Carnivorous Plants

[HybridS130]

I'll try and keep this short because I have a bad habit of starting something and going on and on until I end up completely off topic. I knew my girlfriend was into carnivorous plants so I went out one day and got her an all glass five gallon aquarium with glass lid and light, and bed-o-beast. We bought two venus fly traps, a sundew and a pitcher plant.

We both learned from "my" mistakes as bed-o-beast didn't make the ideal substrate. Did some more research and picked up a bag of peat moss and sphagnum moss. Along with that I got a sticky back heating pad made for terrariums.

The tank was thriving until I moved and she was left in charge of it. I guess she didn't mist the tank for several weeks (eventhough she claimed she had). One day she asked if I wanted it, . . buwahaha, tank was bone dry with the sphagnum moss almost crispy. The only plant to survive was the pitcher plant but, since then I've got the tank thriving again. Just picked up another pitcher plant this evening at Lowe's in the gardening section.

Really cool little setup too although I have way too much money invested in it. Probably close to $100 including past plants.

5.5 gallon aquarium $12
glass lid $10
appropriate light and bulb $13
peat moss $4
sphagnum moss $8
heating pad $14
2 venus fly trap $15
2 pitcher plant $20
sundew $10

Im sure Im missing a few things but, if you want something small and easy maybe for the kids or a desktop I highly reccomend it. Just remember to mist the plants for several seconds twice a day, the heater really helps with keeping the humidity high as well.

[The Pond Digger]

I love carnivorous plants! Check this out!

The Savage Water Garden

The victim, an unsuspecting Diptera, has no idea what is about to do him in. He’s flying about on this beautiful day, and life is just peachy. The sun is shining, the birds are napping, fragrant flowers and their sweet scents abound, and the sound of water is all around.
 
This Musca genus member is nearly hypnotized by the intoxicating floral fluid of a bladelike, lime green plant we Homo sapiens refer to as the Venus flytrap (Dionaea musicpula).
 
As the insect zooms in closer, the plant’s trigger hairs are activated, which causes its clawed deathtrap leaves to snap shut with amazing speed to create a carnivorous coffin for the plant’s partial namesake -- the fly.
 
Glands within the plant’s leaves digest the creature’s soft tissues; then it is literally ready to consume another sucker.
 
Cultivating a ‘Savage Water Garden’ ecosystem is Exotic Aquatics’ latest pond project, with which we obviously are having much fun! This water feature is not your conventional water garden…it’s savage -- thanks to carnivorous plants that gain some of their nutrition from insects captured by the plants themselves.
 
These carnivorous or insectivorous plants include, along with the Venus flytrap, the Hooded pitcher plant (Sarracenia minor), Sweet pitcher (Sarracenia rubra), and Water sundews (Drosera intermedia).
 
The seeds to nurture a Savage Water Garden were planted, so to write, when I was a boy. Having a flytrap plant shut on your youthful finger was in the same cool category as experiencing Star Wars for the first time on the big screen!
 
As a youth, I killed too many Venus fly traps to recall, but probably no more than most of you. When we two-leggeds perpetrated “planticide,” I justified it as survival of the fittest.
 
Someone, some how and in some way has managed to keep the Venus flytrap cultivated all these years to entice the public to revisit their childhoods by purchasing the insectivorous plant at pet shops, garden centers and even the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. I still have enough kid in me to reacquaint myself with the tiny carnivore.
 
My fascination with the hungry Venus flytrap, which is native to North and South Carolina, moved me enough to buy a variety of carnivorous plants a few years ago. After just a little research, I learned their specific light, growing media and water requirements. Water needs are key.
 
These plants have survived in nutrient-deprived water and nitrogen-deprived soil in bogs by evolving as carnivores to derive nitrogen from insects.
 
To keep your Venus flytrap and other carnivorous plants alive, it is imperative that you water them with distilled water, rainwater or reverse osmosis water. The latter is the purest of water that has been stripped of all nutrients and filtered through fine membranes and carbon filters.
 
Even though previously I would give my carnivorous plants the proper sunlight and mandatory nutrient-poor water when I watered them, I still would end up killing them because I would get busy and forget to water them as needed.
 
