Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 10:38:05 -0800 From: Doug <dburdic@presys.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg4736$foo@default> Subject: Re: dormant VFTs
Phil,
IMHO and also learned from tragic experiences over 30 year span of
growing carnivorous plants, overwintering any plant in a refrigerator
carries more risks than if you have them outside in a greenhouse. I say
this because I have lost hundreds of Dionaea and other cp due to extreme
temperature fluctuations during this artificially induced dormancy.
There is nothing more discouraging than to open your 'frig' one day and
find that your bag of formerly healthy vft rhizomes are now only good
for the compost pile because during the night, temperatures dropped
below freezing. If you are fortunate enough to have a new, state of the
art refrigeration system, this of course wouldn't be a problem. Also,
the location of the 'frig' is very crucial as I pointed out in my last
post i.e. in an unheated back room where the ambient air temperture may
only be 5 degrees cooler than it is outside. I felt that this was
important enough to mention on the list in hopes of preventing others
from losing their plants as I have when I first started growing cps in
the 60s. There are many variables to consider when putting plants
through dormancy in these conditions and one of the most important being
that the plants in question are 'insulated' by wrapping them in live
sphagnum, milled peat, whatever....before putting them in a sealed bag.
Even with this precaution taken, I have still lost plants in this
artificial environment when the temperatures got too low. Duration of
freezing temperatures is another factor. We all know of cases where our
pots have frozen outside during the winter and the plant comes through
it fine. It is the duration of this frozen state which important since
when the cellular contents of plant cells crystalize due to subfreezing
temperatures, it's pretty much all over.
You described your plants overwintering outside and having no problems
at all. This seems normal since I do the same thing here as well and
your climate zone is very similar to mine except that your night temps
are usually lower for a certain portion of the winter. Once again, it is
the duration of freezing that will take its tool on the dormant plant;
If allowed to thaw out and have moisture available to it before the next
freeze, depending upon the species, the chances are good that it will
suffer no damage. In nature of course, Dionaea are protected by the
natural insulation of the surrounding soil as opposed to what they
experience in a 3, 4 or 6 inch pot in our backyards, or what we put them
through in our refrigerators. Plants in smaller pots are in more danger
than plants in larger ones, because there is less media in the container
to act as insulation for the plants regardless of its' size. Throwing
the tarp over the plants at night is good....I do that myself at night
when we are in for some extremely low temps and this prevents the
reradiation of stored heat accumulated during the day. Sometimes it
works, sometimes it doesn't...just depends upon the low temperatures you
are dealing with at the time.
Did I leave anything out here? Probably... Take care and Happy Holidays.
Doug
========================================================================
Semanchuk, Phil J wrote:
>
> > I don't know how cold your 'crisper' gets, but mine
> > freezes when the temperature out side drops below 32.
> > (The frig is in the laundry room which is the
> > coldest room in the house anyway, so this is partly
> > the reason.) This could be the end of your VFTs, so
> > I wanted to mention it.
>
> Doug, are VFTs in an artificial environment like this more vulnerable to
> damage from freezing, or are you just being cautious? The reason I ask
> is because I left 8 or 9 VFTs outside last winter and they all came
> through just fine. Some were small plants in very tiny pots; I'm sure
> they must have frozen solid at some point. We had one stretch of a few
> days were the daytime high barely got above freezing, and during that
> time the only care I gave my plants was to throw a tarp over them at
> night. Due to lack of experience I wouldn't recommend this to everyone,
> but it didn't seem to hurt my plants a bit.
>
> FWIW I live in the North Carolina piedmont not far from the natural
> range of the VFT, so last winter in my back yard was pretty close to the
> weather they see in the wild.
>
> Phil
> URL du jour: http://www.431.org/toast/toasthaiku.html
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