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2004 - Year 11
 

"A year in the life" of my carnivorous plants.
and "The Fridge Method" of dormancy.
Autumn 2004 - Autumn 2005
 
 

I started a thread on the petflytrap forums, (now terraforums) about how I do
"the fridge method" for winter dormancy.
and while I was doing it, I deceided it would also become an entire "year in the life" of my CPs..
starting with Autumn 2004, going into dormancy, then into the spring,
summer and autumn of 2005, until the cycle repeats in the autumn of 2005.

Unfortunately the original owner of the forum (before Andy took it over) had some problems
with the photo hosting, and all the photos were lost. so my "year in the life" thread became useless,
because all the photos were gone..I started to re-upload some, but never did get them all.
So instead of rebuilding it there, I will simply move it over to this webpage!

So here is the old thread (basically just copied into this webpage)
 
 

October 31, 2004.
one season ends.
 

The year in the life "begins" with the end of the season, 2004.
Its late October, the plants have been outdoors since April,
and the plants are ready to go into the fridge for their long winter's nap.
They have been outdoors all Autumn and are already fully dormant naturally
by the time they go into the fridge.
(I live in Rochester, NY..my winters are FAR too severe to keep my plants outdoors all winter,
the Fridge is the only option I have right now.)
 

This is the way I do "the fridge method" for my Sarracenia and VFT's..
I have been doing it this way for..lets see..10 years now!
(disclaimer..this is only ONE way to do the fridge method..its not the ONLY way!)
this is just the way I happen to like. but there are several variations on this theme.
some people dont like to cut off the leaves. some people take the rhizomes out of the pot and do "bare root" dormancy..
some use fungicide, some dont. there are several different ways to do this.)

The reason I have to do the fridge method at all is because I have VERY cold winters, and they last a long time..(5 months).. Here in Western NY, we have brutal winters, sub-freezing temps for weeks on end, tons and tons and tons of snow.. its way too severe for Sarracenia and VFT's to survive outside all winter. VFT and Sarracenia need a COOL winter..not a freezing artic winter. VFTs and Sarracenia (all except S. purpurea) are native to the South East USA..where they get a definate winter season, but a cool, somewhat mild winter, with temps in the mid-30's up to the mid 50's. 
(+2 to 12 Celsius) sometimes they get snow and a light freeze, but when they do, it only lasts for a day or two and it quickly warms to above freezing again. Its a much less severe winter than here in Rochester.

Those south east USA winters are the conditions that need to be replicated. So..since I cant keep them outdoors, and I dont have a cool basement or an unheated room..what to do? the FRIDGE!
its perfect. temps very cool, but just *above* freezing..about 35 degrees fahrenheit. (2 degrees C)

My plants go into the fridge in the late fall. late October or early November.
whenever the nightime temps begin to seriously fall below freezing. (32F, zero C)
They stay in the fridge all of November, December, January,
and they usually come back out in Mid February..Valentines Day. 3 and 1/2 months dormancy.
but..Mid-February is still the dead of winter here! still far too cold outside.
So they sit indoors in front of a bright window to slowly come out of dormancy.
then, by April or May, they can go back outside for the season..
they remain outside ALL Summer, and then into Autumn..
I keep them outdoors all through August, September and into October, as days and nights
gradually fall into the 60's, 50's, 40's.. (15..10...5C)

I wont even consider bringing them inside unless its going to fall below freezing
or if there is a heavy frost forecast for overnight.
This way, nature creates a natural dormancy for me!
I dont have to do a thing about "making them go dormant"..
they go dormant naturally through all of late summer and into autumn..
then, by the time they are ready for the fridge,
they are already fully "asleep" and are ready to continue that sleep in the fridge..

Please note that the fridge does not cause or create the dormancy!
it simply maintains the dormancy that was already started naturally by keeping the plants outdoors all season..the plants need to be already dormant before they go in the fridge.

In my opinion, VFT's and Sarracenia should never be grown indoors or especially in terrariums..
the climate inside a terrarium is just all-wrong for them..
the climate is fine for a few months...but VFTs and Sarrs need very different climates at different times of year..

Keeping VFTs and Sarrs in a terrarum is the same as trying to grow maple tree bonsai in a terrarium..
you can replicate June - August ok in a terrarium..sunny and warm..but what about the other 9 months of the year?

Maple trees need a gradually warming spring to come out of dormancy, a gradually warmer and sunnier summer, a gradually cooler and darker autumn, then a cold and dark winter to be fully dormant.

...cycle repeats...

so do VFTs and Sarracenia.
its not an option..its a necessity.

