Richard,
I planted 30 seeds in December of '95 and had 20 germinate. 5 have since
slowly wasted away (damping off?) and appear to have become part of the
soil/moss. :(
My very first traps were active as soon as the spines had developed. At the
time, I could not figure how or what to feed them as the traps were so
small. This problem took care of it's self when the plants began catching
springtails. Virtually every trap since then has caught at least 2 or 3 of
the springtails. It won't be long until the traps are large enough that the
springtails will quit triggering the traps. At that point I guess I'll be
feeding them cold ants...something I dislike as many of them always seem to
escape, leaving the traps with one less closure (meal) in the future.
Growing baby VFT's almost makes up for the sense of loss experienced when
killing all those VFT's as a teenager :)
John Walker