Cultivation Guides: Building a better outdoor growspace

This is part of a series of posts describing various aspects of cultivation, which will hopefully be useful to new growers trying to solve the challenges of growing carnivores, and experienced growers who are always looking to improve their collection. The full series can be read here, or by topic on the Series page.

I've complained in the past about the state of my outdoor growing setup. It's been pretty uh, primitive for a while.

This was definitely a "path of least resistance" setup.

Well, I recently did a trade with a fellow who was downsizing his collection and I wound up with 7 more Sarracenia, so it was time to upgrade. Luckily my roommate TJ is a great project buddy, and he's always down to help out with the plants.  Here's the teaser from a couple posts ago:

Joining the 2x4s to make a platform.

And the progression:

Putting up the outer walls.

Inner walls to make 3 sections.

Strengthening the corners.

One of the 2x4s used to join the platform together.

Up on the cinder blocks.

The full pond liner.

A quarter of the liner.

Fitting the liner into the segments.

Adding water to fill the lagoons.

The plants all in place.

We started with seven 12 foot pressure-treated 2x4 boards, which we used to make the platform. It wound up being 12 feet (~3.6 m) long and about 25 inches (~64 cm) wide. We had some leftover 2x4s from an earlier project that we cut into 4 pieces and screwed onto the boards to join them. The outside walls are made of some leftover plywood that we cut into boards 6 inches wide and then sanded down so there were no sharp edges. If we hadn't had plywood we would have bought some 1x6 boards. We screwed those onto the platform and joined the corners with some braces. The inner walls were leftover hardwood boards.

The platform is just resting on top of the cinder blocks. It's heavy enough to be pretty sturdy, and the only thing I could see knocking it over would be a big earthquake, in which case I'll have bigger problems than dealing with my Sarrs. The liner is a 10x13 foot pond liner by Pond Life. I cut it into quarters so I could use one for each segment. It's not currently secured to the platform, since I just wanted to get this up in advance of the storm we're going to be getting this weekend. Once everything dries up TJ and I are going to cut some strapping and use it to screw the liner onto the sides. I'll post an update when we do.

We got all the materials from Home Depot. Here's the cost breakdown:

$60 – 7 12" 2x4 boards
$15 – 9 cinder blocks
$60 – 10"x13" pond liner

$135 – total

We didn't have to buy boards for the walls, or any of the hardware for the job. In terms of tools, we just used a circular saw, a power drill, and a power sander, although I did most of the sanding by hand while watching the Super Bowl in the garage. Assuming you have a drill and a saw I bet you could do this for under $160.

Look at all that space I have now! I'd been putting off getting more Sarracenia and Dionaea and temperate Drosera because I didn't really have any place to put them. That's certainly not true any longer.

I think I'm going to call this grow space the Lagoon. TJ and I also planning on building a bit of a windbreak to provide shelter to the plants growing in the lagoon. Then we'll be in business!

Winter growing plants are pretty cool

There are lots of ways to organize plants. It's something that real serious botanists spend whole careers doing – determining which plants are related genetically, or by ecosystem, or what have you. Hobbyist plant collectors have their own categorization schemes, which may or may not be strictly botanically valid. The hobbyists tend to focus primarily on cultivation requirements, since providing good conditions for plants (especially weird plants like carnivores) can be expensive or difficult, so it's nice to know what groups of plants can grow in the systems you've set up.

Sundew growers are particularly blessed/cursed in that Drosera is such a heterogeneous genus, with plants growing all over the world in all sorts of habitats (in contrast with, for example, Sarracenia, which have relatively similar needs in cultivation).

I have my own, thoroughly unscientific, categories which guide me in developing my collection.

