Some purchase from Germany

I've order some plants from overseas and here's one of the package. The beautiful VFT came as small bare roots. I also have some seeds given as a bonus too. I am very appreciative to the sender.

3 new additions to my VFT collection. I think it's time to put up a grow list.

Fondue
Wacky Trap
Kurze Zähne

My package from Germany, was fast, about a week.

I was pretty happy they were packed nicely in proper packing, papers as cushion, bare roots wrap with wet towels seals in zip lock bag.


Fondue


Kurze Zähne


Wacky Trap


They are small plants for now. But when they mature. I know they'll look great!

Big Mouth X Big Mouth plantlet strikes

This Rhizome & Roots of a seed grown Big Mouth X Big Mouth finally strikes! Out of the 3 pulling, Red Piranha was the fastest, followed by this fella. Dantate x Dantate Seed grown cutting hasn't stike yet. But it's still all green.

4 Angles of the same Rhizome.



So this is how they stike out of the rhizome



At first I wasn't sure if it was the LFS or a Stike, but they were coming out of the rhizome


Last pic

Drosera Seeds germination!

Sorry another Drosera story in the VFT photo sub forum.

A nice guy send me some Drosera seeds and out of the 3 type, 2 type germinated! He send me a lot of seeds and I turn over the container and tab a few times to let the seeds loose their static sticking to the plastic container. So I don't know how many were in the soil.

Sown 3rd April 2013
Drosera Intermedia cuba - Germinated 23 April 2013
Drosera Burmannii - Germinated 24 April 2013
Drosera Spatulata - unable to crack yet

D. Burmannii : I counted about 5 for now. The Measurement bar is 1 mm apart. So this fella is about 0.3mm


D. Burmannii : Another 2 more



Drosera Intermedia cuba : PLENTY!! Maybe 10 over little fellas



Drosera Intermedia cuba : Some very closed up ones.
This is the biggest seedling, and I like it best.


This one still has it's seed pod intact


This one like to stick it's butt out :lol:

Cupped Trap plantlet strike...

Last time, I thought I saw some tiny green stuff on the soil where my other cupped rhizome was sitting it. But it was gone when I took a closer look. Now it's really there! grab my camera excitedly and confirmed there's a strike!

'Cupped Trap' puts up 2 leaves!
The measurement bar behind represent 1mm each.


Really small I would say

Photo Inspirations....

I was inspired by Fattytuna's awesome photos where his CP stands out from dark. I followed his method in attempting to achieve the dark background. However it's still doesn't stand out like how well he did with his CPs.

Dionaea muscipula

Traps: I won't bite........... yet

The biggest pot o'mine

More VFT Photo updates....

I was monitoring Shark Teeth's new traps and notice they develop quite fast. Probably is a desperate measure from itself. Knowing it's 4 only traps are going to withered thus the 10 young traps.

Shark Teeth: Was this a desperate growth?


Day 153, "Fittest" has grown more. Now I notice the cilia were getting more "normal" than it's first trap's cilia. The measurement is in mm. So it's about 5mm across.


Another view of "Fittest"



Comparing to day 100, First trap cilia

Preparing peat moss ......

I went to buy more Peat Moss as I thought I would need more soon. i prepared the soil medium early so I could have the soil ready by then.

I took a closer look at my general supermarket's common item "Horti Moss" and confirmed that it's suitable for VFT. Funny I interpreted wrongly the last time of partially decompose sphagnum as partially sphagnum. Well good to know I'm using the right now.

I bought a really cheap cloth protection against washing machine abuse and it worked well holding the medium during the rinse process. 

Horti Moss

Horti Moss first rinse

Perlite first rinse

Random updates...

Just some random updates on a few plants

'Red Piranha'


Drosera Tokaiensis


Cephalotus follicularis

Shark Teeth plantlets strike!

I also realised recently that multiple grow also happen to my shark teeth but not as many. Last month, I split my shark teeth rhizome into 2, recently and the older rhizome has only about 4 existing traps, they look very weak but probably due to stress of repoting and splitting. I feed a bug to the last open trap and now there seems to be 4-5 little greens poking out of the soil. I also don't know if it was the feeding or summer's magic.

There is 2 from this photo



3 more from this angle omitting the big one on the right, there is 2 together on the left and 1 in the middle.

Apr Sky Diving!

