the tag and a few old and poorly written books by people who I doubt had ever successfully grown one themselves. Again I spent many hours staring at that fascinating little plant, fussing over it, carefully removing dead leaves, and thinking big thoughts.

Sadly my second plant also died.

After that I thought Venus fly traps were too tricky to grow or we were in the wrong climate for them. I am happy to say that neither was true, Venus flytraps are actually very easy to grow if you know how and I was in the perfect climate for them.

Venus flytraps, easy to grow when you know how

A few years later when I had not yet started high school I bought a tiny sundew (Drosera capensis) from a fair for $0.50. I loved that plant. This plant lived for many years and from it I learned how to actually grow carnivorous plants successfully. After starting with one sundew and growing seeds and cuttings to end up with literally hundreds I decided to give the Venus flytrap another try.

I got a Venus flytrap bare rooted through the post.  This plant not only thrived but each spring would divide into a bunch of extra plants. I even grew a few from seed, which is a very slow but rather fun process. Then I went to university, got a job, moved a lot of times, and stopped growing carnivorous plants for years.

I have started to grow Venus flytraps again and am loving them. They are heaps of fun. There are so many new varieties now that never existed before.

I figured I should tell people how I grow Venus Flytraps and perhaps more people can enjoy growing them too. This may not be the best way to do things, but it works for me, it is cheap, and it is easy.

I find it simple to grow Venus flytraps: give them lots of clean water, give them sunlight, and don’t ever try to close the traps. That is simple enough.

Venus flytraps in a tray of water - honey bees like to sip water from the pots

A friend did a guest post on how to grow carnivorous plants.  I thought I would write about how I grow Venus Flytraps because I find it rather simple.

By far the most important thing to know is that they are swamp plants that need a lot of water. They need so much water that I sit the pot in a tray, usually an old ice cream container, which holds a centimeter or two of water. I make sure the water is at least 5cm below the surface of the soil, any higher than that and the plants get stressed, lower than that is fine. When this water level drops slightly I fill it up again. I usually fill it up each day when I am watering the vegetable garden. The water tray should never be dry, ever, even for a little while. I don’t water from the top, I just fill up that little tray to its arbitrary (yet constant) level.

Far too many people try to water these like a house plant - this doesn’t work and they will die pretty quickly. Others put a shallow saucer under them, this evaporates too fast and your plant will dry out and die. Use an ice cream container or an old yogurt container, they are free and perfect for the job.

I am told that, depending on what is in your water, town water could be bad for them. I don’t have town water, I have a rain water tank so don’t have any personal experience with this. Rain water is the best if that is available.

These traps are closed as it caught ants, spiders, and things by itself

The second most important thing to know about growing a Venus flytrap is never close the trap. Never close the trap with your finger no matter how fun that sounds, and don’t try to close it with food of any sort. The leaf traps can only open a few times and the more they are closed the faster that leaf will die. The less leaves your plant has the less likely it is to survive.

Don’t try to feed your Venus flytrap. If you know what you are doing feeding is ok, if you don’t know what you are doing you will likely kill your plant. If you knew how to feed them you wouldn't have read this far through this blog post aimed at beginners.  Let venus fly traps catch food for themselves, they know what they are doing. Well-meaning people often try to feed their Venus flytrap and this often kills them. I know you are trying to help, but you are probably killing it.

Wally Venus Flytrap - needs more sunlight

Carnivorous plants of any type are not indoor plants, Venus flytraps need direct sunlight. Putting your new plant in your office and having the ceiling light turned on is not the same as natural light. You already knew this - otherwise you would wear a hat and sunscreen at your desk while getting a massive tan. Placing Venus flytraps on a window sill that gets sun is good, having them outside is better.

When you get a plant it likely has been kept under shade cloth (or in complete darkness while being posted) so transition it into the sun slowly or the leaves will burn and your plant may die. Depending on where you live they may benefit from growing under shade cloth, if you don’t have any shade cloth then at least try to protect them from the afternoon sun. Afternoon sun in summer, especially in Australia, can be a bit too much for them.

Don't put venus flytraps in a terrarium. I don't know how many people have cooked these plants to death in terrariums. While they can survive in a terrarium if it is in just the right place, they will die very quickly if it is not.  I also don't see the need to put them in a terrarium.

Venus Flytrap entering dormancy - looks dreadful but is actually ok

Venus flytraps are strangely ok with frosts. Venus flytraps are not tropical plants.  I have heard that people in places without winter dig them up and put them in the fridge for a month over winter. Mine don’t grow much over winter, and they usually aren’t quite dormant either. The leaves die back and new growth is smaller and lower to the ground - this is normal. Over winter I lower the water (or ice) level in their tray so they don’t rot, but I never let them go dry. 

