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miguel_sanchez_gw

VFT flowers/seeds

21 years ago

Howdy all!

I have a VFT that's about 3yrs old. It flowers once a year around springtime, with usually only 1 or 2 flower stalks.

This year it has 9 flower stalks growing, with 2 now finished flowering and 3 opening up, and the remaining 4 still growing taller.

The problem i have is getting any seeds from these flowers - after the each stalk finishes flowering, the white petals turn black and shrivel and the flower stalk eventually just dies after a few months, producing seemingly no seeds whatsoever.

Does anyone know how i can get my VFT to produce any seeds?

Another thing is, people always say to water CP's with either rain water or distilled water - i've always just used tapwater with apparantly no side-effects. Does it really matter what type of water i use?

thanks, Miguel

Comments (5)

  • 21 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Polinate them. You will need to know the parts of a flower, The Stigma and the Pollen things (cant rember the name) But you basicaly take a toothpick or a earwab and brush the pollen from one flower to the other, VFT's dont usualy self polonate but its been done b4, So you might want to try to get another one, or a 2nd Venusflytrap that you think's traits might loook good with another, for instance... lets say you have a bigmouth? Try crossing it with a Dente, that might look cool, you konw have fun with it experiment.

    (if you send them in to ICPS seed bank you get seed credits, then you can get seeds from them!)

    cheers

  • 21 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    The "Pollen things" are called "anthers". Pollination is easier done when you cross pollinate two different plants during blooming stage. If you are willing to get seed next growing season, just wait until each flower opens, if youre timing is right, then cross pollinate the flowers. After pollination, just wait until the seed capsule swells.
    Don't bother to rip it open, just wait about 5-6 weeks or until the seed exposes itself from the seed pods. Just check every day after 5-6 weeks after pollinating each flower.

  • 21 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Ok, this is my 'personal' pollination procedure. Everytime i allow my vfts to flower and get seed, i have to allow atleast 2 different plants to flower at once. I had the same experience as you did Miguel. "But from fires, you take burns." or say, We learn from our mistakes. I am sharing mine since i like giving the information i know so far. But Many people have their own ways to aquire seeds, this one is mine. It's like others but just a bit different.
    A single plants can be self pollinated, but two plants will most likely give you more chances to obtain more seed and nicer results.

    My personal polliantion procedure is the following;

    1)Ok, let's say you are allowing two different Vfts flower at once, just let each flower opens. Not all flowers will open at once, They open one by one, but the trick is this; SInce you are allowing two plants to flower, you will most likely have two or 3 small little white flowers opening at once right? Say 2 flowers from one plant, and one from the other plant.

    2)Now the procedure makes things easier. When you cross pollinate dionaea flower, you must use Pollen from their "Anthers" the anthers are located around the small nub in the center of each flower, The small nub in the center is called "Stigma". In order for the Stigma to recieve pollen from different flowers, the stigma must be "split or hairy looking"

    3)Say you have 3 small flowers opened at once, remember, 2 small flowers from one plant, 1 from the other plant.
    Now, you must use a small artists paint brush. The brush must aquire pollen from the "anthers". Ok, this is my trick;

    Before i gather pollen from each flower, i gather a small dish filled with distilled, purified, sodium free water. I gently dip the hairs of the small painting brush, i remove out from the water, then, after that, i squeeze the little hairs of the painting brush until it becomes a bit moist, this will make the small painting brush "sticky" and will be easier to gather pollen from the anthers and will prevent from getting blowned away as you pollinated the flowers.

    I do this, because sometimes when collecting pollen from the anthers, some pollen flies off from the painting brush. Plus, i get to use more pollen from the anthers.

    4)Next, just gather pollen from the anthers as the small paint brush remains moist. After Gather the Pollen from the anthers, hold the flower stalk gently and brush the other plant's flowers Stigma, Remember, we are cross pollinating, we are saying we are trying to pollinate two different flowers from two different plants. Make sure that the flower's stigma is split open before attempting to pollinate the flower.

    5)You this procedure until you don't have any more flowers. If only a flower remains un-pollinated and has its own pollen on its own anthers and has a split stigma of its own, then just pollinate it with its own Pollen. Dionaea Flowers will slowly shrivel after a day or two after pollination.

    6)After you are done cross pollinating the two plants, Just wait. Wait about 5-6 weeks and slowly inspect each flower Pod. It takes time for each flower to form a small "seed capsule". Inside this seed capsule, you will find the seeds. Just wait until the seed capsule swells and rips open by it self. Don't bother trying to open it which will result a disturbance while the seed capsule is producing seeds. You have to wait until the seed capsule rips open and reveals the seeds on its own, then after that, harvest the seeds. If the pollination went very well, Each seed capsule should contain about 15 - 25 small seeds.

    this last growing season, each small seed capsule gave me about 25-35 seeds in some flowers, i had about 15 flowers together with two different plants. In total i harvest about 100 something seeds, now the seeds are all small seedlings.

    Remember that Dionaea must recieve full sun as flowering, Dionaea must take full sun as flowering if you are willing to seek for seed credit. Atleast 4-6 hours of full sun during flowering stage. Sometimes when dionaea doesn't recieve enough sunlight during this flowering stage, the plant just gets weaker and doesn't give any seed.

  • 21 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Wow - thanks everyone, and thanks Xymox. BTW, my VFT is constantly in full sunlight on my windowsill, and needs to be watered everyday because of the heat in spring/summer. As i only have 1 VFT, i'll have to self pollinate it and see how it works out

  • 21 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Good luck.

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