My one and only Sarracenia

[alienfx]

I have only 1 Sarracenia plant which i bought on January.It keeps topling/falling down due to strong wind at my house area.The plastic pot is very light.So i replanted it in a clay pot.

The overview of the plant:


A pitcher growing:



Close-up:


Side-view:

[caseyhoo]

Nice sarra you have there... In chinese, there is a word like this, "once have 1, sure have 2, and then 3"... That is S. flava

[David]

Nice, tall and robust plant you've got there. can I trouble you to check the contents in the pitcher fluid? I want to know what it has eaten. Tks

[alienfx]

Where got tall.Around 32cm only when i measured them last time.Would love to see a 1.5 meter sara in my yard but can dream only lor.Only the new pitchers are getting taller.The old ones are short and some drying.Maybe i should trim them.

I always check whats inside.Got many small insects.Look like fruit flies and some other tiny insects with wings.No ants found.My hp camera not good enough to take their pictures.Once a month i will give some blood worm juice to the few big pitchers.

[strath76]

Hi Alienfx. Generally flava grows to about 1 metre tall. It is rare that they get taller than this. As for the traps falling over. If the traps are left to develop without support they will generally be more likely to withstand wind a lot better. You could try placing other plants around it as a buffer to the wind.

When a trap opens that will be it's height. They do not continue to grow. You should find however that you pitcher height should continually increase unless the plant goes into dormancy. This can be tricky to predict in tropical areas. The flava's produce different leaves if this is the case. These leaves are not carnivorous.

[alienfx]

Its not the traps falling over.Its the pot.The top part become so heavy that in a windy day the pot will overturn.Thats when i changed to clay pot and its fine now.

[strath76]

Sorry, misunderstood. Plant looks very healthy BTW.

[arvin555]

I have a theory that Clay pots are nice for them and even VFTs, because it keeps the medium cool due to evaporation. The problem is that there are a lot of comments about possible salt leaching from clay pots. I myself have not tried using clay pots though, but I have bought a glazed bowl which I think will probably do similar cooling effect at least compared to plastic. Plus as Alienfx mentioned the weight will prevent toppling over. I lost a Nepenthes cutting to the wind during a typhoon because of plastic pot being very light.

TTFN
Arvin

[strath76]

There is no doubt that clay pots provide benefits to plants. It is often recommended to use these for plants such as Darlingtonia and Heliamphora that require cool roots. You are right about the salt leaching through the pots and you should never reuse a clay pot for CP's for this reason. If you are starting with a new pot then the contamination should only be a problem if your water quality is poor (i.e. contains salt and other minerals). If you are using pure water then salt should not be a problem.

If you are trying to keep the roots cool then putting one clay pot into another larger clay pot can work quite well. You simply fill the gap between the pots with sphagnum and place in water. This provides an increased buffer for heat build up and you still get the benefit of the evaporation cooling.

[alienfx]

This is the latest update:



Almost 50cm.Ah..50% more to 1 meter.Hard hard...

This is what made me sad:



A pair of lady bird caught by my bad Sarra.Lady birds are good insects.They help to get rid of some pests but my Sarra eating them.Any suggestion on how to avoid this thing to happen.I tried to take them out,but could not.