Temperate (Drosera filiformis, Drosera rotundifolia)
South American (Drosera spiralis, Drosera camporupestris)
Petiolaris (Drosera ordensis, Drosera falconeri)
Tuberous (Drosera ramellosa, Drosera zonaria)
Pygmy (Drosera scorpioides, Drosera allantostigma)
Winter-growing South African (Drosera cistiflora, Drosera hilaris)
"Annuals" (Drosera burmannii, Drosera hartmeyerorum)
Assorted warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical plants (Drosera capensis, Drosera binata, the Three Sisters of Queensland)

I recently acquired a plant from a group new to me, the South African winter growers. This is Drosera cistiflora.

It started dewing up so quickly!

I acquired this plant through the Facebook group Carnivorous Plant Auctions and Sales. It's a great resource if you're looking to expand your collection or sell off a few of your extra plants. I've had some D. cistiflora seeds for several months but I hadn't given germination a shot because...well, I'm not sure why. In any case, this plant has acclimated pretty quickly, and it's even coloring up under my lights a bit.

Drosera ramellosa is another winter grower (though it's a tuberous species from Australia). It's not doing quite as well.

Don't go dormant yet! Come on!

The tips seem to be dying back, which is what it will do in summer as it goes dormant. But this is way, way too early to be dying back. It was sorta warm lately, but not that warm. I hope I don't lose this plant. We'll see what happens.

My Drosera rupicola (which I acquired at the same time) is doing much better.

I've fed this one a couple times.

The color is pretty good, and it's definitely still growing. Hope it stays that way.

Pygmy sundews are sort of winter growers. They're summer dormant at least. I've got a stray Drosera omissa growing in this Drosera grievei pot.

D. omissa is really a beast. They've gotten really big already.

I think some of the pygmies in the rear of this tray didn't get sprayed as well, so they have a much lower success rate. I guess I'll just have to wait to harvest some gemmae next year and then re-sow some of these pots. The lesson in this is to make sure that your pygmy pots are easily accessible when sowing on sand, since they definitely need to be kept moist.

The second round of pygmies is in a smaller tray, so hopefully they see more success as I spray them more regularly. This is Drosera oreopodion.

They're just specks.

Well, it's almost D. oreopodion. It'll be D. oreopodion soon. There aren't many pictures of this plant online, so I'm excited to see how it develops!

Pinguicula laueana x emarginata in bloom

Ping flowers are great. My Pinguicula laueana x emarginata has opened up.

This is a very bold flower for such a cute plant.

My girlfriend said this one looked like religious iconography. I can see it, with the blocky shapes and the cool venation. The plant itself is also looking great.

They've responded well to being fed.

That little offset is getting bigger. Also, check out the spur on the flower.

Nearby, the Pinguicula esseriana are coloring up and looking adorable.

These have such a nice little stacked rosette.

I traded one of the plants in a big trade (that I'll talk about soon), but these two are getting really pink and it's adorable.

Another pink ping thing is this little leaf pulling from Pinguicula 'Pirouette'.

Teeny tiny plantlets!

This pulling was stupid easy. It makes me want to propagate more pings.

Speaking of flowers, the Drosera anglica CA x HI from the Summer Batch is blooming.

This looks like it's gonna be a pretty big bloom.

That's a pretty quick turnaround from leaf cutting to mature plant. I'm gonna sow these seeds to see what comes up. Apparently selfing this guy will show a decent amount of variation, so I'll have to sow some seeds and see.

Finally, I've got a project out in the backyard.

Things are brewing.

More updates as events warrant.

Plant Profile: Pinguicula gigantea

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

There's really no reason to not be growing Pinguicula gigantea. It's one of the easiest and most rewarding plants in my collection.

P. gigantea ready to bloom, 1-29-2015.

This was my first ping, and one of my first carnivorous plants. I bought it at the winter 2014 BACPS meeting. As I recall it was a Carnivore Culture acquisition. This post takes me back!

P. gigantea, 2-15-2014.

P. gigantea is a Mexican butterwort, but it's unique in several ways. It lacks a non-carnivorous succulent winter dormancy, and produces mucilage on the bottom of the leaves, unique among Mexican pings. It also gets really big, and has cute purple flowers.