If you grow a maple tree indoors it will die within a year...the non-changing environment of a terrarium will also eventually kill a VFT.

VFTs need it warm and REALLY sunny in the summer..DIRECT sunlight..
where can you find that? outdoors in the summer! 
Nature provides the perfect light for free..
then you need gradually decreasing photoperiod and gradually decreasing temps from summer into autumn..
where can you find that? outdoors..again nature does all the work for us.

The only tricky season for those of us in the Northern states is the winter..Spring, Summer and Autumn are a breeze..just keep the plants outdoors April - October.
but the plants need a COOL winter..the winter of South Carolina..
but winters in the northern states are too severe and will kill them if the plants are left outdoors..

If you have a cool basement or attic, or a garage that stays in the 40's (4-10C) all winter, thats fine
for dormancy..or ideally, if you live in the southern US where winters are mild, just leave your plants outside 24/7/365! but right now I lack any of those conditions..hence, they are going in the fridge!
 

Today is the day..
October 31, 2004. (Happy Halloween!)
 

Here is my mini-bog. it grew well this summer!
 

same bog, about 30 minutes later! AHHH!! the horror! 
I always cut off ALL the pitchers and VFT leaves. leaving behind just short green stubs.
I do this mainly because the plants dont need any of the leaves through the winter,
because the plants are in a DEEP dormancy and are not growing at all.
and also because leaving all the leaves would greatly encourage fungus to grow.
So, since the plants dont need them, and I dont want fungus, off go the leaves!
 

Before
 

After.
 
 

I remove all the plants from their water trays a few weeks before im ready to put them away.
because the moss should be just damp all winter, not soaking wet.
this way the moss drains well and is drier than during the growing season.
I took the plants off of the shelf and set them on the floor of the balcony.
they sat there this way for a few weeks.
 
 
 

finally..the day came for cutting!!
here they are after the carnage is complete!!
(im joking about the "carnage"..
actually, I consider cutting off all the leaves to be very GOOD for the plants.
it helps ensure their survival through the winter.)
 

here is the big collection of cut pitchers and VFT leaves! I hate to just throw these away.
I live in an apartment building, I have no garden or compost pile.
So I took them all for a walk out behind my complex and scattered them around on the ground..
This way the leaves (and the bugs they still contain) can return to Nature.
 
 

I stuck some of the pitchers upright in the grass! then walked away and left them that way.
 

Here they are all bagged up.. I bag them air-tight. so that no mositure can escape during the winter.
I never need to add more water at all during the entire fridge dormancy.
Fungicide..personally, I dont use it. but only because I only have one fridge,
and fungicide is a toxic chemical, and I dont want fungicide in my refrigrator with my regular food!
but..this is my last winter as a bachelor! :) by this time next year I will be married!
so..I doubt my new wife will want a fridge full of CP's all winter! ;)
(she loves the plants too! but thats a bit much..)
so, I will probably get my own small CP-only fridge. maybe one of those small "dorm room" type refrigrators.
then, I might use fungicide..
Fungus hasnt been a huge problem for me, but it usually does grow over the winter.
but it only grows as small whispy white strands on the "short green stubs",
and it seldom hurts the plants at all. In 10 years of doing the fridge method *without* fungicide,
I have lost maybe 2 or 3 plants to mold.. I dont consider it a major problem..although it does occur.
 

and finally..in the Fridge for the winter. the big one in the center is the bog! thats it!
they remain here until mid-February, when the growing season begins again.. :)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

now we wait as winter slowly passes................................
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

February 12, 2005
 

SPRING!!
(well..for my plants anyway, not for me.)
its February 12, 2005. (my birthday!)
The plants have been in the fridge:

104 days.
15 weeks.
3 and 1/2 months.

its time to come out!! :) they come out of the fridge, are taken out of their bags,
and sit in front of the sliding glass window to thaw and slowly begin to grow..
there was some ice buildup! and some mold growth..
but that happens every winter and seldom causes any harm.
all the plants look good! everyone looks alive.
 

as you can see, there is some whispy white mold growth on some of the plants..
but this just grows around the green stumps, and does not harm the roots at all.
Underneath the leaves are still green, and as I water, I dump fresh distilled over the mold and it disappears in a few days, not to be seen again until the following February.
its still the dead of winter outside..the plants wont be able to go outside until April..
they will spend about 6 weeks indoors. I will post again in a few weeks as new pitchers and VFT's begin to grow!
(all my "fridge plants" are Sarracenia, VFT's, and one lone Drosera binata)
 
