Help with dormancy solutions

[vraev]

Hi guys,

I plan on giving my flytraps their dormancy this year. I am thinking of leaving all the adults back at home in the garage.

How do I go about doing this?

- So basiaclly I just take my current vft pots, leave them in the garage... thats it?

- I remember that u need to keep the media DAMP. Now how often do u guys water in the garage dormant plants? i might be going back home only once in month or so. So wouldn't the media become bone dry?

- Can I just throw the pots out in my garden for the winter... let them freeze over and come back as many of yours in the bogs? Do u bother watering those?

What would u think is the easiest solution for me? I will not be home for a month or more. I don't want to tell my parents to do it as its extra trouble and I don't know if my mom will overwater the pots causing rot.

Is it better if I put the pots with plants with damp -> wet media in a plastic bag and then put it in the garage or outside? the humidity will stay put.

thanks,

v

[lloyd]

From what I gather, avoid:

-frequent freeze/thaw cycles

-extremes of wetness or dryness

-lack of "breathing"

[vraev]

so can throwing it outside hurt it ? I mean it once winter truly begins...it will be cold enough to probably keep it under 0 all the time. maybe I can put a lot of mulch with woodchips on the pot's media.

whereas garage seems sketchy...it looks like giving the fungus an open invitatio to set in.

[insectivore]

Hey!
Why don't you just throw them in the fridge??
Cya

[vraev]

well....I had bad experience with the fridge last time and just the fact that it is better to let them go into REAL dormancy by light and temperature rather than just suddenly put them in the fridge. Some ppl say this is just a way to PAUSE growing them but not give them dormancy. SO I guess I want to make sure the adults make it this time and come out with full vigor next season.

[Flytrap]

No need for fridges... we're blessed cause we're in Canada!

Fridges are for those poor saps living in the tropics

I leave my vfts outdoors all year. Some under a porch cover, most exposed to the weather. As long as the media doesn't go bone dry ( and it does during a deep freeze), the plants should survive.

Best to keep them in a cool, covered place with air circulation (like your garage). I also like to give it exposure to natural light (sometimes the sun shines on them directly during mid winter... but I hadn't paid close attention to see if it causes a high mortality or not).

I'd keep your garage wintered vfts a bit on the moist side...again, as long as there is air circulation. Or else the mould would get to them. My outside vfts are usually in a foot or so of rainwater, and have survived.

The only time I get a major vft kill is when we get an early spring thaw (warm sunny days for a couple of weeks or so), followed by another week of really cold weather. This freeze thaw definitely kills vfts (and sarracenias and darlingtonias). So, I've learned to keep the plants out of too much water during the early spring weather, and wait until later March before the plants get a real good soaking. As for the plants left outside underwater... they'd probably survive if I hadn't drained out the rainwater (cuz the cold water would maintain it's dormancy). I've had vfts survive after being encased in a block of ice for months.

If however, the water had been drained (and thus would experience an early warming of the soil), and the plant allowed to sprout green, a late unexpected Spring freeze /thaw would turn them all into mush.

[vraev]

welll the canadian weather seems really unpredictable now. My garage wouldn't probably get any air movement. Thats why I want to do this in sunlight and outside. In either case, I do have backups but I still would like to have my first successful VFT dormancy without any casualties.

ooh...In front of my door...I have like a 3 or 4 foot square that is under a roof. I live in a semi detached house. Now the light that reaches here is totally shade light. But I guess its outside and the temps would be low. I am guessing the air circulation would be intense as it is outside.

Would u think this is the best place ? But how regularly do u guys water ur VFTs in garages or in sheltered places during dormancy?

[Rick Hillier]

Back in 2000, I tried a solution similar to leaving them in the garage for the winter. In this case, it was one of those quick errect "sheds" (the one with the wood frame and tarpaulin cover that goes over the frame). This was errected in a 3-season florida room that is uninsulated.

I kept all of my sarracenia and others in pots outside in the summer and moved them into this structure for the winter. I used a small "sube" heater on a thermostat to keep the temps just a tad above freezing.

I should mention here that I had been successful for a couple of years doing this, but in the last year, the cube heater somehow got knocked over and shut itself off via its safety mechanism.

That winter, it got fairly cold as normal and with the heater not working, the room pretty much matched the temps outside.

I lost all of my CP except for a S. rubra jonesii and a large flava maxima. Everything else, including S. purp purp died.

I've never lost anything that was healthy in my bog garden, which I've overwintered using 12" or so of pine mulch. A study last year revealed that despite winter temps in the -30's celcius, the temps at the soil surface remained a constant -0.1C.

Now on to your problem... you might want to sink your pots into the ground and cover them with a big pile of leaves... I'll bet they'll come back nicely when you dig them out in the spring.

Myself, I'm going the fridge route. I'm going to just stick a couple of small aquariums in the fridge and put the plants, pots and all in them.

I will take a few cuttings of each clone without disturbing the plants and see what I can do with them.

>>> Rick <<<

[vraev]

sweet Rick! so I guess thats what I will be doing then. I am going to start preparing the burial place this weekend.

[sowinterwest]

Fly traps are natural to a small region of coastal NC and SC. Winter is very mild and doesn't freeze a lot. It's not good to leave them constantly cold or ever to freeze. Typically 50F is ok for them. I wouldn't recommend leaving them outdoors in Canada winter. Maybe just put them in the basement. They still depend on the light to photosynthesize even if you cut the traps off. So water and light, check. Fly traps are not as hearty as pitchers.

[vraev]

Yeah ! i actually put my 4 flytraps in the cold room of my basement where we store our perishable goods like onions, potatoes and dry spices etc.. its basically underground, non-heated. Temperature there is pretty consistent. It might be near subfreezing temps. Perfect for consistent coldness. However, the only issue is NO LIGHT. My mom apparently just put the plants like this in big blue tub and put it in the cold room



I got a good feeling of it...as long as mold doesn't form..I think they should be sleeping like a baby.

[insectivore]

What about the pings and droseras?
Cya

[vraev]

I removed the ping. I left the dielsians in there to see how they take dormancy and see if they can come back. lol!

[lloyd]

My sarr's and D. intermedia are in the dark, cold basement closet at 13C. My darlingtonia, VFT, S. purp & oreophila seedlings are under a year old and are still under lights.

[vraev]

I am pretty sure that the cold room should be in single digits. Probably maybe 4C or so. But the important part is it will be consistently so.