I reflected on this from the perspective of my years of experience in constructing water gardens and knowing aquatic plants. Because most of the carnivores live in swampy bogs, it occurred to me why not showcase them in a pond – it’s what I do.
 
Thus was born the Savage Water Garden, which my wife, kids and I enjoy viewing first thing each morning from the safety of our kitchen window. Then we don our flip flops and venture forth for an up-close interaction.
 
BYOB: Build Your Own Bog
 
I incorporated into the Savage Water Garden our exciting new line of revolutionary pond equipment from Russell Watergardens in Redmond, Wash. The Exotic Aquatics’ crew members – known as The Pond Diggers -- used a Hydro Vortex Biological Waterfall filter and a “Dry Hands Cleaning” Hydro Clean Skimmer as the heart and soul of the pond system.
 
Next, I traveled to a local rock yard to hand select several tons of beautiful specimen accent boulders, and then headed off to the equipment yard to secure the necessary heavy machinery to install the boulders.
 
After the pond’s shape was formed, we installed the filtration and plumbing. Now the savage step arrived. For a regular pond, we would have installed a 15-by-25-foot liner; for the Savage Water Garden, we chose a 20-by-25-foot liner to provide extra liner outside the pond in which to create boggy areas for the carnivorous plants.
 
After the pond was lined with rocks and gravel, and filled with water, and the heavy equipment was gone, we carved out the bog areas on the pond’s outer perimeter. These plant pockets were excavated only two inches below water level.
 
I chose sphagnum moss as the plant media in which the carnivorous plants would not only survive, but thrive. I knew the sphagnum moss would soak up the water like a sponge to keep the plants’ roots perfectly moist.
 
My young son Taylor and I filled the planting pockets with four inches of the sphagnum moss. From an aerial view, the bog areas look like land.
 
The trick now was to moisten this moss in the planting pockets with reverse osmosis water! It turned out that the reverse osmosis unit I ordered was not going to be able to arrive prior to Exotic Aquatics’ “Pond Tour for the Cure” charity event (which was held earlier this year), and the Savage Water Garden was set to debut on the tour.
 
Therefore, I visited Daryl’s Pet Shop to truck home 140 five-gallon jugs of the reverse osmosis water, which the shop carries for salt water aquariums. The water-filling task and planting commenced.
 
My wife and kids had fun planting the carnivores with me. Please note that no human was harmed in the process of creating the Savage Water Garden, planting the carnivores, nor viewing the feature on the recent pond tour; however, a few of the less hearty carnivores did meet their maker during this month’s ensuing heat wave.
 
I am just grateful the bog planting pockets work around-the-sun dial (or clock for non-gardeners) on their own to keep the plants sufficiently watered and in predator mode.
 
The Savage Water Garden, in all of its eerie delight, will be among the many water features casting enchanting spells during this fall’s fifth annual Moonlight Pond Tour for the Cure charity event hosted by Exotic Aquatics.
 
Proceeds will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, along with other well-deserving non-profit organizations.
 
Due to this event’s popularity, we are expanding the evening tour to two nights. It is set from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7. If you are involved with a non-profit that would like to sell Moonlight Pond Tour tickets and benefit from the proceeds, please contact Exotic Aquatics.
  
Eric Triplett owns the Redlands-based Exotic Aquatics, which specializes in constructing ponds and pondless waterfalls. Triplett is a Certified Professional Pond Contractor and an authorized dealer for Russell Watergardens, specializing in the Hydro Vortex Biological Waterfall filter and a “Dry Hands Cleaning” Hydro Clean Skimmer. He may be reached at (800) 522-5043; or visit www.theponddigger.com
 
 
Eric Triplett
The Pond Digger
Exotic Aquatics
www.exoticwaterscapes.com

[HybridS130]

That's pretty cool and a fun read. After reading that I think Im going to redo my little 5.5 and make the substrate a few inches deeper though. Im afraid that the roots might be too close to the heater on the underside of the tank. When I bought the new pitcher plant yesterday I removed the current one so I could space them out. I had thought that the plant wasn't fully thriving because of the width of the pitchers. I quickly realized that I was wrong when I attempted to pull it out and the roots had spread across the entire tank.

[Forester]

I really like the carnivorous plants too! On occasion I see pitcher plants when I am traversing or working in bogs.