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Carnivorous selection

Aqua360

Member
Joined
15 Feb 2016
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2,176
Location
UK
Hi all, using a flexi mini to house a small selection of carnivorous plants, including species of drosera (sundew), bladderwort and butterworts.

I'm using RO as per the guide on carnivorous plants, and selected these ones carefully as they aren't likely to need an essential dormant phase like VFT's or sarracenia, however I'm still learning; so it'll be interesting to see if these do well.

The lighting on the Flexi are superb, so I have high hopes; the sundews are glistening and the butterwort is starting to flower so fingers crossed.

Let me know what you guys think, and thoughts on humidity etc from those with experience! :)
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Some more close-ups, the utricularia I think looks a bit unhealthy, hoping it perks up

I have a simmular looking on the window sil. Utricularia blanchetii 'Chapada Diamantina'
It flowered like mad all summer long standing smack dab in the sun south faced window. Now the period gets shorter and less intens i see less flowering and older flower stems slowly withering away. I guess the flowers don't live forever and the flower production decreases when ligh demand is not met.

I'm trying to grow the same plant in a paludarium setup recieving day light and artificial light. Supposedly 2400 lumen.. It lives, it grows, but it has a hard time flowering. They are absolute light/sun worshippers. Loads of sun and even tho terrestrial still loads of (demi) water during this periode.

Same story for the much bigger sister Utricularia Alpina standing next to it, has a hard time flowering because it gets no direct sun.
 
I have a simmular looking on the window sil. Utricularia blanchetii 'Chapada Diamantina'
It flowered like mad all summer long standing smack dab in the sun south faced window. Now the period gets shorter and less intens i see less flowering and older flower stems slowly withering away. I guess the flowers don't live forever and the flower production decreases when ligh demand is not met.

I'm trying to grow the same plant in a paludarium setup recieving day light and artificial light. Supposedly 2400 lumen.. It lives, it grows, but it has a hard time flowering. They are absolute light/sun worshippers. Loads of sun and even tho terrestrial still loads of (demi) water during this periode.

Same story for the much bigger sister Utricularia Alpina standing next to it, has a hard time flowering because it gets no direct sun.

Do the organisms it feeds on develop in the pot under it, or do they need manual feeding aid? I've got bloodworm for the rest in case they don't catch anything regularly
 
Do the organisms it feeds on develop in the pot under it, or do they need manual feeding aid? I've got bloodworm for the rest in case they don't catch anything regularly

No they feed on micro organisme and likely in symbiosys with nitrifying bacteria in the soil. It's name is derived from Utriculus that can be translated as Small Bag or in our common name for the genus "Bladder"(wort). It's this bladder it uses to catch its prey. In aquatic varieties it uses a suction reflex when the hairs on the bladder are triggered. If the hair is touched the bladder rapitly expands followed by contraction again and sucks in the micro organisme that swam by and triggered it. Awsome!

In the terrestrial form these bladders are mostly subterranean.. These don't have that expanding and contraction mechanisme and work opportunisticaly i guess. Maybe excrete some juices that attrackt bugs. I dunno.

Some larger sp. in the genus occasionaly show bladders above ground. Such as the U. Alpina does shown in the pic bellow a big and a small bladder. The small one i've seen appear it wasn't there when it moved in with me. And i can touch it as much as i like it doesn't react with beeing touched. Thus i develloped the theory that they might actualy must have a different strategy than the aqautic var. I don't see it sucking air that hard that all flies in.. :) (Would be nice than it could make itslef usefull for once and vacuum clean the room.)
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