About the Finn in the other end of the cable

Thursday, February 10, 2011

New seeds and gemmae

8th of February arrived the seeds od D. oblanceolata 'Sunset Peak Hong Kong', D. burmannii and D. sp. 'South Africa'. Packet also contained gemmae of D. paleacea subsp. rosea. Thanks to Tobias Kulig. Packet arrived well packed and in good condition.

Pretty nervous because first time I ordered gemmae. I hope they will grow fast into new plants.

Friday, February 04, 2011

Dormancy for temperate plants

Dormancy has been difficult thing for me to fulfil. In the first year with this hobby none of my temperate plants survived through the dormancy. In those days my worst enemy was mold which destroyed my venus flytrap and two Sarracenia pitcher plants. This year it seems that my temperate plants are alive. Here are my dormant VFT's

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This is my Dionaea muscipula, the venus flytrap. This is currenly better out of two of these plants I've got. Both of my plants burnt pretty badly in midsummer heat. The tempatures were over +30 celsius(86 fahrenheit) which is very rare over here.

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This is the plant that I'm not satified with. It was under the same canditions as the better one for the whole summer. Still this plant made only long erect leaves. I'm not so sure if this plant is going to make it because it has no chlorophyll visible in it's dormant stage. I didn't take any pictures of Sarracenia psittacina, because it hasn't changed at all since I left it in refridgerator. I only trimmed the dead leaves and thats all.

Current technique that I use to my plants to make them survive dormancy is very simple. Take a small plastic bag and put some living sphagnum moss on the bottom of the bag. After that spray it with water only to moisten it up but not soggy wet. After that the plant goes on the top of it. Then put some moist living sphagnum moss on the plant's media and on the plant too. Close the plastic bag and put it in refridgerator. Watering happens by spraying living sphagnum moss with water. It will give enough moisture to the plant to survive. I've found this way to be the most succesful way so far and seen no mold!

If this way really works properly maybe I dare to start collecting Sarracenias and maybe to get some more temperate plants.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

First post

Hello. I'm 16 year old boy from eastern Finland. In this blog I'm going to write about my carnivorous plants. On the internet you can find me under such user names as Jigsaw (used on Finnish forums) or Deadly Weapon (in CPUK forum). For me growing carnivorous plants is a very relaxing hobby. I dont really remember when I found these carnivorous plants. When I was a child I used to go to a bog near my house. Of course there were sundews and i used to pick them up and put in glass jars. That was then but in nowadays I'm growing 21 different species of carnivorous plants. Being a student is very stressful but luckily I have a hobby which keeps my feet on the ground. I also grow some orchids and chilies but my primary interest are carnivorous plants.