Question

Sarracenia hybrid   QUESTION: well, I have a lot of questions, I hope you don't mind, but if you think they're just too stupid or you just don't feel like answering them, don't.

My first question is if it would be possible to give full sun to D. aliciae, D. spathulata and D. burmanii.

Also, I saw on your website that pygmy sundews require full sun, but in the care sheet, you say to give them about 4 hrs of direct sunlight and lots of indirect sunlight for the rest of the day, I just got a bit confused there

Another thing I wanted to ask you was why can't I ask follow up questions, the last 2 or 3 times I tried, I couldn't.

One other thing I wanted to ask you, was if you could recognize this Sarracenia hybrid. I know it gas some S purpurea in it, but I know nothiong more, I also came to think it was a Sarracenia 'Cobra Nest'

now that we are talkin of pictures, how can I put more than 1 pic when I ask a question?

I know S purpurea takes rainwater into its pitchers, so if I have one or a hybrid related to it, should I pour water into it?

I know you sell, CD and DVD and even seeds worldwide, but do you sell perlite worldwide? I find it very hard to get that down here in Mexico.

Also, I had been waiting for the seeds for about the whole year, why didn't you have any this year? I hope nothing ate them like in the case of your aquatic Utricularia, or that you droped them, that has happened to me and I find it very annoying.

Can I use a Sarracenia flower to pollinate it with the same flower, or do I have to cross pollinate them in order to get seeds?

now, i got this fungiside that says its made up with copper oxychloride, I know copper is bad for my plants but so far it is the only one I can get. I've used it in several plants and I have not lost one to the fungiside. So, what's worse, the copper-based fungiside or the fungus?

Is a fungiside made up with Cu2SO4 or CuSO4 be considered a copper-based fungiside, or a sulfure-based fungiside? a guy told me in a forum that in this case, the properties of the copper change.

a guy I know gave me some "germinator," something like magic powdor that makes your Sarracenia seeds be able to germinate without stratification (also with other seeds)

I read in a book that to byblis seeds need scarification, like Drosophyllum seeds, and that one way to scarify them is to put them on wet peat moss and boil it or make the substrate very hot. is that true? does that work with Drosophyllum seeds too?

Also, i have a pygmy sundew and I was wondering if I could place the gemmae in the frige like seeds, or should I sow them as soon as possible?

I said earlier that I could not find peatmoss eassily, well, I found a mix of peatmoss and perlite, but it also has limestone, is it safe to use on my CPs?

OK, this is my last question, if you read so far, thank you, if you think you are just too tired and mad at me then don't even read the next question. it is very stupid, but I am still doubtfull:

I have heard (and seen) that people are constantly making new varieties of Dionaea. They change the colour, the size and even the shape. One thing that surprized me a lot, was when you said that the Dionaea 'Red Dragon' can also tolerate colder temperatures then the other varieties of the venus flytrap. so, would it be ever possible to develop a tropical variety of the venus flytrap? or one that can tolerate less water (may be short, dry periods of time)?

ANSWER: Hi Alonso,

It is quite a few questions, but very good ones.

The sundews you mentioned definitely like full sun.  I re-read the care directions and it's referring to what most people experience in their homes.  Four hours is a good sunny window.  More sun is great.  One additional thing I would mention is that Drosera aliciae likes temperatures a bit cooler, but still enjoys full sun.  D. burmanii and D. spatulata do great in sunny warm conditions.

Did you try to submit the questions during a time when we were set for vacations?  Allexperts won't accept questions when an expert is on vacation.  Otherwise, they may have been experiencing some problems.  I noticed some folks were showing that they had never read their answers, so that made me wonder if something was up.

Your Sarracenia hybrid looks like a purpurea x rubra cross of some kind.  I don't think it's Cobra Nest since Cobra Nest has much more down-turned hoods.

With pictures, I think that the way Allexperts is set up you can only submit one picture at a time.  It may be a server memory thing.  Allexperts handles thousands of questions on any given day.

We should be able to ship perlite since it's an inert substance.  Check with Jacob through the website.  You can also use pumice or washed sand in place of perlite.  I would think that pumice would be available in Mexico since you have volcanic areas.  We use perlite because it is available here, and it's light.  It keeps our shipping costs lower.  If we used sand, shipping costs would double.

We probably won't have any seeds generally available this year.  Submit an e-mail through the website and direct it to me.  Tell me what you are looking for and I can see what we have in storage still.  I think we have several Sarracenia and hardy sundews.

With pollinating Sarracenia flowers, you definitely need two different flowers.   Sometimes you can cross two different flowers on the same plant, but it's better if you have two different plants.  Sarracenia hybridize so easily that it doesn't really matter which two species you cross pollinate.

I would say experiment with caution with the copper fungicides.  Here I find that the copper fungicides are used primarily as a tree spray rather than for herbaceous plants.  See if you can control the fungal growth other ways first, by top-watering, more sun, etc...  See if you can find wettable sulfur powder that can be mixed with water.  This tends to be a very inexpensive product, and should be common.

My guess that the germinator powder you have is gibberellic acid.  It works, but follow the directions carefully.  We used it once with Sarracenia and it worked, but had zero luck with Drosophyllum.  I had much better luck with seed scarification with Drosophyllum just by rubbing the side of a seed with sandpaper.  Byblis gigantea has large seeds also, so they should respond well to the same treatment.  I personally haven't used the boiling water method with these species.  We did it with Hawaiian Koa tree seeds and got about 4 germinations out of 100.

Sow your gemmae as soon as possible.  They have a short lifespan.

You don't want limestone in cp mixes except for some Mexican butterworts.  It makes the soil alkaline which they don't like.

You bring up a very interesting question, one I've thought of myself, with Venus flytraps.  It would take several years of selective breeding of seed-grown plants to see if you could develop one that had little to no dormancy.  I know it's happened with some Drosera.  The Hawaiian Drosera anglica is just such a plant.  They think they got to Kauai on the feathers of Snowy plovers.  Over time the plant adapted to no dormancy.

Good Growing!

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



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

QUESTION: Hi Jeff,

well, thanx very much for answering my questions. I still have the doubt of pouring water in my Sarracenia hybrid as well as to wether CuS04 or Cu2SO4 would be considered either a sulfor or copper based fungiside. Nevertheless thank you very much for the info. I'll sure write to ask about the seeds.

A thousand times, thanx,

Alonso

Answer
Hi Alsono,

You're welcome!  The fungicide you have is copper sulfate and is sometimes called Bordeaux mix.  It is definitely a copper fungicide.  Sulfur fungicides have just elemental sulfur as their main ingredient.

I got your e-mail about the seeds.  I'll look tonight and see what we have.  I'll let you know.  There's no problem with shipping seeds out of the country.

Good Growing!

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