Intro (& VFTs)

Ernest Crvich (calsstu@vt.edu)
Thu, 17 Feb 1994 16:34:15 -0500

Well, I've waited a week or so before posting this, just to get a feel
for the sort of topics being discussed. This should give all the prolific
growers an opportunity to point and laugh. After reading this you may
wonder why I would bother subscribing. Well, I *do* care about my *one*
plant, and I figure I may have questions about it. I've looked for help in
texts, but what I found was hideously brief and subsequently not very helpful.

Anyway, the aforementioned *one* plant I have is (surprise, surprise) a
venus flytrap (Dionaea something?). For several weeks after purchasing and
acclimatizing it, none of the traps functioned. Finally, new growth
appeared, the existing traps slowly blackened and died away. The first few
traps to appear were small (perhaps 0.25 to 0.5 inches across), and closed
very slowly when activated. In time, though, new stems produced larger
traps, and they closed much quicker. All part of getting used to the new
soil, water (distilled, natch), light?

I grow them in pure peat (though I plan on changing to live sphagnum
this spring...a good move?), in a pot-in-a-bowl (i.e., I keep water in the
bowl to maintain peat moistness). I've noticed other growths in the
peat...several tiny green moss-like plants, as well as some dark green (also
tiny) "puckered" objects (hard to describe). I also seem to have an
incredible infestation of some insect in the soil...armies of tiny
fast-moving silvery things...they don't fly and they don't seem to be
harming the plant, but the soil is literally seething with them.

I've had the plant for about one year now. Just over the winter, I put
the pot-and-bowl unit into the refrigerator (temp=42! F). (left it in for
about 2.5 months) I took it out just this past weekend and it has already
started putting forth new growth. Can I expect flowering (I'm showing my
complete ignorance here...they flower like most plants, right?) this year,
and are these plants able to pollinate themselves (I forget the botanical
term for this)?

If anyone sees anything wrong with my growing practices, or can help
with any of the mysteries plaguing me, I'd appreciate a response [preferably
designed to be interpreted by a humble novice such as myself].

Thank you (in part for reading this far).

--
Ernest M. Crvich                          Primordial egg retains
Blacksburg, VA                            Consciousness unborn
general@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu                   Pre-personal perfection
crvich@csugrad.cs.vt.edu                  Bliss's screen yet untorn