U. macrorhiza flowering

[sgardner]

I decided to put a bowl of U. macrorhiza in the house in a southern facing window, the plants went nuts and completely filled the bowl. I looked the other day and the plants are sending up more than a dozen flower stalks. Below is a pic of an open flower. This is the first time i have had an aquatic utric bloom besides the plants i introduced into my ponds.

 

[jimscott]

Waaaaay Kewl!!! Great job! Other than what we see, what have you done to achieve this? I can't get U. gibba to flower if my life depended upon it!

 

[sgardner]

I grabbed a hand full of the macrorhiza out of my pond about two months ago, i intended to send them to Ozzy but it was too heavy to pack with the other plants i sent him so i tossed the clump in the brandi snifter and filled it with distilled water. I set it in a southern window and forgot about it.

I have had vulgaris bloom for me in a similar set up and a long time ago i had inflata bloom in a shallower dish.
Gibba will bloom but i found the trick to be mud. Put the gibba in a shallow dish with a peat slurry, and put it in a well lit window and it will bloom like mad, some times it has to be warmed by a heating pad to trigger the blooming.

 

[jimscott]

Mud? I can do that! Any type of mud in particular? Still interested in a certain sundew?

 

[sgardner]

U. gibba seems to try and flower when it sences that its pond is drying up. I normally grow it in the bottom of my tanks woven around the bottoms of the pots, but if i want it to flower i put it in a shallow dish of peat and distilled water. I mix enough water into the peat to make it a slurry, i then throw the gibba on top, but bed it enough to keep it under the water. put it in a warm well lit area and it will start to flower. I have never had as many blooms as i see on plants in the wild but it blooms good. I have observed that gibba will also bloom if it is suspended by algea, it is quite an interesting plant and very ugly in the wild. You should try macrorhiza, it is easier to grow and blooms better.
By the way i have several plants with your name on them including that certain Drosera.

 

[Capensis]

Nice

 

[Drosera36]

Hey that's pretty cool. Do ya know if aquatic Utricularia do as well under lights as they do on windowsills?

-Ben

 

[sgardner]

I grow gibba in my grow tanks under T5 lights but i have never tried any others. naturally macrorhiza grows in thick tulees and does not get much light so i wiould assume it would do ok as long as it was good light. If you want to experiment i can donate to the cause

 

[Drosera36]

I prolly shoulda asked this in the PM, but how close do ya grow the U. gibba to the T5's?

Thanks,
-Ben

 

[sgardner]

The gibba is about 24 to 36 inches away from the lights.