Question
Hi, I have several sundews, bladderworts, and mexican butterworts. They have all been growing under artificial lighting for as long as I have had them (around a year) and are growing extremely fast. However, none of them are growing seeds or even flower stalks. I was wondering if there is anything I could do to help promote flower/seed growth in the spring and summer. They really don't catch any bug, and I haven't used any dilute fertilizers.

Thanks for all the help,
Aaron

Answer
Hi Aaron,

There's a couple things you can do to help encourage flowers.  The first you mentioned is to fertilize.  If they are catching no insects, spray them every other week with a very weak fertilizer of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of an orchid fertilizer.  Spray just enough to wet the leaves.  When selecting the fertilizer, find one that is low phosphorous (middle number) and urea free.  Look at the ingredient list under nitrogen, and it should say "Ammonical nitrogen or Nitrate nitrogen".

The other thing that may help is to vary your photoperiod on the plants.  Give them a 15 hour day in the summer, and drop it down to 9-10 hours in the winter.  Many of these plants are from sub-tropical areas, and they do see changes in daylight hours that initiates blooming.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com