Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 01:21:02 -0500 (EST) From: RSbra123@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1050$foo@default> Subject: Re: Sarracenias
>Last week I returned my Sarracenias from their overwintering place to my
>room. They already start forming new pitchers, but last year's pitchers are
>still present and green. Should I remove the old pitchers to promote the
>growth of the new pitchers? Or should I just wait till they are dead? All
>advices are welcome.
>Mark van Kleunen
Another $.02 worth:
A few years ago I divided a clump of Darlingtonia into 8 or 10 plants. With
half of them I cut off all of the old pitchers and left the other half alone.
All the plants that had their pitchers cut off put out new traps for a
while and then they died. All the others lived.
I never had that drastic a problem with Sarracenias, though, and this year I
cut most of the traps off of one of my very hardy S. Rubras. It's flowering
and doing fine. Also I've noticed that Calif. Carnivours often has the old
traps cut off of their younger Sarrs. However, growing in a greenhouse the
pitchers aren't full of bugs.
Slack and others clearly state that the old traps are very valuable to the
plants. They worked all year to catch those bugs and apparently use the
nutrients and chlorophyll until they turn brown.
So you shouldn't cut off the old traps but you probably can get away with it
occasionally.
Ron Sbragia
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