P. gigantea bloom, 4-29-2014.

This plant gets identical conditions to my easy sundews – Drosera capensis etc. – and loves it. It first flowered for me in late April, after it had been in my collection for around 3 months. The flowers hang around for more than a week, which makes them a really wonderful addition to any collection. They also appear to encourage the plant to divide, which is great!

P. gigantea division forming, 5-23-2014.

I've never given this plant a dry period, and it gets very bright under my lights, and that has seemed to work very well. It blooms every other months or so, and after a few rounds of blooms it had developed 4 crowns.

P. gigantea offset, 11-21-2014.

Now, I haven't tried leaf pullings with this plant yet, but fortunately it propagates itself pretty easily. I basically ignored it and it quadrupled itself. Also, dividing pings is uh, not very difficult.

That's my father adding some appreciative grunts to the process. 

I may try some leaf pullings from this plant, and if I do I'll definitely post it on the blog. For this division (which I used in a trade), I just rinsed the moss and media out of the roots. Ping roots just mainly keep the plant anchored in the soil.

P. gigantea offset with roots, 1-29-2015.

This is a wonderful plant. If you're interested, Matt usually has it in stock. I've never ordered from Carnivore Culture online, but I've heard that the plants arrive in very good shape after shipping. Give it a shot!

The Breakdown

• media: Peat, sand, and perlite. People use all sorts of media for Mexican pings, and I don't pretend to be an expert. I tend to use more aggregate for my ping soil (extra perlite or pumice mostly).
• light: As much light as possible is good. Brighter light really improves the carnivorousness of the leaves.
• water: I keep it in the tray wet all year. This species doesn't have a non-carnivorous dry dormancy.
• temperature: My tray ranges in temperature from the low 50s to the mid 90s. Never had a temperature problem.
• feeding: I sprinkle ground up fish food on the leaves periodically. It definitely gets digested, and I think the plant benefits.
• propagation: P. gigantea divides fairly regularly. I believe leaf pullings work, but I don't have any experience.

Some progress shots

It's been a while since I made a post of progress shots. I have a lot more plants now, so there are more plants for me to choose to document. Most of these are propagation efforts. This is one of my favorite aspects of keeping a blog – it forces me to photograph my plants regularly, so I can really see how they grow and develop.

First up, the fantastic hybrid, Drosera ultramafica x spatulata. I won this plant in the NASC auction back in March and started some cuttings fairly soon thereafter.

D. ultramafica x spatulata leaf cutting strikes, 6-30-2014.

D. ultramafica x spatulata plantlets, 8-26-2014.

Drosera ultramafica x spatulata plants, 1-26-2015.

This is a really great plant. It grows quickly and shows phenomenal color, even with heavy feeding. I had originally thought that it was a sterile hybrid, but it is setting seed all over the place (in all sorts of pots). I would recommend this plant for any beginner.

Next up, Utricularia longifolia. This was an acquisition from my first trip to California Carnivores back in June.

U. longifolia, 7-22-2014.

U. longifolia, 9-14-2014.

U. longifolia, 1-26-2015. Look at those "leaves!"

I love Utricularia. Utrics are super weird and specialized. U. longifolia is a very aggressive species, so it lives by itself right now. I should pot it up into a larger container so it can continue to expand. I also want to just install a huge pot of this outside where I can just ignore it and let it go crazy. I'm super pumped for these flowers too. They're great.

The thing that really prompted this post was my Dionaea muscipula 'B-52' leaf pulling.

Dionaea 'B-52' leaf pulling strikes, 12-11-2014.

Dionaea 'B-52' strikes, 12-27-2014.

Dionaea 'B-52' plantlets, 1-26-2015.

These were just some leaves that fell off in transit when I bought this plant from Brie in August or so. The one on the right shriveled immediately, but the one on the left has been going crazy. Look at those cute little plantlets!

The Dionaea 'B-52' pullings were started as an afterthought, while this Drosera capensis Bainskloof cutting was something I fretted over.

