Question
QUESTION: I have some Sarracenia that I've grown from seeds.  Some are getting close to two inches now with around 5 pitchers each.  This is the first time I've grown these.  They are in a terrarium right now.  Should I uncover them or plant them in their own pots?

ANSWER: Hello Jason,

First off, harden them to your home humidity. There was no reason to grow them in a terrarium at all. At two inches, it sounds like you have had them for over a year. They will be fine for a couple of years of constant growing, but after that, each winter, they will require a dormancy period where they will need to remain cold and in short day length conditions of under 8 hours of sunlight a day.

Hardening them to lower humdity takes time, but is relatively simple. Just open the cover to the terrarium a fraction of an inch and brace it open with a pencil or other small object. Wait about three days, then brace it open it a little more, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 an inch at time. In about two weeks, it should be open over 2 inches and can be completely left uncovered.

You can repot them as you wish. At their age, they will be fine with close living space and indoor lighting from windows and florescent lights. It will be preferable to repot them within another year though, maybe next spring, so that you can place them in better lighting and water them appropriately. Terrariums are notoriously bad for carnivorous plants in that they promote fungus, which kills young plants easily, and cannot drain well enough for bog plants. Once you get them in pots, make sure they have 1/4 to 1/2 the pot bottom in water in a large watering tray so that you can monitor their water level and allow for good drainage and water movement.

As a reference, I grew over 70 Sarracenia from seed in simple plastic pots, no humidity covers, under florescent lights. The adults, now over 5 years old, are still going strong. There is often no need to grow most carnivorous plants in terrariums or under humidity domes.

Sarracenias are full sun plants, so make sure to get them under very strong florescent lights, around 12000 to 18000 to start with, until they get about 4 inches tall. They will need to be placed outside in full sun, or at least a sunny window and florescent lights of around 30000 or higher lumens, as they get larger so that they will obtain the energy they need to attain adulthood.

Christopher

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

QUESTION: I've been watering my pitchers with distilled water and was wondering if it was safe to use our cities tap water? I've copied the city's water analysis.

Alkalinity as CaCO3 54.30 mg/l
Aluminum 31.00 ug/l
Anitomy 1.00 ug/l
Arsenic 1.00 ug/l
Barium 16.00 ug/l
Beryllium 1.00 ug/l
Cadmium 1.00 ug/l
Calcium 22.00 mg/l
Chloride 6.10 mg/l
Chromium 1.90 ug/l
Copper 1.00 ug/l
Corrosivity 0.52 Li
Fluoride 0.83 mg/l
Iron 0.010 mg/l
Lead 1.00 ug/l
magnesium 3.00 mg/l
Manganese 1.00 ug/l
Mercury 0.50 ug/l
Nickel 1.00 ug/l
Nitrate (N)0.13 mg/l
Potassium 3.40 mg/l
Selenium 1.00 ug/l
Silica 8.40 mg/l
Silver 1.00 ug/l
Sodium 8.60 mg/l
Specific Conductivity 190.00 umho/cm
Sulfate 33.00 mg/l
Thallium 1.00 ug/l
Total Dissolved 120.00 mg/l

Solids

Total Hardness 68.00 mg/l
Total Phosphorus 0.065 mg/l
Turbidity 0.15 NTU
Zinc 0.005 mg/l
pH 9.00 pH Units

Thanks for your help. I'll probably be asking more question.

Answer
Hello Jason,

This is good information. The readout indicates that the water is just a little hard for carnivorous plants in general, that is the total hardness number of 68.00. That number shows how many particles of minerals and dissolved solids are in the water. Those are the things we do not want in carnivorous plant soil as they modify the pH level from 5-7 to higher levels of over 9. As we can see, the water has a pH level of 9. When the pH level increases, it changes the soil and allows for bacterial action to commence, creating a root destroying cycle for carnivorous plants that cannot absorb much nitrogen with their roots. Sarracenias are able to handle a little more hardness in their soil than many other carnivorous plants, but always err on the safe side and make sure that those minerals will not build up and cause a problem.

In most cases, 50 parts per million of total hardness is the limit for carnivorous plants. Distilled water would have virtually 0 and reverse osmosis water usually has only a fraction, like .01. You can supplement your distilled or reverse osmosis water by adding about half a gallon of tap water to half a gallon of distilled water so that the total hardness is further diluted. You could also just get a water softening filter that does not use salt. Anything that removes calcium, magnesium, and other particles of minerals from the water without adding anything else to the water is a good thing. Those filters might not remove everything, but if they remove even half of the minerals, they would certainly help. You can get a fish tank pH test kit from a fish or pet store and use it to test you water supply yourself after you have tried varying methods to lower the hardness. I use the kits with about 50 or 100 strips that you can just dip in the water and then watch for the color code that shows each aspect of tainting that water may contain.

The main things to reduce in your tap water would be the sodium, calcium, sulfate and alkalinity. The water is neutral in alkalinity, but the lower the better. This is done by removing the pesky calcium and other minerals.