FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone, I found some small new buddings off a rhizome during repotting. The root is about 2 inches long and it has several small traps. I've wrapped it around a straw and it's sitting in rain water (rhizome is dry) under a grow light. If I add MS media with Vitamins (1962) at 1/2 with sucrose to the rain water, will it encourage good growth? Thank you

My experience with Tissue Culture chemicals like M&S is that they require an absolutely sterile environment.
Any living cell that lands on the M&S mix will start to grow, unfortunately most of those unwanted living cells will be fungus, mold, or something equally undesirable.
Just my 02 cents worth.

Update, it seems to be working ok. It’s in 1.0 MS with 30% sucrose. I tried to be clean, looking out for what you cautioned about

So I am pretty much a newbie to tissue cultures. All I did was placed some VFT stems and Cape Sundew pieces in test tubes with distilled water. I left them alone and set them on the top shelf in my grow tent. Temp averages about 86 to 88 degrees F. After a month or so I noticed green growth from 2 of my VFT's, Big Tomato and B52 and a couple of my sundews.. I was told to wait for signs of roots and they seem to be producing them now. All total about 45 days or so. I did purchase some Kelpak https://firstrays.com/product/kelpak/?v=7516fd43adaa
that another member referred me to. I will use that when I plant them in actual media.

Going to 1.0 MS with table sugar proved to be too much as mold started growing on the roots. So I rinsed it in IPA and H2O2 and it’s now sitting in sterile distilled water to recover. It looks like just a really small amount of both is enough to sustain it, I don’t know if I could get like massive quick growth by increasing MS or sucrose unless PPM was added (maybe? Never tried it) or possibly replacing with clean media often. Also since I was told the roots need O2 there’s only enough liquid to make the tube humid. I cover it with foil during the day and uncover at night. It will remain indoors for the foreseeable future. I’m happy I found a way to at least sustain the plant. Good start anyway. Not gonna mess with hormones for now.

By small amount I mean 1/10th of what I described above

Tissue culture media is for completely sterile environments. Relatively clean isn't clean enough- the air's full of microorganisms, and so are our plants.

Why not just feed it normally?

I was just trying to see if I could sustain or grow it in a tube. Do you know how it stays so healthy in those Home Depot containers with low lighting and poor circulation? The plants were thriving, and they were in soil. I’m just curious if there’s a way to grow them in vitro

Also yes everything eventually grew mold, so this didn’t work. The environment has to be sterile, clean won’t cut it etc

They don't stay healthy in those Home Depot containers. They get shipped in on a regular basis to replace the ones that die, and live off their stores of energy until they shrivel up and keel over. Evidently thriving plants seen in those little death cubes were thriving, in a greenhouse, and haven't yet shown their stress at being brought here.

If you want to grow them in water tubes, I'm sure that's possible. Simply set up an appropriate water tube, maybe some peat tea for acidity, and feed the traps normally. Given proper light and dormancy, voila- you should have growing flytraps.
Edit: or, if the only goal is to grow a flytrap indoors, that can very easily be accomplished with a normal pot and either a simple LED grow light placed very close to the plant or an incandescent grow light a little further away.

This isn't in vitro. In vitro is done in sterile conditions. It's quite possible with Venus flytraps, though you'd have a hard time getting an adult into it as opposed to starting with seeds or props- an adult will be very difficult to fully sterilize to prevent mold and bacteria getting in. You can even purchase Venus flytraps already in vitro from a shop called Bloomify, on Etsy and elsewhere, that sells various tissue-cultured plants in little domes meant for the casual hobbyist.

Fishkeeper wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 4:08 pm If you want to grow them in water tubes, I'm sure that's possible. Simply set up an appropriate water tube, maybe some peat tea for acidity, and feed the traps normally. Given proper light and dormancy, voila- you should have growing flytraps.

In this situation, what if I didn't feed them anything? Is there anything I can put in the water that would allow them to grow normally?

The short answer is, "No, flytraps can't be grown hydroponically. For a little more details you can read this thread post383244.html

This used a fine silica sand wrapped around the rhizome, letting the roots come down into the water. Looks like he fed ‘em normally though. Any suggestions off the top of your mind?

Flytraps rely on being fed to get the nitrogen they use to grow. You can't feed them through their roots heavily enough to properly provide that nitrogen, not without killing them, so a flytrap without any substrate or feeding will, at best, not grow.
Lack of substrate is negotiable, if you keep the roots appropriately damp. Complete lack of nutrients is not.

Panman wrote:The short answer is, "No, flytraps can't be grown hydroponically. For a little more details you can read this thread post383244.html

Oh, this method is very neat! I may have to try it myself- seeing the roots is interesting. This could potentially make for a comical display with something like D. spatulata, which has remarkably large roots for its size. One I repotted recently, about 1" across, had roots as long as my hand.