D. capensis Bainskloof strike, 9-21-2014.

D. capensis Bainskloof plantlet, 11-14-2014.

D. capensis Bainskloof, 1-27-2015.

This plant is almost getting its mature shape. I'm feeding it a lot, because man I want this plant looking great in my collection. There's been big progress lately.

Some months back I scattered some Drosera aliciae seed on a pot that briefly contained a sundew which rapidly declined in my conditions (I think it was used to much higher humidity). This was the laziest propagation effort I've ever undertaken.

D. aliciae seedlings, 9-17-2014.

D. aliciae seedlings, 12-11-2014.

D. aliciae, 1-26-2015.

This is a great case of neglect working out. I'll probably repot them in advance of the next BACPS function so I can donate or trade them. They're looking pretty good.

Finally, my Pinguicula moranensis GG. I got this plant from California Carnivores along with my U. longifolia.

P. moranensis, 7-22-2014.

P. moranensis, 10-10-2014.

P. moranensis, 11-21-2014.

P. moranensis, 1-26-2015. That's powdered beta fish food on the leaves.

This is one of those plants that goes in and out of being my favorite. I've liked watching the leaves fill in the rosette and get more of a pointed, scalloped shape. And that color! That pink color is way too cute. Once this round of leaves has been replaced I think I'm gonna try a couple of leaf pullings.

I love seeing progress shots.

I have no photos of the Winter 2015 BACPS meeting

I feel sort of bad having entirely failed to document the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society meeting yesterday. However, not terribly bad, since the reason I couldn't take any pictures was that I was busy helping run the thing! I managed the raffle (and donated 5 plants, freeing some space under my lights), took part in a panel about cultivation, and somehow wound up being elected Vice President. It was a busy day!

The BACPS has been in sort of a tight spot recently, since a number of board members either died or moved away, leaving the remaining leadership sort of scrambling to keep things together and getting worn out. It's funny, because in the mean time there has been a big increase in interest in carnivorous plants. I think there's a lot of energy out there waiting to be tapped in the Bay Area carnivorous plant community. I'm excited to be able to help out!

I did, of course, acquire some plants. The first (and probably the most exciting?) is this Utricularia cornigera.

This plant can get seriously huge. Gotta get a bigger pot!

U. cornigera has also been known as the Giant or 'Big Sister' form of Utricularia reniformis. It's one of the coolest-looking Utrics out there, with big, upright leaves and totally stunning flowers. I hope I can get it to bloom. This is a seed-grown specimen from California Carnivores.

I was also generously gifted a big bag of Utricularia humboldtii by Tony Gridley, the BACPS newsletter editor and resident Genlisea farmer/Utricularia maniac.

It's nice to get big piles of plants.

I didn't get a chance to pot this up today. That's a chore for first thing tomorrow morning. Guess I'm jumping right into into section Orchidioides!

California Carnivores also had some pygmies for sale, and I picked up a pot of Drosera lasiantha.

Gonna give it a week for more dew, and then the feeding begins.

This is one of the few species I wasn't able to acquire from Drosera Gemmae this year, so it was great to see it for sale. It has a habit very similar to that of Drosera scorpioides, but with (apparently) cooler flowers. Very cute!

I also was gifted a big clump of Sarracenia oreophila by Doris Quick, our now former secretary. It's got like 4 or 5 growth points. I wasn't able to get a picture for this post, since it's dark outside now. That rhizome (and the Sarracenia minor hybrid from the raffle) will have to wait for another post. I'm looking forward to some big old plants come spring though!

During the panel I was talking about the importance of feeding and light, specifically vis à vis so-called "annuals" like Drosera burmannii, and Fernando Rivadavia challenged me to grow Drosera sessilifolia as well as he sees them in habitat. Apparently all the specimens he's seen in cultivation have been tiny and frail-looking, while those in the wild get huge. Challenge accepted!

We've got an early leader!

It's a solid start. Gonna have to feed them more before the April meeting.