Question
Hi, I have a plant that looks like a Scarlet Belle. I got it from Home Depot and it was labeled Sweet Pitcher. It had 10 pitchers on it last year.I foliar sprayed it with a solution of Brassinolide, Indole acetic acid, Gibberellic Acid(GA3), and Triacontanol in addition to other organic fertilizers and Compound Amino Acids. It is now producing over 30 pitchers. The problem is that I do not know what normal pitcher production for these guys are. Do you know? I'd like to compare to see weather or not I am having any effect on it. I do know for a fact that the GA3 brought it out of dormancy.
Thank you.

Answer
Hi Erin,

While growth hormones are useful with other plants, avoid using it with carnivorous plants.  These plants process hormones much differently than regular plants.  

For instance, GA3 is mostly used with woody plants and causes stem growth.  Since Sarracenia do not produce stems, GA3 will cause malformation of the rhizome instead.  The rhizome will elongate upwards as if it were trying to produce a stem. While this may be interesting, it poses a problem come winter time because parts of the rhizome will now be exposed to the cold and become prone to disease and dehydration.

The other issue with using hormones is that it increases tissue metabolism, hence rapid growth.  The problem with carnivorous plants is that they absorb nearly all of their nutrients through their leaves, which isn't as efficient as absorbing nutrients through the roots.  Even with a foliar spray, there is only a limited amount you can spray on the leaves without burning them.  Because of the limited amounts of nutrients carnivorous plants can absorb, they will eventually be in a state of malnutrition with regular use of hormones.

We've experimented with various hormones several years ago with disastrous results.  Sundews and flytraps faired the worst.  The Sarracenia developed odd rhizome growth, but eventually recovered the following year.  The hormones also caused malformed flowers on many of our plants.

Even on seeds, we stopped using GA3.  While it improved germination rate, the seedlings were not as healthy or robust as seedlings that were allowed to germinate naturally without GA3.

So I'd discontinue using hormones on your plant.  While regular plants can process additional hormones, carnivorous plants simply don't handle hormones very well in the long term.  

Good growing!
Jacob Farin