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how crowded can you plant flytraps?

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T

The Griffin

Hi,
I converted some 33 oz cups I got at the dollar store to pots. They are six inches deep, about 4.5 diameter. I would guess the depth is more important than the width of the pot, but please give me your thoughts. Can you put five or six mature plants in one of these?

Cheers,

Joe
 
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That sounds like it would be a little crowded to me. You might be able to put 2 or 3 in a pot. I don't think it would harm the plants to have 5 or 6 in the pot, but they may not be as healthy as they could be.
 
Hmmm, seeing your avatar and your site..I think you specialize in flytraps, lol.
Three? I am doing a talk for kids and I hhope to have 50. I will pull a back muscle lugging those around.
How deep are your pots? Do you use just a 4" plastic pot?

Cheers,

Joe
 
Hmmm, seeing your avatar and your site..I think you specialize in flytraps, lol.
Click to expand...
Hah, thanks. I am trying to build a comprehensive VFT site. It's getting better, but I still have a lot to add...and a lot to learn about VFTs!

I'm sure that you could put 5 or 6 in one pot that is 4.5 inches in diameter, but it seems like they would be awfully crowded. I don't know that you would want to leave them in there long term. I guess a year would be fine, but they would be in need of a replanting next spring.

I honestly don't know for sure what happens when VFTs get too crowded. Seems like they would behave nicely. I can't think of any good arguments as to why it would be detrimental to the plants other than they would be fighting for sunlight with each other. I'm not sure how the roots would like having all that company either.
 
vft's don't have an extenisve root system so the depth of the pot is only important for the amount of water it can hold, but a wide pot could do the same. (however don't go too shallow, allow them to have some room)

4.5inch is about 9cm I'm guessing, you could easily plant more than 3 plants in there, You could crowd the place, the vft's will adapt to the situation. They will grow taller or make more leaves on one side of the plant where it recieves more light. Seriously 3 plants for a 9cm pot is nothing, I've seen pots way more crowded than that, go for the 5 or 6 plants you aimed for or even more. Depending on how big your plants are, you can put in more

Long term they'd be better off with more space (because they will divide and such crowding the place even more), but they'll survive.

Good luck
 
I have seen communal pots here at ABG that are probably 60cm across and have a literal carpet of VFTs. I figure you could probably cram 4-5 in and be fine.

Also, some of my plants in the bog will self divide to the point that there are 4 or more large plants within a 10cm x 10cm area.
 
I put around 40 plants in this big pot, after two years I unpotted them and had 115 plants.
This year I put 100 into an even bigger pot and the rest got potted separately.
JMatt

dsc01328yt0.jpg
 
JMatt said:
I put around 40 plants in this big pot, after two years I unpotted them and had 115 plants.
This year I put 100 into an even bigger pot and the rest got potted separately.
JMatt
Click to expand...
Hah! That's awesome. And they look extremely healthy!
 
hey! I have grown like 60 seedlings in a 4 inch small tupperware container. :p and they grew fantastic. However, there is the survival of the fittest..you will loose some individuals who cannot compete to get the realestate for light exposure. Hence nearly 20-30 seedlings were elongated and in bad shape which lost the fight for light exposure. However, now with seperation..they are growing a lot better.
 
That looks pretty cool. What size of pot is that and how big are the plants in the photo?
And sorry I have not responded prior. I am getting senile. I saw this thread and thought, "Hey! I started this one!."

:crazy:
JMatt said:
I put around 40 plants in this big pot, after two years I unpotted them and had 115 plants.
This year I put 100 into an even bigger pot and the rest got potted separately.
JMatt

dsc01328yt0.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Oh boy, sorry this is so late! I need to check things more often!
That pot of fly traps is about 18 inches to 2 ft across? I haven't measured it.
The plants are all full size. There are no dieing leaves because I just cleaned it up at that time for the NECPS show. All the taller summer leaves basically died back. Those are mostly lower growing fall leaves. The pot I have now is the same style and shape but even bigger.
JMatt
 
This is that same pot of fly traps the year before the other picture on here.
I think it looked better then, less crowded. Everything being repotted this year should do wonders for the plants.
JMatt

bigpotofflytrapstm0.jpg
 
that really is a beautiful pot of flytraps, I feel right now like I absolutely need to to do a bunch of leaf pullings so that I can have a ton and pot them all together like that...

wow. for sure.
 
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