VFTs in the UK

From: Elliot Smith (e.smith@cs.bham.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Jun 01 1999 - 02:55:44 PDT


Date: Tue, 01 Jun 1999 10:55:44 +0100
From: Elliot Smith <e.smith@cs.bham.ac.uk>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1931$foo@default>
Subject: VFTs in the UK

I'd like to add a few comments about VFTs, which I've been growing here
in Birmingham (UK). It seems to me they're a lot tougher than people
give them credit for, and that babying them probably does more harm than
good.

During the winter, mine were outdoors in a cold frame, only just damp,
although they occasionally got flooded (accidentally) and a couple of
times froze solid. Now it's summer, I've moved them into a large
propagator, where they're very wet, in full sunlight under glass. The
water level stays pretty high all the time, and sometimes covers their
pot so they're under water (though I don't leave them submerged for more
than a few hours). I remember reading somewhere that they are sometimes
flooded in the wild, and have been found with aquatic creatures in their
traps.

So far, no problems whatsoever, and they're all growing nice new
trapping leaves. By the way, these are all seedlings - I'd imagine that
adult plants would be even tougher. (My soil mix is moss peat:sharp sand
(1:1); I only use rainwater; and I've only fed them with gnats once in
the last year.)

So, my advice: don't be too kind to your VFTs: they won't thank you for
it.
 
Elliot Smith

--
School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham
email: e.smith@cs.bham.ac.uk
homepage: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~ezs/



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