NatureScape - The End

[Tim Harrison]

Thanks @CooKieS On the whole it's transitioning quite well. There has been a lot of die off of the MC but the new growth is coming though and taking root. The Stauro has taken a bit of a hit as well, some leaves have started to turn brown and rot. The rest of the plants are growing well though, and so far no sign of the dreaded BBA.

by Tim Harrison, on Flickr

 

[CooKieS]

Looking great Tim.

Stauro is an tough one, don't worry if it dies, it can grow back anytime and if it does't you could always replace it with some eriocaulon for example.

Keep up the good work

 

[Ady34]

Looks like quite a lot of growth since planting.
MC and stauro may have taken a hit but there is definitely a lot more volume than the 20th December

 

[Onoma1]

Love the structure and flow of the wood in this scape. Can't wait to see it fully mature.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Thanks again @CooKieS, Stauro can be a bit temperamental. I've planted it before in fresh AS and it did exactly the same thing. Planted it in re-used AS and it was fine

Looks like quite a lot of growth since planting.

There is quite a lot of new growth Ady, but there is also a lot of die off too. I guess it's just a question of patience, waiting for it to transition

Love the structure and flow of the wood in this scape. Can't wait to see it fully mature.

Thanks, I intend to add some more plants to the foreground to provide a little more texture, but I'm going to wait until the MC carpet has transitioned and spread first.

 

[zozo]

Positive phototropism in action; I wish it would hurry up and flower before it grows too tall for the light...

by Tim Harrison, on Flickr

Beautifull flower spike, can't wait to see the actual flower.. Good choice not to cut it.. As the tut says, it takes a skilled flytrap grower to make it survive in cultivation after flowering. Than how do you ever get skilled with cutting off that flower?.

Good luck..

 

[zozo]

Haha, okay @CooKieS , you've got me there, I have to concede I can see what you're getting at now, but I wish I couldn't; snails not being my favourite, an' all
But on the other hand I suppose being compared to a snail ain't that bad since perhaps it means I may have got the golden ratio, or rule of thirds, intuitively right

I hear you!?...
https://physics.aps.org/story/v17/st8

 

[Tim Harrison]

Than how do you ever get skilled with cutting off that flower?.

Thanks Marcel, that's a very good point. I think there are 3 plants in total so if the worst come to the worst, I'll still have 2 left. I imagine the key will be feeding though. I'm still feeding them occasionally with tank water. See how it goes.

I hear you!?...

It seems strange that the same shape keeps cropping up in nature, and with different functions. I guess when it comes to form and function in nature there is a fundamental physics underlying 3.5 billion years of evolution.

 

[zozo]

I imagine the key will be feeding though. I'm still feeding them occasionally with tank water. See how it goes.

They like to make their own nitrogene from proteine and don't like nitrogene it at their roots. At least not in the form of salt.. Even tap water seems in many occasions to agrsive for them to handle. They can not utilize it fast enough and than it accumulates making the substrate, especialy with fertilized tank water, to salty in the end killing the plant.

Best changes for succes is strickly use rain, RO or Demi water and feed them sparsly with, if you can catch for them house flies or if you have froozen daphnia or bloodworn in the freezer. Than feed them that simmultaniosly with the fish. Just a tiny bit in the trap. The trap closes and it'll feed on that, it'll start disolving it with an enzyme produced by itself when the trap is triggered. It doesn't necessarily need to be a stincky moist pulp and risking a rotting process. If you take a little pot dried turtle food home from the LFS what ever it is probably dried mealworm etc. should do as well. Easier to apply and less messy. And small pot of turtle food lasts you an awfull long time.

But you have to make a buzzing sound when feeding them or else they wont accept it.. (I once told the kids and they did..)

It seems strange that the same shape keeps cropping up in nature, and with different functions. I guess when it comes to form and function in nature there is a fundamental physics underlying 3.5 billion years of evolution.

Maybe if we ever find out what life realy is we finaly understand.. Imho i think it has a long way to go, since life seems to be much more intelligent than we are in hiding secrets..

 

[Tim Harrison]

You're right of course, pretty much everything I've read on carnivorous plants puts great emphasis on not fertilising them, especially Venus flytraps. Some advocate a very weak foliar feed once a month at most.
Problem is foliar feeding can sometimes trigger the traps, and that's not good either since they die about the 3rd time around. Same with feeding insects etc.

So it's a bit of a cost benefit catch 22 situation. For instance, does the energy gained from feeding on an insect = the energy needed to close a trap, and digest it, and if need be grow a new catcher etc? Well I guess so, at least in the wild, but just as many growers tell you to not to feed them at all, neither insects nor fertiliser. But then the same folk may also tell you to cut the flower stalks off as well, so as not to cost the plant too much

Basically, I'm choosing to very cautiously ignore some of what I've read and conduct a little experiment to see if I can get it to grow through root uptake, without it loosing it's catchers, and so far mine has put out several new catchers. But I know, there's a distinct possibility that it could still end badly This is an interesting paper on the subject https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.13120

 

[zozo]

Indeed a very intersting paper.. Thanks for sharing..

They obviously also do root feed, since the nurseries that cultivate them start out and or even <sell young plants invitro on agar agar> or something like it. I guess, all carnivor plants if spread from seeds or grown from tissue culture start out as non carnivorous youngster depending in their roots. Can't imagine they lose this abillity and maturing and developing into exclusive carnivorous. Same can be seen with our famous young utricularia so small there yet aint a single utricle to find on it.

Me too, i'm still far from the skilled carni grower, till now what ever i tried and tried quite a lot different sp. at some point i failed by making mistakes. Caring it to death by beeing over protective, not giving it the correct invironment or killing it by neglect. Thus for me also i have to depend on a lot of theorizing my previous failed experiments.

Till now a i had the longest succeses with using exclusively distiled water.. And than i have to go into theory again also the longest succes on organic peat soil. Thinking it might have a beter biological culture in it. Than bateria converting the soil provide nutrients such as Nitrogen and maybe also some Ammonia for the plant to survive a while without catching anything. Than it might need a different approach if parts perlite and sand are used with less bioload.

Thinking about it, it raises the question never thought of before. What do the nurseries put into the agar agar when growing these plants invitro? There must be a fert scheme tut to be found about it that holds some clues.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Thinking about it, it raises the question never thought of before. What do the nurseries put into the agar agar when growing these plants invitro? There must be a fert scheme tut to be found about it that holds some clues.

It seems to be shrouded in mystery; tricks of the trade and all that malarky. They must be fairly easy to propagate since they are often available and cheap to buy. Perhaps the mythology behind the care of carnivorous plants has been generated by the trade so they don't last too long, therefore maintaining sales and perpetuating the industry. After all it's not an unheard of business model, and it's something we're all familiar with in the aquarium trade, both plants and critters...

 

[zozo]

The trade uses controlled greenhouses.. 90% of the public doesn't.. That might be 60% of the secret..

 

[Tim Harrison]

Just performed a 90% water change, and switched the Twinstar on, how about this for O2 saturation...

by Tim Harrison, on Flickr

 

[Ady34]

Fizzy

 

[Tim Harrison]

Finally got around to editing the planting video: NatureScape ReBoot Part 2 Planting...

 

[Ady34]

Great video, what do you use to film Tim?
Do you just edit with the Mac software?

 

[Tim Harrison]

Thanks Ady
I use my iPhone 8 to film, and yes I just use iMove to edit.

 

[Jayefc1]

Looking good mate and nice vid

 

[Tim Harrison]

Thanks @Jayefc1, meant to edit and publish the video a while ago, but somehow never got around to it.