Growing in poor conditions - Week 14
We’re at week 14 in our experiment into the effects of water quality on the growth of Venus flytraps. Our plants are looking good and have changed significantly since our last report.
Specimen A: low light, distilled water
The maximum trap size for specimen A, our distilled water fed plant, is now up to a whopping 35 mm, this is an 8 mm increase on the size when purchased. The strength of the leaf base of the traps seems to have improved, as they are now at approximately the same angle (30 deg. from vertical) that they were when new. There are now 17 traps, in comparison to the mere five present when the plant was purchased. So not only has the size of the traps increased, but their numbers have shot up too! This plant is coping very well in it’s dimly lit environment and the inside of it’s traps are looking a very nice red colour.
This plant has been manually fed one fly since the last report, it has not captured any prey on it’s own.
Specimen B: low light, tap water
Our low light tap water fed plant specimen B is also growing very strongly. The largest trap is now 37 mm across which is an 8 mm increase from the original 29 mm maximum at purchase which was still the largest sized trap after the six week mark. The traps are now back to the 30 deg. angle from vertical that it had when first purchased too (this indicates strong structure).
The plant now has a total of 17 traps in comparison to only 4 when purchased. The plant has captured two flies since the last report, one on it’s own and another was fed manually with tweezers.
So despite the constant feed of inferior tap water, this plant seems to be thriving! It’s traps are larger than Specimen A which was expected to grow stronger and faster than it’s tap water fed counterpart.
Specimen C: Control Plant, medium light, distilled water
Our control plant is the sickliest looking plant of our three test subjects. It is not looking healthy and has lost much of it’s red colouring from it’s traps. Another plant which is growing in exactly the same conditions is strong and healthy, but this particular specimen is suffering for some unknown reason.
As a control specimen this has been a failure. We will work to get this plant back on track, but it is slowly but steadily looking less healthy than the surrounding plants. The traps are drooping over the edge of the pot and after catching it’s last two flies, the traps died and turned black.