I posted previously how my Venus Fly Traps (VFTs) are in full swing and how they are loving the summer-like weather in the middle of spring. VFTs are easy to grow but they grow slowly. It takes about five years for it to fully mature if you grow them from seed. It is however, very rewarding to see them when they are fully grown given their unique characteristics compared to other plants. In this post, I will share the different methods of propagating them. The VFTs that I am about to show are the typical ones. You can find other cultivars in the Internet and they have the same growing requirements like the typical ones.
Before I proceed to VFT propagating methods, I want to reiterate the growing medium that I am about to use. I posted before my carnivorous plant planting media and I will also use that in this tutorial. Make sure that your media is very very moist but not overflowing with water. It is also important to put them in a humid environment.
FROM SEED
This is probably the most common method for starters. The seeds are very small and you need to scatter them over the planting media. Gently cover them with a very thin layer of peat.
If I said earlier that growing VFTs are slow, germinating the seeds also takes time. I had some before that took about five months to germinate, I read stories in Facebook groups about seeds germinating after a year, so long that the person have already lose hope it will germinate at all.
If you are just starting to grow VFTs (you currently don’t have one), I suggest you buy a full-grown one instead, unless your patience is impeccable. When you have a mature VFT and the conditions for growing them are really just right, you can use that plant to grow more VFTs using the succeeding methods.
BY FLOWER STALK
It is common to hear VFT growers saying that you should cut their flowers because flowering uses a lot of VFTs’ energy and they should be channelling those energies to develop more leaves and their root systems. I also read that instead of just throwing away those flower stalks, you can grow them the way you grow those leaf cuttings. I haven’t tried it before and I am doing it now to see whether that method will work for me.
BY LEAF CUTTING
In this method, you take a leaf from your mature VFT and plant it into a moist medium. Make sure that when you pull the leaf, you include the rhizome at the bottom. It is better if also got some bits of roots. If it doesn't have roots, the rhizome will develop its own root system given the right growing conditions.
BY DIVISION
When you have mature VFTs, you can also try this method, which is the one I personally prefer. This method is like the leaf pulling method, but instead of pulling leaves, you actually divide the mature plant into two or more plants. What is important in this method is ensuring that each individual plant has established its own root system so when it has settled into its own planting medium, it can focus on developing new growths. As a matter of practice, what I do usually is to take out the mature plant and just check around the plant new smaller growths and pull them out. In this manner, I still have the fully mature mother plant which can spur new growths around itself.
PLANT TISSUE CULTURE
I think this will be the best way to propagate not just VFTs but other plants as well (though it may NOT work on all plants) especially if you are looking to have a lot of plants. Some garden places and nurseries do this practice because this method is more economically viable when producing plants commercially.
It is not simple though, as you need to have a sterile environment so not as to contaminate your plants and the medium where they need to grow. This method can be likened to cloning the plants.
Among the VFT propagation methods, this is the one I haven't done myself. I am planning to give it a try. There are lots of resources available in the Internet and it doesn't require a commercial laboratory to make it possible.
There you go folks, I hope you learn something from that tutorials. I will post another update how did my methods go. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I appreciate your feedback by commenting below.
Originally posted on Leoneil. Steem blog powered by ENGRAVE.