Expert: Christopher Littrell - 7/30/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi Chris! I have several VFT. (Typical,Red and Green Dragon,Pink VFT,Royal Red and Dutch VFT) I'm getting married and have space concerns and was wondering? Would it be a good idea to combine some of my VFT into one pot. Thus, I would have a Green and Red Dragon in the same pot as well as a Pink and a Dutch. Most of my VFT are bareroot. Thank you in advance for any useful information! Giovanni

ANSWER: Hi Giovanni,

Congratulations on you marriage!

Venus Flytraps often live in clumps in the wild and grow multiple plants off from the main root system. Living in close proximity will not be a big problem for them. When you repot them together, just make sure their pots are about 5-6 inches in size to give them some growing space. If you use a 5 inch pot, you might fit 2-3 together, a 6 inch pot might fit up to about 3-4 adults plants while giving each a couple of inches of space to grow. The difference between wild growing and domestic plants in pots is that you need to be more watchful of fungus and infections, so having some space between the plants in a larger pot helps to keep air and light on all parts of the plants to keep the incidence of infections down. It is also easier to detect insect pests like aphids when the plants are seperated a few inches. All of the cultivars require the same conditions of the typical Flytrap since they are just slight genetic variations, like dog breeds, so living together in one pot will not cause any problems.

When you go on your honeymoon don't forget to find a way to keep your plants watered and well lit.

Christopher

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Christopher, thank you for all your help, you're awsome! I understand that I must remove a leaf pulling along with the white tissue near the base of my VFT for vegetative propagation. Once I have removed the leaf pulling what do I do to start vegetative propagation and should I wait since most of my plants are only 2 to 3 years old? Thank you again for all your help! Giovanni

Answer
Hello Giovanni,

Yes, a leaf pulling is one way to propagate many plants including Venus Flytraps. As you read up, you just pull the leaf down until a strip of white rhizome tissue pulls off with the entire leaf. Choose a good, mature, healthy leaf for this method. You can use root hormone on the white section of the leaf and use some fungicide on the plant and leaf to keep mold off while they recover and start growing. Leaf pullings can then be placed on Venus Flytrap soil, with a little soil just barely sprinkled over them, and kept moist. This method will produce several plants in a few months. The method you described is also shown here at this site with the relevant information:

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2505.html

As the site indicates, you might want to wait for the plants to grow for a while and become as healthy as possible before doing this as it might weaken them slightly while they recover. You can also wait for rhizome divisions of the adult plants which will produce clumps of multiple plants. Just wait a couple of years and when you see multiple crowns, you can dig up the adult plants and see if any of the crowns are loose and well formed enough to remove. Leave any crowns that are difficult to remove and that do not have their own roots growing out.

Good luck with propagating your Venus Flytraps.

Christopher