Carnivorous plant for pest management

[Weskush]

Howzit people.

I got hold of some sundew seeds (Dorsera Capensis). Fascinating plant specie. Seems like quite a mission to grow but i'm amped!

Thinking of using them, once matured, to catch those damn fungus gnats that's been bugging me.

They detect and absorb nitrogen from insects that get stuck on their sticky tenticles (looks exactly like trichomes). They get all their nutrients this way and uptake nothing from their roots.

This specie is indigenous to the Western Cape.

Why don't carnivorous plant species get used more often to assist in pest management?

 

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

awee @Weskush 

these are without a doubt very exceptional little plants! where I used to live in Hermanus I was across the road from the lagoon, we would find millions of these growing along the lagoon beds and river beds when we go walking in the mountains. 

I think they're just a little sensetive under nursing conditions and if they don't get insects to eat they won't make it anyway, this is why I think people don't use them as pest management. a lot of people grow them in their homes for that reason, but before they can catch 2 flies they usually die. I think growing conditions for these guys and cannabis differ a little too much, these guys don't like intense or any dorect light or wind, they generally grow as "undergrowth" below or within other plants and basically in the shade most of it's life in very very high humidity, you know like areas a lot of insects would naturally be. 

I have probably had every single carnivorous plant there is out there, now my brother in law is collecting them. I'll show you his collection. at Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens you can see probably the most impressive carnivorous plant display you're ever seen with pitcher plants you can stick your whole arm in!  

those little droplets that look like trichomes are actual droplets that will stick to your hand when you touch it. this is a "nectar-like" substance that releases a pheromone that attracts the insects and once they get close they can't escape the stickyness and then they curl and fold around the insect. If the plant touches anything or those droplets dry out or somehow rub off the plant also kinda dies because it spends ALL its enery on creating those droplets and they need to replace that by catching a insect. to make it practical to grow these for pest management you would have to grow quite a bunch of them.

[Leeroy420]

Yeah i had one in my tent and slowley but surely it died off. It did catch pest if you put it the same level as your pots. But not sure why it died, i didn't do any research on them, don't know was it the 18/6 light schedule or the fans blowing on them whole time.

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