In spring if they are large enough to divide then you can divide them. If it is not ready to divide then just keep enjoying them until next year. You will know that they are ready because they will have multiple growing points and multiple plants crowded together.

To divide I remove it from the pot, gently pull the two or more plants apart, and plant them in damp peat moss. There are a few things you could use but I use peat moss mixed with some clean river sand as both are cheap and easy to get. When you open the bag it will be too dry, you need to soak it before you plant into it. To soak peatmoss I tip some into a bucket, add some water, and come back later and it is nicely soaked. I then grab handfuls of wet peatmoss out of the bucket and squeeze it a little so some of the water comes out. Some people rinse the peatmoss a few times to remove nutrients. I do this and it probably helps but you don’t have to do it.

Venus flytrap flowers

Often after surviving winter Venus flytraps will flower in spring if they are large enough. They send up a tall flower stalk with unimpressive white flowers on it. Many growers remove the stalk pretty early as flowering takes a lot of energy and it can be difficult to get them to produce any seed. If you do remove the stalk you can use that as a cutting to grow more Venus flytraps. I should write another post on how to take cuttings from Venus flytraps, it is easier than you may think.

I grow a few types of carnivorous plants including several different Venus flytraps. As I build up their numbers I plan to offer them through my for sale page. I can post them if needed, they sulk a little after posting but outside of winter they tend to perk up pretty fast.

Growing Oyster Mushrooms in a cup

Last year or the year before my kids and I grew some oyster mushrooms in a cup.  It was heaps of fun.  I had forgotten about it until I found the photos.

The substrate was damp newspaper mixed with used coffee grounds.  The cups were used cups from something else.  I was surprised how productive each cup was.  We got 3 or 4 flushes of mushrooms, each smaller than the previous one.

Growing edible oyster mushrooms is incredibly simple and can be cheap.  I have stopped growing edible mushrooms for some reason.  I think it is because getting newspaper or logs to grow them on became too difficult.

I really should get into growing oyster mushrooms again.

Tomato Gene List

There used to be a comprehensive list of tomato genes on the web, then one day that page was gone.  I wish I had saved that list somewhere safe, but I didn't.  I really could have used it to decide on a few tomato breeding projects I was considering.

I searched and now have a long (twenty page) list of tomato genes.  Even though not all of these genes are present in Australia, this list can be very useful when breeding new varieties.

I tried to put a downloadable pdf file on my blog so it would be easy for me to find.  I just can't work out how to do that.  Instead I have a link to the pdf: Gene list pdf

Various tomatoes - understanding the genes can make it simpler to breed something new

Various coloured tomatoes

I also have the tomato gene list in word and excel, if that is more useful I can email them to you if you provide your email address.  To contact me there is a 'contact form' on the right hand side of the page under the page views.  If you are viewing this on your mobile phone please scroll all the way down and click on 'view web version' and you will then be able to see and access the contact form.

I do sell seeds of some of the tomatoes I grow, if you are interested they are listed on my for sale page along with various perennial vegetables and other interesting plants.

Purple cauliflower

I have grown cauliflower in the past.  To be honest they never really impressed me.  They seem to be a lot of work, and the end result is often no better than the ones I can buy from the shops.  I am also not terribly fond of their taste or texture, so I don't eat a lot of them.  All of this means I haven't grown cauliflowers in some time.

Recently my wife went to the market and brought home a purple cauliflower.  I have heard of them, but never actually seen one and never eaten one.  The purple colour of the head was rich and incredible.  I was pretty excited.

Purple cauliflower - I didn't grow this one

I have always been told that the purple colour mostly disappears during cooking.  So I was surprised and glad to see that the colour not only didn't go away, but it intensified somehow and became darker!

I have read hat the purple is due to high concentrations of a powerful antioxidant called anthocyanin and several other flavonoids.  I am also told that they contain significantly more vitamin A than white cauliflower.  I have read in many places that purple cauliflowers are easier to grow, but no one gives any details about that so it may just be wishful thinking rather than fact.

Purple cauliflower - raw and steamed

Purple cauliflower once steamed

We then put the steamed purple cauliflower in the over for a while, and the colour became so dark it was almost black in some places and smurf blue in others. It looked truly remarkable.

The taste was nicer than regular white cauliflower, it was almost a little bit sweet and a bit less cabbage like.  I want to eat more of this.

