Interesting changes in a VFT

[vraev]

Hi guys,

As you all know ..I am the VFT nut on these forums . I noticed interesting changes in my plants through from september to january based on feeding the plants.

I noticed that when I started feeding the plants with crickets and worms in october...nearly all fed traps blackened and died...most weren't even red at all.

Now however, the new traps get pretty red considering the low light i am growing them in....and almost 95% of all the fed traps reopen with dry exoskeletons in them.

I have noticed these in all subsequent feedings...the more the plant gets insects...the more lethal its traps become....its as if the plant is adapting....."If it gets insects...it will spend resources to make its traps strong with working digestive glands"...whereas a plant that has been growing for a while WITHOUT insects (especially when they come off tissue culture)....has traps which are more opportunistic than waiting to suck the juices off its prey.

Basically..the more fed a plant is = the more it spends resources on making better quality traps = more leaves = less dead leaves after a feeding = STRONGER PLANT

I also noticed that as I re-obtained a lot more water once I came back from uni...the plants have got a better humidity level ...around 70% + since I am trying to keep some polytrica moss alive and green as a carpet....the traps of the VFT are AMAZING in responsiveness. It has been a little over a month since my last feeding...its almost like the plants are craving for a meal...I called my family (my father, mother and brother) as I fed 2 wax worms to the nep....and 5 crickets + 1 wax worm to the flytraps. Each flytrap has got 2 meals....except the dentate which again got a leftover small dead cricket (sorry walmart dentate ). It looks like once my other plants come out of dormancy ..I got to buy like 15 or so crickets to feed them all

I tell ya...i can't wait to see if the dormancy plants recover once I take them out near the end of this month....Thinking about it its kinda going be a real busy and frantic terrarium considering that 1 green dragon, 1 typical, 1 dentate + 1 baby dentate fly traps are going to come out of dormancy along with a sarr. The sar is going to be the hard one to put somewhere...I know they need immense amounts of sunlight...so I am actually considering getting it back home and planting it in a small container and leaving it outside in the sun...hopefully there will be enough rain to keep it alive when I will be at uni.

anyways ....thanks for reading...I wish you all a happy new year again.

cheers,

varun

[lloyd]

How do you avoid the crickets jumping all over the place? Do you squish them a bit first? I never used crickets because I was worried they would eat the plants if they escaped.

[vraev]

lol...acutallly I hold them with tweezers and then put them in the trap....the trap closes in less than a 1/5 of a sec. Its pretty fast. I actually tried something...I let go of a cricket near a trap opening of the B52 and the cricket ran past the trigger hairs....almost near the other side of the trap and then the trap immediately shut....it was amazingly fast....the VFT is amazing at catching fast bugs....a true testiment is this video::

www.karnivores.com ...go to carnivores page.

The only thing that disappoints me a little is when I put the tweezers inside the trap and it closes shut.....then to take out the tweezers I have to let it loose and its kinda like taking a hook painfully from a fish's mouth...its probably me being a baby about my plants....but I cant help it.

[vraev]

Another interesting change I noticed is this::::


The VFT is infact moving...lol! I know it might seem lame for u guys...but lol! its moving towards the glass...I am already wondering if my terrrarium is getting small

cheers,

var

[Syble]

um...define moving?
Sib

[insectivore]

I agree with you Sib... Don't see what your talking about!
Cya

[curlingguy]

I think that maybe the plants are moving a bit as they corkcrew in the ground due to the twisting nature of the bulb growth. If soil softer on one side maybe moving torwards that side??

[funkytechnician]

I think he means the trap portion of the forming leaf is begining to streighten out at such an early stage of leafs development, these leaves are Ok though, it is how the shorter summer leaves form.

[mabudon]

Yeah, it kinda looks like the plant is angling towards the light source- the sun moving throught the sky as summer approaches should correct that, most of my windowsill plants are leaning a bit, including my Ceph and my Heliamphora, but the sun is getting higher every day and they will be fine..

If that's not what you meant, Varun, sorry

Either way tho, your little plants are looking pretty darn nice man, if I had pics of my VFTs I could give you a better idea of just how good a job you're doing with them keep up the great work!! Oh and don't worry about having to get the tweezers out of the trap, unless you tear the leaves, the plant won't mind, and I've seen eve kinda ripped traps do okay- I'm sure you're being gentle so you have nothing to fear

[vraev]

lol guys! By moving I mean .........look at the pointing. Initially the plant's growth was all from that top point where the old leaves are.....but now...the growth point of the leaves are at a little distance away from it. In other words I am saying that the central point from where the leaves come out is moving as the plant grows.......The whole purpose of me making this post is I was wondering taht the plant that was eventually planted in the center would move to the glass.

