Cultivation

Sunil Gupta (sg@monsoon.com)
Fri, 11 Sep 92 13:37:44 EDT

Hello all. I've been lurking on this list for a few weeks and have
just started a CP greenhouse. I ordered a selection of plants and
a Crystal Lite greenhouse from Peter Pauls, which I received and
planted yesterday. My only reference is the book I bought along with
the kit: "Carnivorous Plants of the World" by James and Patricia
Pietropaolo. It made for good reading but really didn't tell me
much about cultivation of the different species apart from
preferences to temperature and soil alkalinity. Included in the
kit was:

2 Sarracenia purpurea
2 Sarracenia rubra
2 Sarracenia leucophylla
2 Sarracenia pisttacina
3 Drosera capillaris
3 Butterworts (no species designation)
1 Darlingtonia califorinca
15 Venus Fly Trap bulbs 5-10 yrs. old

The planting media I used seemed to be a mixture of peat, sand and
vermiculite. I set up the greenhouse and planted all of species.
I then set up the wick-fed watering system. The soil was still
bone-dry after a few hours, so I poured a moderate amount of water
directly into the media. This produced the rather alarming effect of
floating some of the plants, so I left it at that for the night.
This morning I check the soil again, and it was still bone-dry.
I added more water but contemplated giving the whole thing a severe
soaking. Should I just leave it alone and let the watering system
do its job, continue to add moderate amounts of water, or just
douse it?

The Drosera and Pinguicula didn't have much of a root structure,
so I basically made cavities in the media and sat the plants in
them. Should I have, instead, buried the plants?

I really couldn't wait till spring to start gowing CP, but
I am now concerned about plant viability. What are the usual dormant
periods for the above species and will they have enough time to
establish themselves before the onset of dormancy?

Finally, I wish to expand my library of reference material on CP.
I've already sent for a subscription to CPN. Can anyone point me
to domestic mail order sources for Slack, Lowrie et al?

Sunil Gupta
Monsoon Software, Inc.
sg@monsoon.com