It was really exciting! I was trimming my traps off the dead leaf when my 4 months girl wail away. I hurried to put back my pot where 'Red Piranha' and "Fittest" sits, and they topple over?... and roll off the window!!  While my heart skip a beat, I swear I could hear both of them (vft) shouting weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........ as if they just hopped off for sky diving!!   :shock: 

I hurried down stairs , went into the bushes and took a very long time looking for them, first I found back 1 tag "Fittest", then "Red sky diver" was resting on a big rock with no soil left. Found 1! I almost wanted to cry out for not being able to find "Fittest". I was pissed and had to take care of my girl so I went back upstairs with the end of my precious "Fittest", lost... forever!!! I thought to myself for being so careless, I wasn't angry but just very sad. My very first VFT and also one and only seed grown. LOST! 

I went back up to repot the "Red Sky Diver", I'll call my this particular 'Red Piranha' that now! Sadly sitting alone in the pot with no company. I place in a water tray while I clean up the mess at the window. Picked up some soil and turn it over. OMG!! [color=#0000FF]"Fittest's" ass is still stuck in that compact chuck of soil!![/color]  :lol:  He didn't had a part of the fun! So I said to it, "I thought I lost you" and quickly make some room in the same pot for "Fittest". 

Now they are happily sitting together again. "Red Sky Diver" and "Fittest"   Now, no more dangerous stunt fellas! 

Total lost : A cup worth of peat/perlite and 1 tag, almost lost my heart. 

Red Piranha pulling has a strike!

A Good news and a Bad news.

Start with the good first... The 'Red Piranha' pulling I took earlier when I was repoting has a stike! I don't see the callus but I only see s small trap popping up lol. Looks kinda funny. This is my very first strike after a few attempts, quite happy for now. Also gives me the opportunity to observe how they form.

'Red Piranha' pulling
A stapler bullet for reference, bullet has a dimension of 5mm by 10mm


Looks like the trap is developing.


I took a closer look but did not see callus, looks like the part the trap pops up was from the darker centre of the rhizome. I wonder if that is the ideal part where they make new traps. Kinda make sense but I don't know. I also wonders if pulling don't strike with callus was normal since I've been seeing post with callus.



Now the bad news. I've sown some fused teeth seeds and Drosera seeds in peat/perlite. Not sure if covering them has cause mold to form. I'm quite unhappy over mold forming especially on Dionaea M. seeds as I face same issue before mentioned earlier in this same thread. I went to rub off the mold from about 6 Dionaea M. seeds and resow them. I hope they germinate soon.

Ranting over space, everyone need more grow space!

I did mentioned before that space was a problem at home. That's because in Singapore, most of us stay in "Pigeon hole apartments" which has a small area and usually above ground level, so there is also no place for green house :(

An example of a layout of an apartment taken from internet. The dimension are in mm - millimetres and area size is approx 90m² - Meter square. Land is scarce on this Island.



I also mentioned in another post that I was rejected directly in my face for suggesting a grow rack :( . Now all my plants are still able to grow in some trays by the window but I don't know for how long. If I want to keep them permanently or expand the collection, I either have to win a war at home or filled my windows with plants! :evil:

This is a sad area to grow my plants, all my windows are 24° NE facing and they get like 2-3 hours of direct sun due to high rise building blocking while the sun rises. But they still get indirect sun light for the rest of the day.



Well if I lose a battle. I had a back up plan for expansion... I might need to use my mum's little green patch outside her house. Been eyeing that space for a while. But there is too many people and pets moving around that worries me.

Clayton's Red Sunset burning!

I'm not sure if it was the extreme stress or the sun that is burning my Clayton's Red Sunset. I also don't think there were any chemicals in the soil, probably the lack of sun on and off over the month and sudden sun. But if it's not the case and if it goes on. I'm going to left with "Tish no sunset". 

Burns here, there, everywhere... 

8 April "Fittest" update...

"Fittest" has been growing pretty well. I counted 7 traps in total and there should be 8 but the very first one could have withered. If you have follow my post from page 1. "Fittest" is my very first seed grown when I started this hobby, bought from Ebay, sent from Indonesia as the Stamp indicated :)

"Fittest" Day 138



'Cupped Trap' from CZPlant



'Red Piranha' from FlyTrapStore




A Typical with big traps from World Farm, I see "Fusing cilia"