I'm new to carnivorous plants. I bought a few traps from a big box retailer. They were in rough shape, but have perked up under my care. It's winter in NY now. I skipped dormancy this time just to give it some time to get better. But I do plan on going through its dormant cycles next season. Hopefully this isn't counterintuitive.
I like the changing of seasons and dont mind the dormancy at all,. It gives me something to look forward to in spring when they come back. Maybe in jamaica they reproduce from seed and each individual doesn't live long
Yeah I like that too! Makes it more exciting! That is a good point! It could be that the plants are adding to the population via seeds. I didn’t even think about that aspect.
Good debate topic. Im a fairly new carnivorous plant hobbyist. Ive been caring for them for only maybe 3 or 4 years but I've always grown or attempted to grow my VFTs outside. Im also a put all your plants outside kinda guy which to me is one of the best characteristics of things like VFTs and sarracenias, that I dont have to bring them indoors in my region during the colder months. I would like to know the long term effects of indoor vs outdoor growing but for me its still going to be a grow it outdoor and let it go through its natural dormancy choice. I also like to push the envelope and grow my Highland nepenthes types in Intermediate conditions though. :))
Yeah outdoor is always better for the natural cycle of the plants for sure! That would be a cool experiment. Get an plant and divide it in half. Then grow one outdoors and the other indoors and see how it goes!! That would be cool!!
My venus fly traps did not go through dormancy for 6 years now, growing strong and healthy. It's super important that it has sufficient light, soil humidity, and mild to warm air. By experience, if this is not provided to a venus fly trap that skipped dormancy, it will suffer much faster than one that has under the same conditions. But no, it doesn't need dormancy if you give it all its needs. I friend has been going at 8 years now without dormancy, and her fly traps are the healthiest I've ever seen. Also, her plant's traps are almost always closed, they are fly monsters! I don't understand why it's a contentious topic though, grow it however you want 😂. I want to see and document how long they will go without dormancy. I absolutely don't recommend this to beginners, as most of the time the exact needs are simply not provided
Great insight!!! It would be interesting to study and see if it is a requirement or something they just do because they have to. I have always been interested in this from dormancy being key to success or do plants use dormancy as more of a defense mechanism to keep from dying.
I am curious to see if a 50f maintained dormancy with reduced photo period would work. If it were then a root cellar would be adequate and we could eliminate the refrigerator. Maintaining humidity in a refrigerator is my personal hell.
Hey! Yeah anytime the traps are sluggish is usually a sign that it is tired or stressed. When I first got mine from those death cubes the traps were like in slow motion.
So I am in the UK. Just over 2 years ago my wife bought me my 1st VFT, from a garden centre. Looked a bit tired and sickly but managed to keep it alive. We got it in September and decided NOT to winter it. Because of how it was looking. Fast forward to around September 2023, we went to another garden centre and got another one whose petioles were twice the size of my first one. We got it home and discovered it had a bad whitefly infestation so trimmed back and attempted to let it recover on its own, long and short the leaves didn't come back but we managed to rid it of whitefly. Briefly wintered both and brought them out early around march time. Both my first and 2nd are absolutely thriving dozens of petioles, and eating well too. Both sit on the upper windowsill of spare bedroom, south facing so sun all day, when we get sun 🤣. I bought 2 new ones from hants flytrap which are twice the size of my 2nd one so really big ones. Also we have a B52 variety, but is only a baby at the moment, it still eats well though. So in my brief experience, I haven't wintered the ones that were settling in, but once established we have and they are thriving. (Keepers less than 3 years) Hope that helps.
That is great insight!!! Thank you for sharing that! Yeah I love to save them from the big box stores but they are definitely way worse off and take a while to bring back than a dedicated grower! I will say though that it is a lot of fun nursing them back to health!
@@Carnivorousplanthelp indeed, luckily we have only got them from garden centres, and some of the bigger stores don't really carry them, (only ever seen them in a b&q (UK version of home depot)) so we'll see how these from the garden centres go. Thankyou for the video - from the conversation we had with the guy at the carnivorous plant centre, he said that they are losing habitat, and that they are good indicators on the wild of issues in soil - think canary in the mines. Also I would like to see the outcome of controlled experiment on various factors, eg petiole size, speed of closure, production of leaves and petioles. Possibly a 3 way study a plant with regular dormancy, one with no dormant period but temperature fairly consistent and a 3rd with grow lights etc. Would be an interesting study. Best of luck 👍👍👍
Thank you for the kind words. Yes they are very endangered in the wild due to several reasons. One is poaching as people want to have them more and more. Another is that this plant contains a compound in it that can be extracted and is being studied heavily for its disease fighting properties. Also, deforestation was an issue. That has been stalled due to national parks though. Thankfully there is a pretty robust tissue culture industry around these plants that are allowing for people to collect and pushing poachers out.
I'll be testing this this year with a couple of VFTs I have. I do feel they would do better with a dormancy. I think of it sort of like how we tend to feel and perform better after we have a good night's sleep.
Yeah I agree 100% on that. Keep me posted on the progress. It will be interesting to see how it goes. To see if it has a huge difference or smaller than expected.
@@Carnivorousplanthelp I will update if I don't forget about this in the spring! Also, regarding dormancy, do you think I can overwinter my plants outdoors if I'm living in zone 6a? Temps can be around -20 C to -23 C (around -4F to -10F) in the winter. I've read from other people in online forums that their plants survived even when frozen solid and covered in snow.
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I'm new to carnivorous plants. I bought a few traps from a big box retailer. They were in rough shape, but have perked up under my care. It's winter in NY now. I skipped dormancy this time just to give it some time to get better. But I do plan on going through its dormant cycles next season. Hopefully this isn't counterintuitive.
