Vft "dente" natural division rate?

[curtisconners]

Good afternoon, terraforums. I have a "dente" vft and when I repotted it this spring I found out that I had more than ten! I couldn't count them all, but all except one were seedling sized. In your experience, how often does dente divide? Thanks in advance.

 

[fredg]

10 divisions at seedling size says to me that it's a TC plant. Nothing natural there then.

 

[curtisconners]

Do tissue culture plants divide more readily, or do they divide in tissue culture?

 

[hcarlton]

Tissue culture plants are heavily influenced by artificially high hormones for the first several months of their explant life, so yes they grow and especially divide at unnaturally high rates.

 

[curtisconners]

Now I get it. Well, I'm not complaining. Still though, how often do vft's divide on average?

 

[mmlr38]

Tissue culture plants are heavily influenced by artificially high hormones for the first several months of their explant life, so yes they grow and especially divide at unnaturally high rates.

That's not entirely true. While hormones are commonly used for many plants in tissue culture, I do lots of tissue culture on flytraps and never use hormones. They simply divide more frequently in tissue culture because conditions are ideal and they have no pests or diseases to deal with.

 

[curtisconners]

Either way, it appears that tissue culture has given me a bazillion divisions of dente. Back to my other question though, what is the average division rate of a vft under optimal conditions?

 

[mmlr38]

what is the average division rate of a vft under optimal conditions?

There are far too many variables that control the rate of division of venus flytraps to give a reasonable answer to that question. Some varieties can produce dozens and dozens of divisions each year. Other varieties rarely produce even one division each year. However, I'd guess that the median number of divisions produced by adult flytraps each year (growing in our climate) is somewhere between 5 and 7. In areas with longer growing seasons and more bugs, the median could be much higher.