While I did not grow the cauliflower in the photos above, I think I should grow purple cauliflower in the future.  There are also bright orange cauliflowers, but I haven't seen them other than pictures on the internet yet.

If you are in Australia and grow purple cauliflower, or orange cauliflower, or any other interesting colours and have seeds to share let me know and I may have seeds or something to swap with you.  I have a 'contact form' on the right hand side just under the page views.  If you are viewing with a mobile phone you may need to scroll all the way down and click on 'web view' to be able to access the form.  If you are not quick I will just buy some seeds from somewhere. 

Giant Edible Dandelions

It is no secret that I like dandelions (Taraxacum officinale).  I honestly believe people should grow more dandelions.  I think they probably have more uses than just about any other temperate permaculture crop.

Dandelions take no real effort to grow outside of arid or semi arid zones or polar zones, they are simple to grow organically, they are perennial, they are forgiving of a wide range of conditions, the leaves are edible and more nutritious than almost every other vegetable, the roots are edible and nutritious, the roots can be made into a delightful coffee or tea, the flowers are edible and nutritious, dandelions flower most of the year to feed and attract a wide range of beneficial insects, native birds are attracted to their seeds, poultry and other livestock adore eating the leaves, they are great companion plants for a wide range of vegetables and fruits, the tap root can be very deep, they make excellent compost, and as a real bonus dandelions look very pretty.

Dandelion leaves for comparison - mine at the top, regular ones lower

I have seen people sell dandelion seeds and plants, and often wondered why.  Usually they are selling the same unimproved plants that you can find as roadside weeds, the same ones people try to spray out of their lawns.  These are edible and very useful, but tend to grow into small plants.

Dandelions are incredibly useful and far more nutritious than almost any other vegetable, so I decided to see if I could improve dandelions.  If dandelions were larger, more productive, and more vigorous they would be more useful as vegetables and more useful as stock or poultry feed.

Dandelion flowers are pretty

Dandelion breeding is strangely difficult as they usually tend to display apomixis. This means that cross pollination does not often work.  Each flower is very difficult to pollinate and often sets seed without any fertilisation.  I can't tell if cross pollination worked unless I grow out the seedlings fora long time.  There were a few dandelion breeding programs decades ago, so I read a few old papers and got a few ideas how to increase cross pollination success.

Dandelions tend to grow different depending on the environmental conditions.  When grown in the lawn and mown regularly they tend to produce shorter plants, when grown in long grass they tend to be more elongated.  Dandelions are perennials that also tend to be different sized plants at different times of the year.  All of this makes breeding improved strains far more difficult than I would have liked.

After a bit of work it appears that I did improve dandelions.  They grew larger, more vigorous, and more useful that the regular ones that can be found in the lawn.  My plants can grow huge if treated well.

Massive edible dandelion plant

Regular dandelion leaves often range in length from 10cm to about 25cm, sometimes a bit longer under the right conditions.  If they are to be eaten as vegetables this is a bit too small and you would need to grow a lot of plants to make a meal.

My dandelion leaves reach well over 50cm in length.  This makes them far more useful as leaf vegetables.  The roots grow very thick and long, which makes them far more useful.  Every part of these plants grows pretty big.  One single plant can be massive.

My kids were joking that these plants are so big they should not be called "Dandelions", instead they should  be called "DaddyLions".  I am not sure how I feel about that...

The flowers and seed heads are usually large and fat

My dandelion leaves grow huge

Often dandelion seedlings are exact clones of the maternal parent.  So while mine open pollinate, and there are plenty of wild type plants around that could act as pollen donors, there is a really high chance that each of the seedlings will grow true to type.  If not, then the seedlings should still be large as they would carry 50% genetics from the giant parent.

I now sell packets of dandelion seeds through my for sale page.  They have been grown organically and are open pollinated.  Growing conditions do have a large role on dandelion phenotype expression, so to get large plants they need good soil, full sun, and regular water.  Second year plants grow far larger than first year plants.

Breeding new black tomatoes

I have started to mess around with breeding new black tomato varieties.  I mean true black tomatoes, the ones that are high in a powerful antioxidant called anthocyanin, not the muddy brown tomatoes that often are called 'black'. 

I have some lines that are segregating and if they are any good will try to stabilise them over the next few years, and other lines are almost stable.  The deep black colour of some of my crosses are incredible.

Some of my ripe black tomatoes - their colour is incredible

When they are unripe, the tomato fruits take on an amazing purple colour.  The black is only on the skin, the colour of the flesh underneath the skin changes the colour of the ripe fruit.  To get the darkest black a clear epidermis appears to work well.