 
 

February 26, 2005

Two week update! two weeks have passed since the plants came out of the fridge..
by now, I can tell that EVERY plant survived! even the Drosera binata,
which always looks totally dead every spring, it is pushing up new leaves.
17 individual Sarracenia pitchers are pushing skyward, and one is already open!
too many VFTs to count are already opening..I stopped counting at 40.
several VFT flower stalks have appeared, but I behead them as soon as they are 1/2" tall.
(I never let my VFTs flower, did it with a few plants several years ago to get seed, the plants died..
dont feel the need to ever try it again..and growing from seed is highly overrated...not worth it IMO)
So things are coming along nicely! maybe only a month left until they can go outside..

today's pictures:

March 25, 2005

Six week update! 
the plants have been out of the fridge 6 weeks now..they are all growing well! 
although its all that "indoor spindly growth" because they arent getting enough light.. 
thats ok though, as soon as they go outside they will be fine. 
its STILL winter here!! grrrrrr.. 

we had snow a few days ago, and its a balmy 35 degrees (2C) outside today.. 
we havent even hit 45 (7C) yet this year!
soon..patience.. 
they might be able to spend the days outside in the next week or two.. 
probably another 3 or 4 weeks before they can go outside 24/7 for the rest of the season. 

My new 'Leah Wilkerson'! 
a bit of rhizome direct from the actual, literal, wild Leah Wilkerson "clump" in the Wilkerson bog!
(gathered, with permission, by Brooks in May 2004)
very cool..
She's not looking like much yet, but the year is young..
(im still going to put a top dressing of LFS on the pot..she is planted in a peat/perlite mix)
 

The mini-bog is coming along nicely.. 
it is mostly VFT's, but there also one S. wrigleyana in the center, 
and two S. leucophylla 'titan' in the back. 
 

im not bothering to turn them so they grow straight! ;) 
(they wouldnt anyway..they would just grow "S" shapes..) 
when they go outside for the season soon, all the new pitchers will nice and straight then.. 
 
 

April 17, 2005

9 week update!

FINALLY its warm enough for the plants to go outside for the season!
they all went out on the balcony today.
we do have one overnight low of 32 degrees F (0C) forecast for one night next week, but I will probably just leave the plants out anyway..
They did go out for 2 days about 2 weeks when we had a brief warm spell, but then nights dropped back below freezing..finally we have forecast lows in the mid 30's and mid 40's (2-7C) for the foreseeable future..thats warm enough!
as long as the overnight low is above freezing, they stay outside.

notice that really weak floppy sarracenia growth?
those are the pitchers that grow between February and April indoors..
they are weak and spindly pitchers that burn to a crisp when they go outside, because they havent been getting enough light indoors..
I just put them right outside and make no effort at all to "acclimate them slowly"..they just fry! no big deal..they get crispy brown on the side that faces the sun, its essentially a sunburn, but then new pitchers emerge quickly that are "normal" and can take the sun just fine..
in about a month of so I will just cut off all that weak spring growth after a fresh crop of new pitchers has emerged, and the plants will look great for the rest of the season..

My 'Leah Wilkerson' is putting up one tall pitcher! 
 
 

June 11, 2005.

Four month update!

we had an unbelieveably cool and dry spring..
the entire month of May had daytime highs in the mid-50's (12C), nighttime lows in the 40's (7C), and not a drop of the rain the entire month..we had frost a few times in early May..I didnt bother to bring the plants inside..(there wasnt physical frost ice on my plants, because they are close to the building, but there was frost on my car and the grass..)
basically my plants didnt grow at all in the 6-weeks they have been outside.. 

but in the last week we went from those highs in the mid-50's (13C) straight to 90 degrees (32C) and 90% humidity! dreadfull weather for me (I hate the heat), but delightfull weather for my plants..

so there still isnt a lot going on, but im posting some new pics anyway..

If you compare this pic to the one above from April 17, you'll see that barely anything has happened in TWO MONTHS!  :(

after 4 months of being out of the fridge, I have about 3 sarracenia pitchers open!
thats Rochester for you...
most springs are warmer than this year..its just a fluke cool spring, it happens.
oh well..the plants are happy and alive, thats enough.
FINALLY we are getting some summer weather up here, so that should really kick-start the plants.

The mini-bog is doing well!
the VFTs have been doing very well..the Sarrs in the bog are barely there, but they will catch up.

My Leah Wilkerson put up one big pitcher when I got it in March..then nothing until this week..
finally a second pitcher is pushing up!

