DonBrennons 'Unconventional' organic gardens

DonBrennon said:

Latest additions to my growing Plant collection

Venus fly trap - Dionaea muscipular
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Unidentified Sundew - Drosera and Pitcher plant - Sarracenia
- Labeled simply as bog plants
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Money plant - Crassula portulacea
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Unidentified Dwarf Aloe
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Aloe Humilis
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Ok so I can't truly identify the VFT, you may have a cultivar, but if it's unlabeled when you bought it, it's just a typical.
The sundew is called drosera capensis "typical" form, and it's a seriously hardy plant!!! I have 6 of them already. They will seed readily and spread like weeds. You have a very nice full and robust specimen. All these CPs are light lovers, so give them lots of direct light. You'll notice they'll turn pink and red when light intensity is correct.
I'd repot the drosera and make divisions, you have alot of plants in that pot!

Remember tho... the saras and vft are temperate species and need a cold dormancy, the drosera is not and can be grown like this all year round.

Grandpa GreenJeans said:

You may have a problem with the saras as they are very high RH. But a excellent choice none the less. Look into some Australian pitchers I believe they can acclimate easier to lower RH.

What's your soil mix for the CPs?
I use a 1:1 Canadian sphagnum peat with pure quarts sand for any drosera and Dionaea. The Nepenthes likes it a little more airy, so I use a combo of orchid bark, quarts sand, perlite and long fiber sphagnum moss. Never allow the media to completely dry out, but rather remain moist or damp. The Dionaea like to have wet feet all the time so I'll add a 1/4" of water in a dish and sit them in it. The drosera like to be soggy but have a very brief (12hr) dry out. Never truly dry, but more like the Nepenthes, damp.

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Thanks for the advice. The mix the plants came in looks like pure peat, but I've also sown more seed, both drosera and dionaea in the 1:1 mix you suggested. I did fuck up though, I mixed them before I rinsed them, beginners error I suppose, I had to wait till they dried out a bit and mix more separately rinsed sand in cos it had all washed out.

Grandpa GreenJeans said:

Damn those plants look happy as all hell! Great job man, FPE is the bee's knees! I love the versatility you exercise in your garden.

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Thanks again........I'm not sure what to attribute the effect to, probably a little of all 3 'magic potions' lol, I've had praying plants before, but never to that extreme.

Grandpa GreenJeans said:

Ok so I can't truly identify the VFT, you may have a cultivar, but if it's unlabeled when you bought it, it's just a typical.
The sundew is called drosera capensis "typical" form, and it's a seriously hardy plant!!! I have 6 of them already. They will seed readily and spread like weeds. You have a very nice full and robust specimen. All these CPs are light lovers, so give them lots of direct light. You'll notice they'll turn pink and red when light intensity is correct.
I'd repot the drosera and make divisions, you have alot of plants in that pot!

Remember tho... the saras and vft are temperate species and need a cold dormancy, the drosera is not and can be grown like this all year round.

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I've been considering and researching dividing the Drosera, and I've already got soil mix ready and waiting, but I'm shit scared of killing it lol.

I've been trying to psych myself up for it but just keep picturing a sticky disaster. It's definitely too big for the pot it's in and needs doing.

DonBrennon said:

I've been considering and researching dividing the Drosera, and I've already got soil mix ready and waiting, but I'm shit scared of killing it lol.

I've been trying to psych myself up for it but just keep picturing a sticky disaster. It's definitely too big for the pot it's in and needs doing.

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Drosera capensis can take a beating, and don't worry they have their own roots systems per rizo crown, they're not quite like Dionaea that have to be seperately from the main rizo.
Each drosera crown should have 3 roots that are long and black. Makes sure to spread out those 3 roots when repotting.

As far as the soil needing to be rinsed, it's coo even if the plants are already planted in it, just run some 0ppm through it a couple times. That will wash out any acids or dust. It's difficult to pre rinse everything first and frankly a pain in the ass.

DonBrennon said:

I've been considering and researching dividing the Drosera, and I've already got soil mix ready and waiting, but I'm shit scared of killing it lol.

I've been trying to psych myself up for it but just keep picturing a sticky disaster. It's definitely too big for the pot it's in and needs doing.

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Don't get discouraged with those seeds, they can take months to germinate.
Also try leaf pullings and propagate them in a cup of water 0ppm and make sure they're all submerged. They'll turn red on the ends and eventually make a few new plants from it. It identical to tissue culture without the hormones. Takes a few months tho, whereas TC is pretty quick.