BTW...thanks for the feedback Carl. yeah! remember all those days early on when I was frustrated about lights and so on....now its like I am having a regular plant which however takes only distilled water ...lol! Its amazing how well they grow once u get the conditions in the right window.

[vraev]

LESSON LEARNT THE HARD WAY:

DO NOT OVER FEED A VENUS FLY TRAP. ALL TRAPS WILL BLACKEN AND ROT

damn! months of traps gone becos of a stupid attempt. Well! lesson learnt.

I have to cut off 5 traps off the B52, 4 off the typical, 3 off the red dragon. The traps are rotting with black and also a white powdery coating which is obviously fungus. To prevent it from spreading....I am cutting off all those traps only and leaving the leaf blade part which can still provide energy. My VFT's are on a diet in febuary ....no bugs for them. march will see the arrival of bugs. I guess from now I will stick to maximum 2 bugs to a plant at once.

[mabudon]

Okay, I will NOT laugh too hard Varun- and the only funny thing is how freakishly enthusiastic you are, I was kinda thinking you might run into problems when you posted about getting a big ol bag of bugs and hand-feeding your collection- I know how bad you want MONSTER, mega healthy plants and I can clearly picture you feeding the plants thinking "soon I will have a GRAND ARMY"

Feeding them is a good idea, but I did have a feeling you were going a tad overboard- Crickets especially, I think they have enough fat or something in them that they make a good ground for growing all sorts of nasty stuff- also, even tho a bug can FIT in a trap, it doesn't necessarily mean that the trap will be able to actually EAT the thing completely.. I prefer soft-bodied, small stuff if I'm gonna actually bother to feed my VFTs, stuff where the trap can easily "seal" the outer edge... I find that the only time my plants have trouble eating is when ANY air can be exchanged between the inside of the trap and the exterior, so you might want to use that as a guideline in the future..

Whenever there's arms/legs sticking out, I find the trap almost ALWAYS rots away before even finishing its "supper"

On the plus side, the plants should return with a spurt of vigorous growth to replace the spent traps, so in a few weeks you should be ahead of where you were before this setback

Just make sure to keep everything good and clean and you should have no further problems, and sory to hear about having to trim your babies, I know it can be hard

[lloyd]

I find my VFT's do well on big carpenter ants which wander in from the garden. They catch them on their own.

[Syble]

I wouldn't worry too much vraev. Eventually those traps would rot and die anyways, typically a single crown plant is only supposed to have upwards of a half dozen leaves or something like that. I wouldn't be surprized if your getting a flush of growth. I usually just trim the blackend traps off if they are getting attaced by some kinda fungus. I don't want it to spread or anything. Key things to remember when feeding is like mabudon says, make sure it's completely in the trap. That being said, my Dentes love daddy long legs when their outside and they never have the legs in the trap, yet they don't rot? go figure. Seams to be a rule of thumb in doors though, maybe it has something to do with sunlight and breeze who knows. Also, if you want to keep traps on the plant, feed them only once then. A healthy trap should be able to eat a few times (providing it's not being triggered for no reason). I presonally tend to feed my traps fishfood, just because it's easy, Live food they seam to have no problem catching outside on their own! Also for me personally, I keep my plants on a feeding schedual to encourage growth. I want big and vigorous plants! Nay I crave em! Many of my young pitchers don't have lids because it's easier to feed them with out em so I cut them off.
Sib

[vraev]

lol! Mabudon! I know this may sound wierd but I just love nature....I love animals, plants.... I always wanted a pet....but was never allowed to have one except for a aquarium 3 yrs ago for like 4 yrs. This is my first true piece of nature in my room under my control....You have no idea how I love these things.....I am careful enough not to water anywhere on the traps so that I might accidentally trip them off. I love these things too much. That is why I keep posting pics and so on...I am soo happy to see them take off like this.

However, the traps you see have taken 4 months to form. There are 2 traps pn the B52 which are just starting to blacken due to old age from like 3 months ago. The thing is I can already see 4 new leaves forming which will bring back the leaf count of the B52 to 10 again...but if only I wasn't soo hasty...I would have finally seen like 15-18 leaves on my plant.

The typical will again end up with like 8 and the red dragon with like 7 or so.

The point is the crickets were the right size...I think I overfed them to a point where they are unable to digest all of the meals at the same time ..leading to blackening and rot. And those were are those beautiful blood red traps. The new ones are a little washed out.....its interesting how the base layer of traps are normally more red than the top ones.