Last year at this time my big purp was a rosette of 5 pitchers!
only 2 so far this year...
 

ok! thats all for mid-June..Summer just began a few days ago, so I will post a new update in a month..mid-July, should be a LOT of progress then!
still a solid 4 months of the growing season to go...lots of opportunity.

And thats all for the "year in the life"..I only got to June...It was cut short, I didnt finish out the year because like I said earlier, the PFT photo hosting died and I lost all my photos, and I lost the place to upload new ones..so I never did finish documenting the 2004/2005 season...but I will start a 2nd "year in the life" season with Spring 2008!
and I will be able to finish it this time! 
 

A little something about USDA Hardiness zones..
the Hardiness zones are a guide to what plants you can grow outdoors in your climate year-round.
For example, If a certain palm tree native to Florida is rated zone 10, and you live in Canada at
Zone 3, sorry, but that palm tree simply isnt going to survive the winter planted in your front yard!
Zone 3 winters are far too cold for a Zone 10 plant...no way around it.

These hardiness zones dont come into play much with CPs..mainly because few of us grow
our CPs out in the lawn..(some do, in the case of year-round bogs)
Tropical Nepenthes might be zone 11, but most Nepenthes growers dont care, because they
provide them with an "artificial zone 11" indoors..the outdoor climate of most Nepenthes growers simply isnt a factor..(unless you live in a tropical environment, in which case, lucky you!)

But the zones are relevant when it comes to dormancy for Venus Fly Traps and Sarracenia.
Every autumn and winter there are huge debates on the CP forums about "can I keep my plants
outdoors all winter"...and those of us in the northern zones always have to explain why we need use such things as "the fridge method" or putting plants in a garage, porch or attic.
We need to do these things because its simply too cold outside!

Venus Fly Traps and all Sarracenia (except for S. purpurea) are native to zones 7 and 8
of the South Eastern USA. Those are the zones they have been living in for millions of years,
these are the zones they are adapted to, these are the zones we need to replicate for winter dormancy.

(The following is my personal opinion, your mileage may vary)

Opinion on:

We know anyone living in zone 8, 9 or 10 is golden as far as outdoor winter dormancy..
just leave your plants (VFTs and Sarracenia) outdoors 24/7/365 and life is good.
You dont need to do anything about dormancy! Nature does all the work for you..easy!

(If you are in the tropics of zone 11, you are starting to get too warm in the winters!
your CPs might not be cold enough! thats a special case though, and rare..
Dormancy might still be fine, especially if you get decreased photoperiod in the winter.)

Zone 7 is, in my opinion, the 'transitional zone" between "fine for CP dormancy outdoors"
and "No good for CP dormancy outdoors"

Zone 7 in the USA stretches up to Washington D.C., into southern New Jersey, hugs the coast through Long Island and finally ends at Cape Cod. Although north of Virginia, you need to be close to the ocean to be in zone 7.

Zone 7 is probably perfectly fine for overwintering CPs outdoors..you should protect them well,
mulch them, protect from wind, but 90% of the time zone 7 winters are mild enough to overwinter CPs outdoors...So IMO Zone 7, 8, 9 and 10 are fine.

Zone 6 however is "over the line"..and is too cold.
How do I know?
Because I live in Zone 6, Rochester, NY..and I have lived in Zone 6 the entire 15 years I have been growing CPs...Rochester winters are brutal..very cold, very snowy, very long...winter is 5 months,
the entire months of November, December, January, February and March.
It can be below freezing for weeks at a time. 
very often dipping toward and below zero degrees F (negative 18C)

Zone 6 and colder is no good for overwintering VFTs and Sarracenia outdoors..
(except for S. purpurea) its simply too cold. I have tried! with plants in pots on my deck,
wrapped in burlap and protected from wind..no good..100% death.

Yes, its true some in the north have done it! and its true the plants can be adaptable
to colder climates..

but within reason..

If you have a big CP bog, buried in the ground, and you heavily mulch it with thick layers of pine needles and leaves, your VFTs and "southern sarracenia" might survive the winter outdoors..
key word being might..
It is possible, it has been done, but its risky...
you could lose all your plants if its a colder than usual winter.

IMO, its far better to put your plants somewhere that is warmer than outside..
thats where the fridge, attic, basement, garage, porch, etc comes into play..
you want it cool in the winter, but not sub-freezing for months.
IMO a winter dormancy temp of 35 to 50 degrees F (2 to 10C) is ideal.

Opinion off:
 

Ok then..here is a look at those zones..

Base maps from:
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome
and
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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