Venus Flytrap growing

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.

Our experiment has entered it’s sixth week and will be shortly heading into the middle of the summer when they will be exposed to the most sun.

The test plants are looking fairly healthy but have lost some of the red colouration from their leaves in comparison to our control plant which is in a sunnier area. The maximum trap width of all of the test plants has not changed measurably so far.

Specimen A: Low light, distilled water

Specimen A, which is being watered with distilled water and grown in a low light environment is looking okay, but it’s leaf-base is weakening, causing the trap with the longest leaf-base (bottom right in above photo) to droop towards the ground. The initial angle was approximately 30 deg. from vertical, however it is now closer to 30 deg. from horizontal. This plant has grown an extra trap and a further three stems are growing. Unfortunately, one of the new stems has begun to turn black. A fly was fed manually to this plant one week ago, the trap is yet to re-open.

Specimen B: Low light, tap water

Speciment B, which is being watered with tap water was manually fed a fly one week ago, it’s trap is beginning to re-open. One of it’s traps was triggered, but did not catch a fly, this trap re-opened within 48 h. This plant still has three traps, but another trap is in the process of opening and another stem will probably be forming a trap soon.

Specimen C: Control Plant, medium light, distilled water

Our control plant speciment C, is looking nice and healthy and has caught a fly naturally and been fed one by hand, both times the traps re-opened within five days.  The red colouration in the leaves is not as intense as they were at the beginning of the experiment, but not hugely so. The total numbers of traps is still six, however their leaf-bases are noticeably longer than when purchased.

Conclusion

This is early days yet, so there’s not much that can be concluded from the results so far. However initial results are showing are indicating that the control plant (specimen C) is coping with it’s new environment better than the two test plants in dim light (specimens A and B). Specimen B which has been watered with tap water appears to be slightly healthier than specimen A which has been watered with distilled water.

Information will be posted here eventually with information about the amount and composition of dissolved solids in the tap and distilled water used for this experiment and the approximate daily average light intensity that the plants are exposed to. So check back later or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date with the experiments progress.

The Venus flytraps for “Growing in poor conditions” experiment have been purchased. We purchased them for NZ$10.99 from the “Red Barn” garden center in Dunedin, New Zealand. They have nice big red traps and are looking relatively healthy at the moment.

Specimen A: Distilled water

The total number of traps was five, three of which were elevated, two were sitting at soil level, plus two stems were forming new traps. The largest trap was 27 mm across. The maximum stem length was 80 mm.

Specimen B: Tap water

The total number of traps was four, two were elevated and two traps were at soil level. The largest trap was 29 mm across. The maximum stem length was 70 mm.

Specimen C: Control plant

The total number of traps was six, all were sitting at soil level, plus there were two new stems beginning to form traps. One of the traps had a black spot. The largest trap was 27 mm across. The maximum stem length was 28 mm.

Many of the experts claim that growing Venus flytraps in shaded, dry indoor areas is difficult/impossible. So here at flytrapgrowing.info we are going to conduct some experiments to demonstrate what effects poor conditions have on Venus flytraps. Many complete novices report having their flytraps survive torturous conditions, out of the sun, tap water, dead bugs and occasionally letting their plant dry up and yet still their plants survive and grow big red healthy looking traps.

We are going to purchase two brand new Venus flytraps from a garden center. The plants will placed in our high tech new Venus flytrap growing facility. The facility (my bedroom) is on the third floor of an inner-city apartment block and looks out onto a wonderful concrete building which blocks all direct sunlight bar the occasional smidgen in the morning. The plants will be kept at the perimeter of the building behind a pane of glass (my window sill). Neither of the plants will be stored in terrariums, but will be left to fend for themselves in their mildly dry environment.

Specimen A will be watered with distilled water whereas Specimen B will be watered with tap water. The tap water supply here in Dunedin is treated with both fluoride and chlorine and contains large amounts of dissolved solids. It is a relatively soft water supply however, hence doesn’t contain many of the dangerous cations such as calcium and magnesium which are known to negatively affect Venus flytraps. As a control test, we have purchased a third plant (specimen C) which will be kept in a sunny location inside a glass enclosure and will be watered using distilled water.

Reports on the progress of the three plants will be posted here regularly over the next year - assuming they don’t die before hand!

Most tap water supplies in first world nations is treated with chlorine and/or fluoride and often contain large amounts of calcium and magnesium. These chemicals are toxic to Venus flytraps, in fact they’re probably not much good for plants in general, but Venus flytraps are particularly sensitive to chemicals in their water supply and it’s use can slow down the growth of your flytrap and sometimes even kill it.

If your plant is kept outside and there’s plenty of rain water available then you wont have any problems. But if you are in a dry spell or your plant is kept inside, then it’s a good idea not to use tap water for your plant.

Other options instead of using tap water are:

• distilled water
• rain water - collecting from your roof is usually quite easy
• bottled filtered drinking water - expensive!
• filtered tap water - make sure it’s a good filter though

Filtered water normally contains some chemical residues, but not enough to cause grief for your Venus flytrap. Spring water often contains significant other minerals so isn’t recommended, but is still a better option than using tap water.