Hey!! That’s great news!! Yeah I skipped dormancy their first year of me owning them too! Let me know what questions you have. I am here to support!
I like the changing of seasons and dont mind the dormancy at all,. It gives me something to look forward to in spring when they come back. Maybe in jamaica they reproduce from seed and each individual doesn't live long
Yeah I like that too! Makes it more exciting! That is a good point! It could be that the plants are adding to the population via seeds. I didn’t even think about that aspect.
Good debate topic. Im a fairly new carnivorous plant hobbyist. Ive been caring for them for only maybe 3 or 4 years but I've always grown or attempted to grow my VFTs outside. Im also a put all your plants outside kinda guy which to me is one of the best characteristics of things like VFTs and sarracenias, that I dont have to bring them indoors in my region during the colder months. I would like to know the long term effects of indoor vs outdoor growing but for me its still going to be a grow it outdoor and let it go through its natural dormancy choice. I also like to push the envelope and grow my Highland nepenthes types in Intermediate conditions though. :))
Yeah outdoor is always better for the natural cycle of the plants for sure! That would be a cool experiment. Get an plant and divide it in half. Then grow one outdoors and the other indoors and see how it goes!! That would be cool!!
My venus fly traps did not go through dormancy for 6 years now, growing strong and healthy. It's super important that it has sufficient light, soil humidity, and mild to warm air. By experience, if this is not provided to a venus fly trap that skipped dormancy, it will suffer much faster than one that has under the same conditions. But no, it doesn't need dormancy if you give it all its needs. I friend has been going at 8 years now without dormancy, and her fly traps are the healthiest I've ever seen. Also, her plant's traps are almost always closed, they are fly monsters!
I don't understand why it's a contentious topic though, grow it however you want 😂. I want to see and document how long they will go without dormancy.
I absolutely don't recommend this to beginners, as most of the time the exact needs are simply not provided
Great insight!!! It would be interesting to study and see if it is a requirement or something they just do because they have to. I have always been interested in this from dormancy being key to success or do plants use dormancy as more of a defense mechanism to keep from dying.
I have tried both and in my opinion have seen my plants produce bigger traps and leaves after dormancy.
I am curious to see if a 50f maintained dormancy with reduced photo period would work. If it were then a root cellar would be adequate and we could eliminate the refrigerator. Maintaining humidity in a refrigerator is my personal hell.
Very interesting! That would be a cool experiment to see!
Yeah they definitely do better with dormancy. They come back much stronger!
Oh I was wondering why the one had slow traps. I kept that one awake over winter since it was so small.
Hey! Yeah anytime the traps are sluggish is usually a sign that it is tired or stressed. When I first got mine from those death cubes the traps were like in slow motion.
So I am in the UK. Just over 2 years ago my wife bought me my 1st VFT, from a garden centre. Looked a bit tired and sickly but managed to keep it alive. We got it in September and decided NOT to winter it. Because of how it was looking. Fast forward to around September 2023, we went to another garden centre and got another one whose petioles were twice the size of my first one. We got it home and discovered it had a bad whitefly infestation so trimmed back and attempted to let it recover on its own, long and short the leaves didn't come back but we managed to rid it of whitefly. Briefly wintered both and brought them out early around march time. Both my first and 2nd are absolutely thriving dozens of petioles, and eating well too. Both sit on the upper windowsill of spare bedroom, south facing so sun all day, when we get sun 🤣. I bought 2 new ones from hants flytrap which are twice the size of my 2nd one so really big ones. Also we have a B52 variety, but is only a baby at the moment, it still eats well though. So in my brief experience, I haven't wintered the ones that were settling in, but once established we have and they are thriving. (Keepers less than 3 years) Hope that helps.
That is great insight!!! Thank you for sharing that! Yeah I love to save them from the big box stores but they are definitely way worse off and take a while to bring back than a dedicated grower! I will say though that it is a lot of fun nursing them back to health!
@@Carnivorousplanthelp indeed, luckily we have only got them from garden centres, and some of the bigger stores don't really carry them, (only ever seen them in a b&q (UK version of home depot)) so we'll see how these from the garden centres go. Thankyou for the video - from the conversation we had with the guy at the carnivorous plant centre, he said that they are losing habitat, and that they are good indicators on the wild of issues in soil - think canary in the mines. Also I would like to see the outcome of controlled experiment on various factors, eg petiole size, speed of closure, production of leaves and petioles. Possibly a 3 way study a plant with regular dormancy, one with no dormant period but temperature fairly consistent and a 3rd with grow lights etc. Would be an interesting study. Best of luck 👍👍👍
Thank you for the kind words. Yes they are very endangered in the wild due to several reasons. One is poaching as people want to have them more and more. Another is that this plant contains a compound in it that can be extracted and is being studied heavily for its disease fighting properties. Also, deforestation was an issue. That has been stalled due to national parks though. Thankfully there is a pretty robust tissue culture industry around these plants that are allowing for people to collect and pushing poachers out.
Now those reasons I didn't know. Best wishes
I'll be testing this this year with a couple of VFTs I have. I do feel they would do better with a dormancy. I think of it sort of like how we tend to feel and perform better after we have a good night's sleep.
Yeah I agree 100% on that. Keep me posted on the progress. It will be interesting to see how it goes. To see if it has a huge difference or smaller than expected.
@@Carnivorousplanthelp I will update if I don't forget about this in the spring!
Also, regarding dormancy, do you think I can overwinter my plants outdoors if I'm living in zone 6a? Temps can be around -20 C to -23 C (around -4F to -10F) in the winter. I've read from other people in online forums that their plants survived even when frozen solid and covered in snow.
With temps that low I would be careful, you can cover them with a layer of leaves but if it is getting that cold you might want to bring them inside.