I just looked up the other day how to take care of the venus flytrap my son insisted we buy. It said it needs poor soil, do not fertilize it, and that they get their nutrients from their prey (and should be fed if kept indoors).
a plant can evolve to survive in soil without any nutrients by becoming carnivorous, but rain? that’s a step too far buddy
also reminds me of lurking in the magic mushroom growing subreddit, in the wild those mushrooms can grow on literal cow shit, but in people’s homes they die if their rice is not sterile enough
Afaik there aren’t any carnivorous plants that can be killed with rainwater. It’s much more likely that they were out where the sprinkler could get them (hard water, chlorine, etc will kill carnivorous plants). Never, ever water carnivorous plants with tap water.
Were they outside where the sprinkler could hit them? I can’t imagine they were killed by rainwater; I used to have a lot of carnivorous plants and rainwater was an ideal water source along with distilled water. If they were hit by the sprinkler though, that could kill them, especially if you have hard water.
Plant it in peat moss mixed with sand and only water with distilled water or rainwater. It needs a lot of light too, so keep it near a south facing window
This makes me wonder: if you give them nicer soil than they evolved in, can they still use those nutrients instead, or do they require insects to survive now?
If you put them right into rich soil, it will absolutely kill them. If you put them in nutient-poor, moist soil that has juuust enough micronutrients, they can survive without insects.
But yes, even watering with tap water will kill them, due to too many dissolved minerals
They really don’t care where the nutrients come from. However they take very little to keep going for a long time.
Cell biologist I worked with tested tested this one.
He placed 10 small plants into sterile agar made with diluted Hoagland’s solution. He then sealed the petri dishes with petrifilm (gas permeable). Then placed them under a low light (4 T12’s at 20cm and a 12 hour photoperiod).
He started them about 5 years before I met him. We worked together for 11 years and he never lost a plant.
I guess this depends on if they lost functional roots or not. If they are like bromeliads that lost water uptake in their roots (which instead take up water and nutrients through trichomes in their tank) then they probably don’t care about how much nutrients are in the soil. I’d think that as most bromeliads are epiphytes without any real type of soil that that is the reason they lost this functionality. And that many species of carnivorous plants are usually just growing in nutrient-poor soils. So eating animals would just be a way to get more/sufficient nutrients but that it might be still useful for them to have functional roots.
But this is only speculation. Maybe someone else has more tangible info?
They can’t live on soil nutrients in soil where there are no nutrients, which is where they evolved
I just looked up the other day how to take care of the venus flytrap my son insisted we buy. It said it needs poor soil, do not fertilize it, and that they get their nutrients from their prey (and should be fed if kept indoors).
They’re a huge pain in the ass to take care of. Ours died because it got rained on
i love nature
a plant can evolve to survive in soil without any nutrients by becoming carnivorous, but rain? that’s a step too far buddy
also reminds me of lurking in the magic mushroom growing subreddit, in the wild those mushrooms can grow on literal cow shit, but in people’s homes they die if their rice is not sterile enough
Afaik there aren’t any carnivorous plants that can be killed with rainwater. It’s much more likely that they were out where the sprinkler could get them (hard water, chlorine, etc will kill carnivorous plants). Never, ever water carnivorous plants with tap water.
TRICHODERMA MY ARCH NEMESIS
Were they outside where the sprinkler could hit them? I can’t imagine they were killed by rainwater; I used to have a lot of carnivorous plants and rainwater was an ideal water source along with distilled water. If they were hit by the sprinkler though, that could kill them, especially if you have hard water.
I’m not sure, it was my mother’s, not mine.
Plant it in peat moss mixed with sand and only water with distilled water or rainwater. It needs a lot of light too, so keep it near a south facing window
This is actually bad advice if the sun is to the north
Most of us don’t have to worry about that.
I keep mine in sphagnum moss, and water it with distilled water.
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This makes me wonder: if you give them nicer soil than they evolved in, can they still use those nutrients instead, or do they require insects to survive now?
nope, it kills them because they cant handle all the extra stuff
If you put them right into rich soil, it will absolutely kill them. If you put them in nutient-poor, moist soil that has juuust enough micronutrients, they can survive without insects.
But yes, even watering with tap water will kill them, due to too many dissolved minerals
They really don’t care where the nutrients come from. However they take very little to keep going for a long time.
Cell biologist I worked with tested tested this one.
He placed 10 small plants into sterile agar made with diluted Hoagland’s solution. He then sealed the petri dishes with petrifilm (gas permeable). Then placed them under a low light (4 T12’s at 20cm and a 12 hour photoperiod).
He started them about 5 years before I met him. We worked together for 11 years and he never lost a plant.
I guess this depends on if they lost functional roots or not. If they are like bromeliads that lost water uptake in their roots (which instead take up water and nutrients through trichomes in their tank) then they probably don’t care about how much nutrients are in the soil. I’d think that as most bromeliads are epiphytes without any real type of soil that that is the reason they lost this functionality. And that many species of carnivorous plants are usually just growing in nutrient-poor soils. So eating animals would just be a way to get more/sufficient nutrients but that it might be still useful for them to have functional roots.
But this is only speculation. Maybe someone else has more tangible info?