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Pictures of my plants - help ID?

Ridetsu

Gamer
hey folks,

I've been away for a super long time, but I usually stroll through and look at stuff every now and again. Having just lost my job, I find myself with an abundance of time, so here's some pictures of my plants 'n such! If you could help me ID them, I'd be grateful... I've always just called them "big mouth", but have no idea what their actual type is.
Note: I've been growing these plants for about 6-8 years. I have only ever propagated them through their own cloning process, and dividing up the new clone bulbs from the original. I've never really let them seed before and tried to work with it.

here's the group. Sorry for big pictures (but kinda not sorry at the same time)
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This one has a tall red buzztoothed VFT in it. Very difficult to grow. It also has the longest living big mouth of my collection (I call her the Matron) - which is probably close to 6-8 years old.
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Here's some tall green ones with a buzz-tooth trap that only ever gets pink instead of red. I bought a clump of about 3-4 jammed in a plastic death trap at a Home Depot and nursed them back to life. Two years later I have this!
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Here's a pot full of the big mouth bushy ones. I regret how little space I gave them, and they often fight with eachother over territory. Next year I'll try to space them out more or find some other solution for the bushy ones. They grow very horizontal, so any advice on a good planting method for them would be appreciated.
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SEED QUESTION
So here they are about 2 weeks ago. They were ready to burst with seed so I harvested them. I planted them a week ago without doing any stratifying since they would have essentially dropped their seeds at the end of July, and I figured there's no way they could last through a cold period in the wild like that. I just kind of put them on some peat moss/sand mixture and have been monitoring them. Should I have tried to stratify them? I've heard differing opinions on this issue, and used this as a guide: http://www.flytrapcare.com/growing-venus-flytraps-from-seeds.html
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The seed harvest. So many seeds...
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When you divide the big mouths, let me know to see if we can work out a trade for a division. They are gorgeous!

Good Growing,
Kenny
 
Most of your plants, if they were taken from Lowes or Home Depot, even if they have huge traps (like one clone I have from the "Death Cubes") they can't be labeled as anything other than typical flytraps. Sure, you can always label them for personal records, but they won't be identifiable without background info. The short-toothed red one, however, I would bet is 'Red Piranha,' since that's a pretty common red dentate. As for the seeds, no, flytraps have no need for stratification.
 
Most of your plants, if they were taken from Lowes or Home Depot, even if they have huge traps (like one clone I have from the "Death Cubes") they can't be labeled as anything other than typical flytraps. Sure, you can always label them for personal records, but they won't be identifiable without background info. The short-toothed red one, however, I would bet is 'Red Piranha,' since that's a pretty common red dentate. As for the seeds, no, flytraps have no need for stratification.

sorry, some clarity - only the tall green ones with the pink traps are from a big department store. The bushy big mouth ones and the (potentially) red piranha are from an online site I ordered them off of 6-8 years ago. I only ordered 2 of each, and over the years the big mouth ones have grown like weeds, while my numbers fluctuate with the red piranha.

Thanks for the info on the stratification - I couldn't imagine seeds that get dropped in late July would need to go through stratification, but some places say they need to. Always good to make sure where experts reside ;)
 
Most of your plants, if they were taken from Lowes or Home Depot, even if they have huge traps (like one clone I have from the "Death Cubes") they can't be labeled as anything other than typical flytraps. Sure, you can always label them for personal records, but they won't be identifiable without background info. The short-toothed red one, however, I would bet is 'Red Piranha,' since that's a pretty common red dentate. As for the seeds, no, flytraps have no need for stratification.

These plants are not the typical vfts for sure. The dionaea muscipula have a very strict specie description and theses plants doesnt fit at all. When you dont know what cultivar you have, you have to name it unknow clone.
Even if one look like red piranha, the more you can do is name the plant Dionaea 'red piranha' F5
If the background can be found, then its a real red piranha, like the plants we have here i think :)
And by the way, your plants are beautiful! Very well grown.

