Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 18:21:16 -0500 From: Brian Cooley <cooley@golden.adams.net> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1853$foo@default> Subject: Re: Introduction and question
mark.fisher@tpwd.state.tx.us wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> My name is Mark Fisher, and I am a new subscriber from Austin, Texas.
> I am a marine biologist with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, in
> the marine fisheries division. I would love to hear from any other
> CPers in the Austin area. I am an experienced aquarist, both fresh
> and salt water. I also have a small backyard pond. I enjoy growing
> aquatic plants, orchids, and cp.
>
> I have a 6' x 8' greenhouse, where I keep all the Gulf coast
> Sarracenias (except oreophila) several Droseras (capensis, filiformis
> traceyi, adelae, and spathulata) and VFT. I will get my first
> Nepenthes soon. I started growing cp last summer, and my collection
> is slowly growing.
>
> I grow my cp in 50/50 sand/peat, with the pots standing in 1-2 cm of
> rain water. A humidifier keeps the greenhouse above 50% humidity, and
> excessive heat is controlled by a combination of venting, shade cloth,
> and a small cooling unit. Winter is almost too mild to mention. My
> orchids, Sarracenias and Droseras are very happy there.
>
> However, my VFTs are not happy. The leaves typically turn black and
> die from the base up, but sometimes the trap dies first. This occurs
> within 3-4 weeks of transplanting out of the 2" pots from the dealer
> into a 4" pot. Or, when I get them bare root, from Lee's Botanical
> Gardens. The entire plant is gone in about a week or two. One local
> dealer, an orchid specialist, tells me VFTs cannot take full sun, and
> grow theirs in the darker, cooler part of the greenhouse in front of
> the water wall. Their VFT's do very well--large red traps, and most
> are now blooming. I now have mine in the back of my greenhouse, where
> it is less bright, but this is counter to what I have read and heard.
>
> Do VFT's need to be kept out of direct sun for a few weeks after
> transplanting? Mine are doing well in the back with the Droseras and
> the orchids, but they will need to move out of their 2" pots soon, and
> I don't want to kill these. The Sarracenias do very well in the
> brighter front (blooms, growth, etc.), but a transplanted VFT has
> never survived here.
>
> Any advice?
> I get down to Texas every year and I didn't know that there were any
native CPs. I was just up in Indiana. I suppose there are some up
there that I didn't know about too. Please tell me of a good sight to
look at them, in Texas.
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