Grandpa GreenJeans said:

Don't get discouraged with those seeds, they can take months to germinate.
Also try leaf pullings and propagate them in a cup of water 0ppm and make sure they're all submerged. They'll turn red on the ends and eventually make a few new plants from it. It identical to tissue culture without the hormones. Takes a few months tho, whereas TC is pretty quick.

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I am going to do a few leaf cuttings, but I've seen a vid of someone doing them in test tubes, which I can get hold of, so I'm gonna do em that way.

I grew a set of balls and had a go at dividing it up, fingers crossed they'll pull through:

Before


After

Grandpa GreenJeans said:

Don't get discouraged with those seeds, they can take months to germinate.
Also try leaf pullings and propagate them in a cup of water 0ppm and make sure they're all submerged. They'll turn red on the ends and eventually make a few new plants from it. It identical to tissue culture without the hormones. Takes a few months tho, whereas TC is pretty quick.

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I may have issues with the my water supply. My filtered water, I generally use for my plants and tea's etc measures 0.08 EC (40-55 ppm). My rain water butt measures at 0.02 EC (10-15 ppm). I don't have access to RO, unless I go invest in a machine, which would be big bucks to grow a few plants. Do you think pure water is absolutely necessary?

I'm hoping I've also discovered what may be causing certain PH issues I've been having. Whenever I've tested my soil it's ph has been pretty neutral all in all, but some of my plants seem to have been showing problems linked to ph lockout. My tap water has always been ph neutral, but since switching to organics I ditched my EC pen and my PH pen...............Well I've just dug them out cos, as mentioned in the above post, I need pretty pure water. Out of curiosity I measured the PH of my filtered water and it was 8.4 WTF?

I don't think this has much effect when the plants are well established in a decent volume of good soil, I do think the food web deals with it then. But I'm having problems when transplanting or keeping plants in smaller volumes of soil, which means it's slowing down my veg times considerably.

Any opinions on this would be most welcome

DonBrennon said:

I may have issues with the my water supply. My filtered water, I generally use for my plants and tea's etc measures 0.08 EC (40-55 ppm). My rain water butt measures at 0.02 EC (10-15 ppm). I don't have access to RO, unless I go invest in a machine, which would be big bucks to grow a few plants. Do you think pure water is absolutely necessary?

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50 ppm is ok but minerals will accumulate over time. Pure is really the best, these plants have completely evolved away from any nutrients via roots.

DonBrennon said:

I'm hoping I've also discovered what may be causing certain PH issues I've been having. Whenever I've tested my soil it's ph has been pretty neutral all in all, but some of my plants seem to have been showing problems linked to ph lockout. My tap water has always been ph neutral, but since switching to organics I ditched my EC pen and my PH pen...............Well I've just dug them out cos, as mentioned in the above post, I need pretty pure water. Out of curiosity I measured the PH of my filtered water and it was 8.4 WTF?

I don't think this has much effect when the plants are well established in a decent volume of good soil, I do think the food web deals with it then. But I'm having problems when transplanting or keeping plants in smaller volumes of soil, which means it's slowing down my veg times considerably.

Any opinions on this would be most welcome

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With the smaller amounts of soil I believe the media is drying out much quicker than the larger pots. This can stall microbes when it gets too dry and they can't regulate the pH. I think that's what happened to my alien kush and she was in a 20gal. The microbes will start back up but it takes a few days with just water alone. A microbial AACT would be good to water with for all the smaller pots, or top dress with casting. This should help but my money is on the microbes stalling.
There's nothing wrong with brewing tea 24/7, just make sure to dilute it. Common dilution is 5:1 for standard watering days.

DonBrennon said:

I am going to do a few leaf cuttings, but I've seen a vid of someone doing them in test tubes, which I can get hold of, so I'm gonna do em that way.

I grew a set of balls and had a go at dividing it up, fingers crossed they'll pull through:

Before
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After
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Good shit, watch them explode with growth. Capensis in my experience loves a repot Into Fresh Clean soil. They can put out 5-8 new leafs per week when they're happy.

Oh.... feed them weekly. Only 1 or 2 leafs per plant, no more.

Grandpa GreenJeans said:

Oh.... feed them weekly. Only 1 or 2 leafs per plant, no more.

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Not sure I need to feed the Drosera anything at the moment, they're getting shit loads of fungus gnat of their own accord lol. The VFT's on the other hand don't seem to think the FG are a hearty enough meal, the FG seem attracted and run all over the traps with no effect. I've fed it a live meal worm and crane fly, I've read meal worms are good food for dionaea and luckily I've got a heath supply.