If the tomato fruit is red underneath, the colour of ripe fruit are not overly impressive.  If the tomato is yellow or green underneath it allows the fruit to take on an incredibly dark black colour when ripe.

These ones had black skin and green flesh

The ones that are green under the black taste the best so far.  Unfortunately they are far too difficult to tell when they are ripe, I can't tell if they are ripe unless I gently squeeze them, so I will likely not continue with those lines. 

Unripe fruit displays stunning purple colours when unripe

Some of these black lines are also heterozygous for the woolly gene, others are dwarf, some indeterminate, and others determinate.  I certainly want to keep the high anthocyanin fruit but have a few options with various other traits.

I will see what other traits pop out before I decide which lines to keep. 

The fruits get darker as they ripe

Interesting black/purple unripe tomatoes

I grow things very close as I lack garden space

These tomatoes are incredibly black

I am not intending to release any lines that are not stable varieties.  I may change my mind in the future, or I may eventually sell seeds of lines that I have stabilised.  If this happens they will be listed on my for sale page with other vegetable seeds, perennial vegetables, herbs, and other interesting plants that I sell.

Update: this variety has been stabilised, I call them "Tracey".

Giant Parsley

A few years ago I decided that parsley (Petroselinum crispum) was too small to be very useful.  Even the larger varieties such as 'Giant of Italy' are a bit piddly.  I figured parsley would be better as a leaf vegetable rather than a garnish.  So I bred parsley to have larger leaves.

I may have gotten a bit carried away.  My parsley is now so large that the leaves can now easily be used as a vegetable.

Normally you add parsley at the end of cooking, but my larger parsley holds up reasonably well to heat and can be added earlier during cooking.  The roots are large enough to be roasted, and the leaf petioles can be used similar to celery - but taste far nicer.

My parsley gets even larger than this

My parsley is not a stable variety yet, as a population it still shows some genetic diversity.  Some plants have leaves that are absolutely massive.  Some plants have very large leaves.  A small number of plants have reasonably large leaves.  People who see it often comment that they have never seen anything like it.

I only allow the larger plants to flower, and only collect seed from the absolute largest, that way any seedlings have a solid genetic base but still retain at least some degree of genetic diversity.

Each of the leaflets grow huge

They get larger than this

There are a few varieties of 'giant' leaf parsley around.  My parsley dwarfs any 'giant' varieties that I have ever seen.  In fact, all of the 'giant' varieties are rather puny and insignificant in comparison to my parsley.

The craziest part of this story is that this isn't as large as parsley can get.  With a little more selective pressure it will be even larger than this.  I don't have the time or space to do anything too seriously, but even with modest selective pressure my plants are still getting larger every year.

"Giant Italian parsley" at the top, my parsley underneath

At the moment my parsley is not a stable variety, and my plants seem to get larger each year.  If you plant a bunch of seeds most grow into huge, and some are very large, and the occasional one is regular sized.  It is not difficult to cull the smaller plants and only save seed from the huge ones to end up with a size that works well for you.

If you are interested in growing ridiculously large parsley I will probably offer seed for sale through my for sale page.  Just keep in mind if you do buy this seed that it does not grow true to type and a very small percentage will be large but not all that impressively sized.

Purple and Green Tomatillo

The variety of tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa) I grow has purple and purple/green fruit, I keep thinking I should get a dark purple variety but don’t seem able to find a source for them.  I also think about getting one with larger fruit as tomatilloes are a bit small.

The variety I grow are great, they are high yielding, pest and disease free, and relatively sweet, plus I have grown this variety and saved its seeds for so many years that I find getting rid of them to be a rather daunting concept.

Tomatillo

Around ten years ago I bought some purple tomatillos from a market, they weren’t dark purple, more of a purple/green. Back then tomatillo were pretty rare, seeds were difficult to find, you never saw seedlings for sale, and very few home gardeners around here had even heard of them.

I put a few of these fruit in a paper bag and took them home, we ate some and I kept the larger and darker ones to save seed. This is how/when I got my variety, they were an un-named variety that I found at a market stall.

At that time I had never grown tomatillo before that, I had never seen a plant, I wasn’t sure they could survive in my climate, I didn’t know how to save their seed, and I didn't know anyone who had seen or grown one. Luckily it was all really simple.

Every time I grow tomatillo now I save some seeds for future years, if you ever grow tomatillo you should also save some of the seeds.

