Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

To make the actual traps bigger, you set off one trigger,wait a good minute and a half, then do it again.When the first hair is touched, it sends a hormone throughout the plant to start 'growing'. I typically dont do it all the time now,since i work alot, but once a day even keeps the beetles at bay! Also, i know another little trick to make an overall vigorous plant. venus flytraps arent like cobra lillies, in other words, they like their roots hot. You can use black aquarium tank pebbles as a top dressing;or u can use black glass pebbles. Anything black and shiny will work, because black absorbs sunlight. I did both of those techniques when i wasnt working last year, and i was greatly rewarded with a burst in trap size and growth. I got the info from cobraplant.com, which they are in portland, OR.They have a disk that gives you anything you want to know on CPs.Anyways my new flytraps are in the windowsill, and will sit there for dormancy.They get there trigger hairs touched every once and a while, but next years growth with be even bigger. Happy growing Vin~

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

Reply to thee!!!

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

Hi Vincent,

Im not understand what you means by "To make the actual traps bigger, you set off one trigger,wait a good minute and a half, then do it again.". Can you please explain more on this?

Im looking forward for any way to increase my VFT trap size. Now, biggest at my garden is 3.5cm.

Thanx...

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

Huh...?They like their roots hot?Won't they rot?

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

Can i know the normal room temperature over in your place please, to make it hot, it might be make it warm for you, but for us in Malaysia, we might be "baking" the root with the same temperature, thanks:1thumbup:

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

ok. Venus flytraps only live in the US, and right now they are going dormant. So right now it doesnt really matter to make the traps bigger; but ill explain more. There are 3 trigger hairs on each side of a fly traps mouth, sometimes more or less.It takes 2 touches on these trigger hairs to make it shut. But the interesting thing is how they shut. They actually grow over themselves in a split second, and the two concave dishes or lobes(the trap itself) rapidly inverts itself. But if only 1 hair is touched, the flytrap still signals grow just a little bit before it inverts itself. So, if u touch only 1 trigger hair, wait so when u touch it again it doesnt shut, so about 1 minute, and then repeat. In the summertime,flytraps thrive here;especially in direct full sun. Where i live it gets over 100 degrees f in the summer. I would give them a good watering and off they went! Venus flytraps love it hot, with about 1 inch of water standing. And they love hot roots. Thats what the black stones are for.But dont over water and let it stand, cuz they will rot. Where you live i wouldnt even worry about humidity for flytraps. The standing water gives it a bubble of humid atmosphere, if it is constantly filled. I hope this helps more =)

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

will try it out, thanks:smile:

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

Yeah, that's an old trick actually, and works great! They also respond very well to being fed on a regular basis. The traps snap shut by some shift in their fluids which causes them to reflex like a bimetalic strip used in thermostats, but have to grow to reopen; there is no reverse mechanism to turn back the internal fluid to reset the trap and re-open it again. If the trigger hairs are touched just once, it does give it a signal to start growing open unless usable food is detected inside the trap. Something inert will just cause it to reopen again. If you wait a few minutes, the trigger hair "forgets" that it was stimulated once already and doesn't close, but sends yet another signal to grow open if there isn't a meal inside the trap. - Rich

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

The other reason for making the traps bigger my way is so it doesnt have to close, or catch a meal. The plants do really well not being fed.But occasionally they catch there own food. Doing it this way makes it so the traps are always open, and can recieve full sun,thus creating desired red pigment in no time(3-5 days)then i know that almost all the leaves its making will stay for a very long time, cuz they need to close.

Re: Making traps bigger, exclusive
 

That is great information!!! Will try that on my VFT.

For red dragon or typical VFT, from yours experience. What is the biggest size of trap you had come accross? Thanx...