Nice looking bulbs, but they have surprisingly short roots. Hopefully you'll get something interesting from one of them
In my experience, when rhizomes have little in the way of roots, that means they were grown in shallow pots and kept too wet. When Dionaea grow in pots that are deeper than 4 inches and aren't in standing water all the time, they'll develop a very extensive root system.It's all too common with rhizomes to have little in the way of roots; but some that I planted only a week or so ago are already sending up flower stalks. The roots have an entire season to develop -- and I've seen far worse . . .
In my experience, when rhizomes have little in the way of roots, that means they were grown in shallow pots and kept too wet. When Dionaea grow in pots that are deeper than 4 inches and aren't in standing water all the time, they'll develop a very extensive root system.
In my experience, when rhizomes have little in the way of roots, that means they were grown in shallow pots and kept too wet. When Dionaea grow in pots that are deeper than 4 inches and aren't in standing water all the time, they'll develop a very extensive root system.
From what I've seen so far when growing Dionaea, watering too much leads to very quick growth, but it's often long and thin and there are relatively few leaves (usually between 7 and 10) per rhizome. Also, the root system, while decent, doesn't seem to develop like it does if the plants are kept a bit drier. Keeping them on the drier side also leads to many more leaves and larger rhizomes as far as I can tell.I agree with your assessment about the shallow pots, if not the over-watering. I keep most of my plants in deep trays of water and their roots are nothing short of extensive.
Regardless, most of my plants began as bare-root rhizomes; and, by the end of the season, should -- hopefully -- have elaborate roots . . .
While the mass of traps is impressive to say the least NaN, it could be just a mass of rhizomes all clumped together. I'd love to see a photo of them once they're uprooted. I too have had pots that look like Ian's, but the individual plants are less impressive once you divide them. That's been my experience anyway when I've grown Dionaea in shorter pots and kept them in water trays. I used to grow Dionaea exclusively in pots between 2.5 inches and 3.5 inches in depth. Occasionally I'd get large plants with decent root systems and rhizomes an inch or so in diameter, but more often than not, they'd put out a ton of traps and divide a lot and not get very large.Humbug. I repotted my 99 cent store DIonaea after leaving them in their dinky two inch pots they came in for over a year. They were kept in standing water in a tray. There were massive root systems with a thick mat on the bottom. The mats were so thick I just ended up cutting them to separate the divisions.
And Ivan's "Hosford Bog" was grown in a dinky 2.5 inch pot and also had massive roots.
The plants I had in 5 inch pots had wimpy roots, kept in no more than 1/2 of water that was allowed to dry out before re-watering.
The only difference I could see was that the 5 inch pots has 50/50 peat/sand while the small pots (including Ivan's) were pure peat moss.
Here's Ivan's "Hosford Bog" VFT in 2.5 inch pot a couple months before he divided it. Who says you need big pots.
I just noticed that I didn't previously comment on soil. I used to grow in pure peat or nearly pure peat with some perlite mixed in. It seems that pure peat holds onto the water too long and doesn't provide for good root aeration, which promotes bacterial growth in the soil. If your soil smells bad when you repot, that's what you're smelling. This lack of oxygen and high concentration of bacteria seems to cause the rhizome to divide instead of growing very large.The only difference I could see was that the 5 inch pots has 50/50 peat/sand while the small pots (including Ivan's) were pure peat moss.
I just noticed that I didn't previously comment on soil. I used to grow in pure peat or nearly pure peat with some perlite mixed in. It seems that pure peat holds onto the water too long and doesn't provide for good root aeration, which promotes bacterial growth in the soil. If your soil smells bad when you repot, that's what you're smelling. This lack of oxygen and high concentration of bacteria seems to cause the rhizome to divide instead of growing very large.
I now use a mix of 50% peat, 30% silica sand and 20% perlite. The sand seems to make a huge difference in oxygenating the roots and promoting a very healthy root system.
From what I've seen so far when growing Dionaea, watering too much leads to very quick growth, but it's often long and thin and there are relatively few leaves (usually between 7 and 10) per rhizome. Also, the root system, while decent, doesn't seem to develop like it does if the plants are kept a bit drier. Keeping them on the drier side also leads to many more leaves and larger rhizomes as far as I can tell.
I use live sphagnum as a top dressing on some of my Sarracenia and Heliamphora, but I keep my Dionaea too dry for sphagnum. It just dries up and turns brown on the Dionaea pots.I still use live moss as a top dressing on a few plants but that's about it.
That should be a pretty good mix and very similar to what I use provided that the horticultural sand doesn't leach many minerals into the soil. Silica is a very hard mineral that isn't soluble in water, so it won't leach any minerals into the soil and that's why I use it.Currently I use a 1:1 compost of peat to horticultural sand and am happy with that mix . . .
Over the last few months I've deflasked _thousands_ of Dionaea out of tissue culture vessels (and other carnivorous plant species). It seems like the affects of hormones from tissue culture only cause dividing for a brief amount of time after being deflasked. Once they grow out after about 3 months, the plants stop dividing and simply start growing like normal plants.I have often thought that that rapid division in lieu of single rhizome growth you had mentioned was more a product of tissue culture than that of watering practices. Even the use of gibberellic acid to "encourage" germination of stubborn "rare" seeds produced odd, rapid dividing and clumping growth over that of single plants. I can only imagine that the hormonal and chemical soup used to produce the overwhelming percentage of Dionaea nowadays has, at least, some role in its growing habits . . .
I have bulbs similar to these.
How deep do you plant them, and are there any specific guidelines for watering?
Thanks!!