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carnivoor

Surviving winter ...VFT's and Sarrs question

carnivoor
15 years ago

How old do vft and sarrs have to be before they can survive outside in winter?(sub zero I will take them indoors)

I have vft and sarracenia seedlings and I don't know if I can keep them outside once it's starting to get cold at night. I also don't have the space to put in extra lighting to keep them growing this winter.

I do have a window to put them upstairs it should be cool enough there to get them into dormancy but there isn't much light and I don't know if they do need much light when they are dormant.

Comments (8)

  • hiddenjungle
    15 years ago

    Im not sure about seedlings, i think i heard that if you grow seedlings before the first frost you can skip dormancy for the first year. but i would just make sure there in a well lit area if you cant get the lighting, when i get my S. flava seed i plan on putting them outside and grow naturally, they will get the cold period during the winter in order to geminate and once spring hits hopefully i have tons of seedlings, How old are your seedlings? Did they just sprout did you germinate them in the spring?... If you want they probably can survive the subzero weather with good winter protection, do you have a greenhouse? You could get a large container (like a tote) poke holes in the sides and cover the entire tote in mulch for winter protection. I have a pool bog and thats basicaly what i did with them, all but 1 survived, hope this helps

  • carnivoor
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    My first flava seedlings didn't show themselves until mid june ,the last sarracenia's didn't push up until end of july.
    My VFT are from the beginning of may.
    But after watering my VFT this morning I thought that keeping THEM outside this winter wouldn't be a good idea; when some drops accidently fell on the traps they closed, so considering the amount of rain we get here in the winter my VFT's would probably no longer have traps come spring from all that opening and closing.
    I don't have a bog(or much of a garden at that) and I probably would have to keep the little ones in a box on our roof(a flat one,the roof ,not the box)with the chance that they would blow off. I have half a dozen of VFT seedlings and I think I might try to keep one of them in a clear box in front of my window as a test,it has a little railing to keep things from falling off and if I keep it on the east side it wouldn't have too much problems with wind and rain.

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    15 years ago

    If it goes below say 35 I'd say don't leave them outside at all. You want them in an area that gets no colder then about 35-40 degrees F. I put mine in the refrigerator when temps fall to 40.

  • petiolaris
    15 years ago

    a lot of hobbyists like to skip dormancy for baby temperates. OTOH, nature doesn't give them that option.

  • bubba62
    15 years ago

    I keep my first and second year seedlings in my unheated garage (which never goes below freezing), under fluorescent lights. After that, they all spend the winter outside, and our temps fall into the low teens F for short periods of time. I grow them in dishpans with high side drain holes which are sunken into mulched beds (this helps insulate the pots in winter and makes it look as if the plants are growing naturally). In over 10 years I've never lost one due to cold. Here's an article I posted to my blog last May that shows some of my plants in bloom and details my growing setup better.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Sarracenia blog post

  • carnivoor
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    I only started with CP's this year. After buying a Sarracenia in a gardencenter(I couldn't stop myself) I read op on CP's and decided I might as well go all out on this. I bought myself another Sarracenia ('Barbapapa')
    and bought myself Drosera, Dionaea and Sarracenia seeds.
    My biggest challenge now will be to keep them alive through the winter. My Drosera are capensis so I can keep them in front of the window, I'll try the same with my VFT and Sarr seedlings, I might be willing to sacrefice a VFT seedling by trying to keep it outside(when to cold , I can bring it in the house in a cold room.

    Is there a good reason to cut the pitchers in winter when they still look good? When they start to get brown or die off I can understand that ,but if they still look all right is there another reason to cut them except maybe to make them smaller(for those who put them in the fridge)

  • petiolaris
    15 years ago

    Only cut that which is dead plant material. They can use the greenery for photosynthesis come spring.

  • carnivoor
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Thanks, I still have to figure things out.

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