For the stratification, from my experience and what i read from many experts, yes its a very good thing. In fact, when you stratify your seeds, you raise the germination rate by 60%

For example, in this thread:

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?134332-Unknow-dionaea-seeds-growing-challenge

I had 30 germinations on 30 seeds. You can read my saga :-D
 
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Odd, I never stratify seeds and will get nearly 100% germination...... considering they can be dropped anywhere from late May to August, depending on where you live, I would assume the seeds that germinate only after a stratification, would likely have to be some sort of backup, in case the plants that sprouted in late summer/fall didn't make it.
 
Sometimes the seeds has been stratified by the vendor before.
Anyway, we are all differents growers with differents experiences. I think its normal, and this made us learning from others everydays.
 
The buzz-tooth plant with the tall leaves (image three) looks like a Dionaea "Dentate Traps", based on my personal observations with my own plant: it produces spring leaves readily and doesn't color up as much as something such as a "Cupped Trap" plant. (If you're looking for a really colorful mutant flytrap, I can recommend that to you. It colors so easily!)
 
  • #10
I love the short leaf big trap look!!!!!
 
  • #11
Update.

So I decided not to stratify them. I wish I had a % of success rate... but... well... see for yourself.
Prep work: Some plastic containers with holes drilled into the bottom and the lids. Kept soil moist and humidity/airflow pretty good. I tried to spread them out as evenly as I could with a spoon, but it didn't work as well as planned. There were hundreds of seeds, so I just used a bulk solution of trying shake a few off at a time into an area.
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Germinated on: 8-10
First set of pictures taken: 9-4. There are about 325+ sprouts. 142, 104, 112.
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Second set of pictures taken on 10-9. I am incapable of counting them, but I don't see any die-off, so I assume the count is still 325+
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I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all. This is my first seed harvest, and these numbers are just crazy. I think next year I'll harvest seeds, but give them away or something. I'm kind of scratching my head wondering what I'm going to do with all these youngins.
 
  • #12
Whats your soil mixture made up of? Your fly traps look flawless!
 
  • #13
Whats your soil mixture made up of? Your fly traps look flawless!

Thank you!
I use Sphagnum Peat Moss and playground sand. Both found at Home Depot. The sand isn't soapy, but I give it a once-over rinsing just to make sure. I've tried vermiculite, but I dislike working with the stuff since it is so dusty.

I don't know if I'm allowed to recommend brands, but I use the following:
Lakeland Peat Moss
Sakrete Natural play sand.
75% peat Moss to about 25% sand. Then I usually add more sand in if the texture still feels too loose. I like firmer soil.
 
  • #14
Question for Maiden

How long for the stratification of the seeds is required, and surely this can be done in a freeze? So as to increase the success rate is the success rate based on the duration in the freezer. Can it be do in 24hr to 7 days what to the experts say?

Noddy
 
  • #15
Question for Maiden

How long for the stratification of the seeds is required, and surely this can be done in a freeze? So as to increase the success rate is the success rate based on the duration in the freezer. Can it be do in 24hr to 7 days what to the experts say?

Noddy

I don't know if I qualify as expert, but as the pictures show, no stratification at all certainly works.
 
  • #16
Hi Ridetsu

Yes no stratification is required, however I read that if you do yield increases by 60%... I am testing this as we speak... seeds in the freezer ;-)
 
  • #17
very nice plants look great
 
  • #18
Noddy- I would be wary of putting seeds in the freezer under stratification conditions (dark and wet). While I know some are able to be stored dry under freezing conditions, I've heard a number of times about how stratifying species in the freezer can kill seeds. flytraps aren't subject to constant frozen temperatures in the wild either, only occasional hard frosts or rare snow. Fridges work fine, and don't run the risk of cold-snap-killing the seeds.
 
  • #19
HI Hcarlton

I have had some in the freezer since last week, as an experiment. Proof is in doing I guess.

I'll do the fridge too, but I think that's going to take a while... idea I thought was it helps to break down the wax coating ...

Anyone else tried to increase the yield this way?
 
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