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| Under this colour of light, they look like brown in colour. |
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Past Experience in Growing VFT
I will try to summarise the whole experience which I had in the past.
I started to get interest in VFT since I was young, but I didn't have any experience in growing them besides having fun playing their traps; at that times, we won't have an idea of research online on how to grow a VFT.
After many purchases to replace my dead VFT, I started to get serious and did some reading from library books; and was amazed that there are many other Dionaea muscipula cultivars in this world! You will see it ranged - Bloody Red to mixed red-green to pure green, different teeth traps, different size and best is mutated clone.
It opened up my eyes! I wanted to collect all but... I realised that you can't get other cultivars besides typical ones locally; I have to purchase from oversea! To cut things short, I spent around $1800-2400 in total on different CPs (besides VFT, I also grow Pitcher Plants, Sundews, Sarracenia and others) , replacing failed CPs, soil media, pots and light setup etc. I had a great time growing a wide range of VFT and I was quite known in local CP community that period. But things started to turn ugly...
In the past failures, I can never successfully grow them beyond more than six months, the shortest one was two months; due to lack of sun light and caused it enter to its dormant stage, which was one of the WELL KNOWN dangerous period for VFT growers in Singapore. A lot of preparation, we needed to do - uproot, wash, cover with moist moss, pack in ziplock bags and store in refrigerator. Yes! You read me refrigerator! That pissed my mother the most, as it has to share space with food. After went through many stormy arguments with my mother, the VFT molded or turned black inside. I had tried all kind of methods - Dry dormancy treatment (successful for some handful local Cpers), Cold dormancy treatment (based on Cpers from oversea) and even Heck-care treatment. None of them works for me at all. I felt kind of depressed and wore off by many failures...
The Worst experience and my final blow - one of the days, I noticed ALL my VFT started to mold from center, turned black from their core, it was a symptom of root rot or over-water; but I read VFT can tolerate still-water and usually I won't water or flood water on them. Besides root rot symptom, they also have burn traps symptom too! My lighting burned their traps? That light was recommended by successful local cpers. What had gone wrong?! All I could remember, all my beautiful VFTs gone...
I was despaired and plus... got friendzoned by my crush (Spider) whom I like for many years... Things were going down hill... So I gave up hopes in growing VFT (don't want to waste resources) and moved onto Pitcher Plants.
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| Had escaped but got caught into its trap again |
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Reasons on why I started again?
Here come to the part why I started growing VFT again after many years.
I found out that there is this local young chap named D, he starts to sell his VFT online (link) and gives advices to others on how to grow VFT locally. He goes way beyond like cloning VFT and conducts experiments; He reminded me of my past self if I had the time and resources. Then I also learned that he is VERY SUCCESSFULLY in growing VFT under lighting. At the beginning, I was skeptical and believing that he just has a perfect growing area and best lighting setup for VFT.
Then I decided to ask him for advise on how he grows his VFT. He said that he grows VFT under his special customised LED light setup which will provide the correct light wavelength for VFT. (funny thing was that I was hunting and researching on growing VFT under LED light, but those seem rather weak based on my understanding.) Then he showed me proofs from other local beginners who purchased the setup from him. It seemed like he got the lighting part correct to replace sunlight and able cpers to grow VFT indoor. (you know that we can't grow VFT outdoor because it will draw many attention and high-risk of theft too.)
He also shared one IMPORTANT factor - that those VFTs that he owns are heat resistant. Hmmmm... heat resistant VFTs... that's new. He claimed that VFT sold in our local nurseries are imported from Cameron Highland which is low in temperature. (VFT is origin from upper regional of Earth and its nature habitat is definitely cooler than Singapore.) So if we get VFT from our local nurseries will CONFIRM won't last long due to our hot weather. I recapped... my VFT can die together with weird conditions, reasons were the light setup was too WARM and heated up the water in the tray.
Then I was curious where he got his heat resistant VFT from? He shared he got many VFT clones through his mini lab and many had died due to heat; but he noticed some remaining VFT continued to strive vigorously for him and showed no symptom for years. (His VFT can sit in tall water, enjoy LED light and resist local heat, and best part is No sign of dormancy!!!) He continued his statement, with the help of the special selection of the LED bulb will encourage the VFT to grow better.
He called those VFT, "SG Venus Flytrap" and I added in "Survivor" because of the process. SG VFT is a totally breaking all the known growing rules which set by oversea VFT Cpers and books. The key is SG VFT can withstand the heat of our country. D claimed even if SG VFT does not grow under LED light, it will still grow well outdoor. (I will test it out one day.)
So after careful consideration, I decided to purchase VFT (because he has one of my favourite cultivars) and gave it a try.
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Recent New CP Collection
D was kind enough to assist to fulfill my dream of growing VFT indoor; I will grow more of them and test its growing condition if they grow more than a year. Below are the cultivars that I got from him.
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| Dionaea Muscipula - Big Mouth It looks like a typical VFT but its trap is widely opened. |
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| Dionaea Muscipula - Burbank Best One of the VFT without any red pigment. |
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| Dionaea Muscipula - Cupped Trap One of the well-known naturally-mutate cultivar |
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| Dionaea Muscipula - Fine Tooth x Red This clone looks rather strong and standout from typical clone. It's red trap makes it seemed fierce! |
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| Dionaea Muscipula - Red Piranha One of red clone VFT I like, when it matures, it's teeth will be smaller and more fine than typical. |
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| Dionaea Muscipula - Wacky Trap One of my favourite cultivar which I dreamed to have! It is one of the science-experiment went wrong mutated VFT! Amazing clone to own! This is also perfect example of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." |
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| Drosera Lanata Just trying something new. :) |
Jeff
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