Carnivorous plants are difficult to grow in the heat of India’s plains. The challenges are different, the conditions are vastly different from most information available online. Growing carnivorous plants in India requires adapting a lot of information found online to Indian conditions. 24 degree celcius is not “hot” here. We call it cool weather. For most of Indian plains and particularly the southern half of India, “winter” reaching single digit temperatures is rare. How does one grow the plants one reads about? It has been an educational journey.
Adapting carnivorous plants to Indian conditions takes some strategizing. Some never really adapt well and I have spent tens of thousands of rupees on plants only to discover that they didn’t make it a week past receiving them. Others, like byblis, notorious for being tricky to germinate are weeds here. The only byblis seeds I intentionally germinated were the first batch of 10 seeds I purchased. They have been handling their propagation just fine ever since.
On the other hand, the amount of money I’ve spent trying to grow pinguiculas here is not funny.
But it is an endeavour worth taking on. The plants are a curiosity. They are a challenge. Many of them are dying in their habitats. Some of them, native to India need to be purchased from abroad, as their habitats die out and few in India bother to keep the species alive in private collections.
Over time, there have been several species that have thrived in the sweltering heat of Nalasopara, near Mumbai. Spares from species that thrive are available in my makeshift shop for sale. They are a good idea to buy, because they are adapted to our conditions and clearly thrive well enough for there to be spares to sell.
So here are my experiences growing these fascinating plants.
Live sphagnum grows in very pure water and needs high humidity to grow well. If you cannot provide these two, you might as well not bother. But it is not so hard to create these conditions. Here are some ideas. Growing it in a simple cup or plastic container This is quite simple. You simply […]
How to culture live sphagnum Read More »
First, some eye candy. Now for how to get here. You begin with a healthy pinguicula plant (healthier than this – this is a plant after I pulled off the leaves, because I forgot to take photos before). It should have a good number of leaves, enough to not miss a couple. Do not pull
How I make Pinguicula cuttings – Pinguicula agnicola as example Read More »
I have a seedgrown nepenthes merrilliana that is about two years old or so. It has never pitchered other than when it was a very small seedling. It gets good conditions. 5-6 hours of light. Good water, consistent humidity. Other plants near it are pitchering. This one flat out refuses. If you see the photo,
Nepenthes merrilliana refuses to pitcher. Read More »
Carnivorous plants often expect the substrate merely for the physical base to keep them grounded, significantly as a source of clean water & and for the roots to dig in away from the light. some pings and droseras do produce roots upwards, but that open for another conversation. Its is often safer to have one
How to use cocopeat for your carnivrous plants. Read More »
Some drosera burmanii photos: Drosera burmanii may be tiny, but they have mighty dew! Drosera burmanii can get red when not fed for a while You can grow drosera burmanii nice and tidy in pots. Or the drosera burmanii grow wherever they want, like when seeds fall into some other empty pot… Drosera burmanii don’t
I am going to try and add photos to give a visual idea later, but frankly, I don’t usually take pics while working with plants, so it may be a bit of a struggle to find the right ones. So it may have to wait till the next time I do cuttings. Right at the
How I do nepenthes cuttings Read More »
The plants you buy will be shipped to you bare root. When you receive them, take them out of the packing and gently GENTLY place them on growing media. Create a hollow in the surface of the media and gently place the plant in it and cover any roots that are easily covered, with media.
Successfully acclimatizing pinguicula that arrive via shipping Read More »
Took some nice photos of the latest pitcher on my nepenthes mirabilis var globosa x hamata and thought to share them here. This plant is still juvenile and has just started producing slightly bigger pitchers. The adult pitchers should be really stunning if these are anything to go by. The ribbed peristomes come from the
Nepenthes mirabilis var globosa (Nepenthes viking) x Nepenthes hamata photos Read More »
Almost half the people who buy plants from me or discuss carnivorous plants end up asking where to buy sphagnum moss or other supplies necessary for growing carnivorous plants in India. Since I repeat this information often, I thought I’d put up a list of where I buy things from. Please note, any links to
Where to find sphagnum moss and other carnivorous plant growing supplies in India? Read More »