If you only wanted a few seeds you could just pick them out of the fruit and dry them somewhere. The way I save tomatillo seed is to crush up the fruit in a container of water, for larger numbers I use a potato masher to crush them.

Viable seeds sink, I remove the large parts of the flesh by hand, I tip off some of the water along with anything that floats, and then tip whatever is left through a strainer. I put the seeds on some baking paper (which has been labelled with the name and date) and leave them somewhere safe to dry. Once dry I store the seeds as normal, apparently they can remain viable for many years.

Honey bees appear to like tomatillo flowers

Growing tomatillo from seed is also simple. Much like tomatoes they don’t like frost. In spring I get a punnet of soil and sprinkle on some seeds, I water this. I don’t bury the seeds, I just sprinkle them and water them in. I don’t know if they need sunlight to germinate, or if burying them is fine, but I get good results just sprinkling and watering. From here I water them and protect them from snails etc. Not surprisingly, they seem to like warm soil and plenty of sunlight.

Tomatillo grow reasonably fast and tall, they can reach 5 foot tall in a season without too much trouble. They can be left to sprawl wherever they want but to make harvest easier, and to save garden space, it is best to stake them. I water tomatillo plants the same as I would water tomato plants, nothing overly special needs to be done.

Tomatillo appear to be only partially self-fertile, so to get a crop it is best to plant several plants. You can save space by planting two or more plants in the same hole and treating them as one plant. They are very productive when grown like this so try not to overdo it. Two or three plants is often more than productive enough for a family.

I only grow one variety of tomatillo, and none of the neighbours grow tomatillo, so I don’t need to worry about isolating to keep my strain pure.  If I grow a second variety I will either bag the flowers or grow them alternate years. By the looks of the flowers, and the number of insects that visit them, I assume they cross pollinate readily. 

Tomatillo produce ample flowers

For me tomatillo always start to flower early in the season, and the early flowers always abort. It may be different for you, but they always do this for me. They keep flowering, honey bees and native insects appear to like the yellow flowers, but the flowers keep aborting. This goes on for what seems like an eternity, and then one day they produce fruit. Once they start, they produce large amounts of fruit until the frosts kill them.

Much like tomatoes or chillies, tomatillo are perennial and can be grown for several years if protected from frost. I allow frost to kill them and plant new seed each year because it is simple and I doubt I would get an earlier crop anyway.

When the husk starts to dry and split that is when I pick them. Usually they fall from the plant when ripe, but sometimes they need to be picked. The papery husk seems to protect tomatillo from fruit fly even in heavily infested areas.

Once picked you can eat the fruit or store them or save their seed for next year. Tomatillo plants produce an abundance of fruit over the season, so mashing a few to save seeds from is not an issue.

If the stems are slightly damaged they produce roots.  It is interesting, and a little creepy.  If a bug damages a stem it starts to grow roots, if a stem brushes against something and gets bruised it grows roots, if this touches the soil it gains nutrients and water the same as any roots.

tomatillo stem producing roots

When I first got my tomatilloes no one had them.  These days a few places sell tomatillo seeds, and there are even a few different varieties around.  There are no blue tomatilloes, they don't exist, don't waste your money on them.  There are varieties of green, purple, yellow, and orange tomatillo. 

I sell seeds from my purple and green tomatillo through my for sale page.

Dahlia from seed - the second year

My daughter grew a dahlia from seed last year, she was very proud of herself and I was proud of her too.

The seed was planted in spring, it grew into a small and healthy plant which flowered nicely over summer and autumn, and then it went dormant over winter.  I was impressed that it flowered in its first year.

Growing dahlia from seed isn't overly difficult, yet I don't know many people who have ever attempted it.  I like how they produce flowers in their first year, and then a lot more flowers the following year.

We left the plant in the soil where it was over winter, and in spring it sprouted and grew again.  This year the dahlia grew much larger and produced many more beautiful yellow flowers. 

Dahlias covered in flowers in their second year from seed

Dahlia the first year from seed - small plant with few flowers

The honey bees seemed to enjoy the flowers for quite some time, then the bees stopped going near them.  Presumably the dahlia was the best thing flowering earlier in the season, then something else was flowering in the area that the bees enjoy more.

It is good to have multiple different things flowering across the season, that way my bees have more options and can choose what suits them best when they are out foraging.

The bees seemed to enjoy these dahlias early in the season

We may try to divide this plant over winter if it looks large and healthy enough.  I am sure my daughter would like to plant several of these around the place. 

If we can divide it into enough plants that we have any spare my daughter may sell some through my for sale page to earn herself some more flower money.