S. minor var. okefenokeensis Charlton Co, GA

[meizzwang]

Much of the okee giants you see today in cultivation are from the Ware Co, GA population, which comes in all sorts of different shapes, colors, and sizes. They'll consistently get large year after year (around 2.5'), but to get them giant (3+feet tall) in cultivation is a challenge. There was one year where we had an Indian summer and every last clone of mine from Ware Co, GA got to about 3' tall. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, and some individual clones from Ware Co, GA do get gigantic consistently (ie. Phil Faulisi's clone). There's also many European clones that may perform better than the ones we have here in the US.

From what I've observed, it seems the biggest pitcher come from spring growth, at least when grown outdoors in full sun here in Northern California. Of course, as mentioned earlier, when we had a warm summer and fall, they produced the biggest traps during that time.

At this point in time, the Charlton Co, GA population seems to be putting on an amazing performance. For one, I've found some individuals with not quite an inch long rhizome that produced over a foot tall pitcher last year! This spring, almost every last individual plant has produced over a foot tall pitcher. I've never seen this in the Ware Co, GA population, and only time will tell if these clones get gigantic year after year under optimal conditions. I suspect they do!

S. minor var. okefenokeensis Charlton Co, GA, photos taken 4/21/16:


S. minor var. okefenokeensis Charlton Co, GA to the left and S. minor var. okefenokeensis Ware Co, GA to the right. To be fair, I cut down last year's pitchers on the Ware co, GA population pretty low this year, which would explain why they aren't as tall:



S. minor var. okefenokeensis Charlton Co, GA:


To be continued.....

[meizzwang]

Plants have since filled and they're rather impressive! Photos taken 8/25/16:



Even seeing some late summer/early fall pitchers developing that are really tall considering how small the rhizomes are:




Hard to tell how tall this is, but it's tall:




Charlton Co, GA on the left, and Ware Co, GA population on the right:

[wireman]

I've seen these in the wild and they're incredible! I've seen several that were over 4 feet tall with minimal shade. Seeing is believing with those plants.

[rudeko]

Do you have pic's of these wireman

[wireman]

Mar 12, 2017 10:25:01 GMT -5 rudeko said:

Do you have pic's of these wireman

And video.  It'll take me a while to get to them since I have a huge backlog.

[meizzwang]

Wireman: your videos on youtube are outstanding, keep up the great work!

[cpbobby]

@ mike - I finally found one of your N-clones floating around.....should be arriving soon. stoked.

[meizzwang]

I dead-headed the plants last winter and chopped off every last pitcher, yet they still produced pretty darn big traps this year! These traps are actually relatively stunted in size. If you leave the previous year's traps on, you can get significantly larger spring pitchers. So why did MW chop them all down? Time, energy, and new baby. Mainly new baby, LOL

Now that the plants have great roots and are growing very fast, I'm going to increase the amount of peat they're growing in this winter, that will likely result in much larger traps next year. They'll probably need better spacing too, the tub they're growing in is packed to the brim with plants.

Photos taken 7/30/17:

[stevebooth]

very nice clone indeed.

Cheers
Steve

[meizzwang]

Another clone from the same batch getting pretty big! Photo taken 8/14/17:

[boarderlib]

Nothing like rubbing a little salt in the anticipation wound, eh Mike? .

Heath

[alexis]

Interesting you still got some decent pitchers with cutting them back in winter. Mine absolutely hate it. They seem to be the only species that complains about being cut to the ground in my experience. They're only recovering about now

[bogman]

Who knows what all the variables are: extra photosynthesis, nutrients, spring insect capture. We always cut ours to 3 inch stubs, once the subfreezing temperatures have mostly killed off the tops. Otherwise, we'd have a rotting, moldy mess and ideal vole habitat. Most everyone who knows me understands my dislike for voles; last thing I'd want to do is make a hideout of Sarracenia pitchers for them. They'd eat up all the plants, maybe some of the pressure-treated wood and in their ravenous rampage, move on to bigger things.

I was in my Chevy '98, with the motor off, reading the owner's manual for oil specs (diesel). I kept hearing a weird scratching kinda noise and next thing I knew, the rear driver-side tire was deflating. I looked out the window and a herd of voles were chewing the tire up, so the vehicle would be low enough for them to hop in and attack!

When I fired up the engine and sped off, the sound of voles banging off the wheel wells confirmed it was not a one-tire assault. When I got to a service station, the mechanic thought I was mad: "You just don't want to admit you backed in too far at the dump."

That was until he started to change the tires and found tiny teeth in the rubber. And this, in a wheel well:

Sorry, lost focus.. Perhaps one reason we don't see much health/size loss by cutting fall pitchers is the volume of insect capture during all seasons. Pitchers here routinely fill up with insects. We're surrounded by fields, forests and pastures, so lots of variety in the prey dept. Also, because it gets so cold, the winter rhizomes are not consuming many calories or nutrients. This would not be true in areas where winter temperatures are often above, say 48 degrees F.

It would be interesting to compare plants with pitchers left on and those cut off in winter/late fall-with the cut plants receiving a spring dose of weak fertilizer as pitchers are shooting up. Mike, are you fertilizing these guys? If so, how and when?

[kiwiearl]

Aug 26, 2017 8:02:18 GMT -5 bogman said:

I was in my Chevy '98, with the motor off, reading the owner's manual for oil specs (diesel). I kept hearing a weird scratching kinda noise and next thing I knew, the rear driver-side tire was deflating. I looked out the window and a herd of voles were chewing the tire up, so the vehicle would be low enough for them to hop in and attack!

When I fired up the engine and sped off, the sound of voles banging off the wheel wells confirmed it was not a one-tire assault. When I got to a service station, the mechanic thought I was mad: "You just don't want to admit you backed in too far at the dump."

That was until he started to change the tires and found tiny teeth in the rubber. And this, in a wheel well:

Far out!

[kiwiearl]

Loving the peat stained thumb nail in your photos MW. Total giveaway of a committed Sarra grower!

Hope I got that right and you didn't hire hand talent?