This is an experimental attempt to make my own insect frass, when I've got a large enough population of worms and breeding beetles, the excess worms will become top quality organic chicken feed, making top quality organic chicken shit for the compost pile.

What do you think I should feed the pitcher plant with, also what should I feed the Drosera with when I finally defeat the FG. I bought some dried blood worm fish food, before I read about the meal worms, should I use this?

This is my breeding bin, when the meal worm larvae turn into pupae, I fish them out with a tea spoon and drop them in the breeding bin. The beetles in the picture are the first generation that have hatched as eggs and had their full life cycle within my bins.


I've experimented with all kinds of different foods, the beetles only seem to eat for hydration, but the worms will eat everything and anything you put in front of them, here's a list of what I've tried - Rockdust, oyster shell, gypsum, neem, seaweed, calcified seaweed, alfalfa pellets, comfrey pellets, aloe vera powder (sent them into what looked like an unhealthy feeding frenzy, so I only added it once), cardboard, egg shells, any fruit or veg, I stay away from anything too moist though. The substrate is organic porridge oats which is also their main food source. Everything I put in is organic and I think I'll start trying them with some dried herbs next, I'm trying to produce the best nutrients, chicken food and now carnivorous plant food possible.

I'm basically trying to grow my own chitin lol

Look whats just turned up (Water pump)...............and guess what I'm making



I've already got a spare aquarium air pump and stone I can use. I'm just waiting on misting nozzles and neoprene disks before I start drilling the wrong size holes

edit...........I do need to find the right timer too, gonna start looking now

DonBrennon said:

Not sure I need to feed the Drosera anything at the moment, they're getting shit loads of fungus gnat of their own accord lol. The VFT's on the other hand don't seem to think the FG are a hearty enough meal, the FG seem attracted and run all over the traps with no effect. I've fed it a live meal worm and crane fly, I've read meal worms are good food for dionaea and luckily I've got a heath supply.

View attachment 3623056 View attachment 3623057 View attachment 3623058

This is an experimental attempt to make my own insect frass, when I've got a large enough population of worms and breeding beetles, the excess worms will become top quality organic chicken feed, making top quality organic chicken shit for the compost pile.

What do you think I should feed the pitcher plant with, also what should I feed the Drosera with when I finally defeat the FG. I bought some dried blood worm fish food, before I read about the meal worms, should I use this?

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If the drosera are catching all the FG then I'd let that be their food source. Mine go for the FG alot too but my observation is the FG isn't a hardy meal. What I mean by this is, the time it takes to enzymatically digest the FG is minimal.
I've seen a few FG inside small VFT traps, and in comparison to a trap I've feed a worm to, the FG trap opened back up long before the worm meal trap.

Meal worms are actually a very great food source. I used to have a 2 gallon tank of them years ago. I used to raise them for reptile food. I had very good luck using just plain potato peels, damp paper toweling, egg carton, and sand. Carrot peels are good to.
I don't know about adding ammendments tho. If chicken feed is then end result I'd use em1 to make a fermented grain feed and give them the meal worms as a treat.

There's some people that think a predatory insect has much more Nitrogen value than a non predatory. Spiders are supposed to be very best, but I'm not playing with those.

As far as the pitchers, I'd drop in a meal worm over any fertilizer pellet, like some do. I'd break open the meal worm so it's nice and juicy, and just toss 1 in.
I don't believe in synthetic anything for plants.

DonBrennon said:

Look whats just turned up (Water pump)...............and guess what I'm making

View attachment 3623089 View attachment 3623090 View attachment 3623091 View attachment 3623092 View attachment 3623093

I've already got a spare aquarium air pump and stone I can use. I'm just waiting on misting nozzles and neoprene disks before I start drilling the wrong size holes

edit...........I do need to find the right timer too, gonna start looking now

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Cloners Unite! Lol
Nice. My only reservation is that clear top portion. Make sure to cycle the pump on a timer, if it runs 24/7 you will heat up the water and you will have slime.
The timer your looking for is going to be a fixed one. It must have intervals, like, 1 min ON/ 4 min OFF. I bought one from CAP just like that. Then there's also adjustable short interval timers that can handle 1sec ON/ 1min OFF. This is the one I'd use for high pressure aeroponics.

If your up for it... here's an old cloner I made that was high pressure, using an RO pump and 2 gal accumulator w stainless steel silonoid valve. I have the timer too.
Here's another timer that's worked well for me.

It's a multi action system that uses a recirculating shallow water culture, high pressure and low pressure aeroponics. I can use all or just 1. Cloner/ full 2 plant system.
All I have to do is switch out lids.