FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hmmm, not real sure of the credibility of this. On the surface, it's in scientific format, and published by a scientific journal, but there are questions in my mind.
First, numerous misspellings. Not a big red flag but, if you're being published, you'll want to make sure you're talking about plants, not pants.
Next, the only place this journal is published is online. Not crazy in today's world, but very unusual for a scientific journal. Eggheads are sticklers for hard copies.
Talking about insects bodies not being digested. Well, duh. Insect carapaces are made of chitin, which is a polysaccharide compound similar to cellulose. Cellulose is plant based, and it's similar enough to chitin that the plant wouldn't have evolved to digest it or it would likely digest itself before any benefit could be derived from the bug. Meat does not have chitin, so would be able to be almost completely consumed. Also, it is higher in nitrogen, iron, phosphorus, and other nutrients than bugs, so they'll get a bigger boost, and grow bigger in an attempt to catch more meat. The reason meat is not recommended is more to a very much higher likelihood of bacteria and mold, not that it is ineffective. Plus, he didn't say how many traps were fed. Only a single trap per plant? As many as had bugs in the control group? Every open trap?
The bigger flowers are more likely death blooms after the abuse of drying out. The meat group didn't allocate energy to rhizome production, while the bug group did what it had evolved to do, slow, steady, and bulk the rhizome in preparation for dormancy and long term survival. Plus, it appears to me that the meat group is definitely more wet. Coincidence for pics?
Last, only using a single reference? Although it's a report of an experiment he did himself, three to five supporting references are standard.
Seems like a good article, but there are enough red flags, some I didn't mention, all small, but add up to enough to raise some questions. Granted, I didn't look too hard, but I couldn't find any follow up data for the following season.

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