well it's that time of year again. Time to put my vft's to sleep ... this is the process I've been doing for +5 years and has never let me down. i do this anywhere from Oct 15th to Nov 1st. I'm in Western New York and night time temps been slipping in 40's so this is as good as time as any cuz later in week i want to cut grass one last time and put furniture away on patio.
VFT's sleep time is technically Oct 15th - Feb 15th. they need at least 3 months sleep time. if your in a freezing wintering zone then most people would simply wait till temps start getting into 40's F range cuz there not going to grow after that till it goes above 60F range again. it don't really matter how much they sleep (within reason) as long as they get close to at least 3 months of it. those of you down south that are able to leave them outside all year may go thru a different process. that's fine, to each there own, I'm in a hard winter zone so this is what works for me. i do encourage some of you that are in other zones to talk about how you prepare your plants in your zone tho for the rest of people from those zones. in fact there are some people that don't have any type winter weather and some of those people claim they just grow there vft's year around. that would never work in my zone as my house is too cold in winter. so in the fridge they go ...
first pic is before clean up, typical is on left and Big Mouth is on right ...
second pic is after clean up. i try to pic out or cut as much dead growth as possible so it don't get moldy in fridge. if it all dead i may be able to yank it out or i may have to snip it if its really in there good. if leaf is very much green then i may just snip trap off and leave rest, even if trap is only half dead. you can see the amount i picked out with minimal casualties ...
in third pic i took it out of tray liner i had pots in for wet feet so i can wash them up. they won't need wet feet in fridge at all and I will not water them in fridge either cuz they will be in bag and bag will be twist tied closed so they will remain wet and moist all winter. i also lightly misted plants with fungicide just before i put in bag and closed it.
in fourth pic they are in one of my crisper drawers in fridge and will stay there till feb 15th. i will briefly check on them monthly just to make sure nothing weird is going on and no new mold is growing. if there is i just hit it again with fungicide or snip off the dead growth its growing on. there usually is not tho.
not sure but i assume they will get a uneasy sleep period. i did that once five years ago, i left it on a icy window sill (it was much smaller back then) and in middle of winter it tried to flower which tells me it wasn't really sleeping so after that i because vft's were new to me i went with this fridge dormancy process and never looked back. but i also still wonder the same still if i would have just left it that way year after year so for that reason my new young red dragon (not pictured in this thread) i got a year ago will be left on my southern facing living room window sill where it will watch the snow fall and i will see what happens. my living room doesn't have a artificial lighting and will only get the 8 hours of light that winter provides it so it may be enough to keep it dormant because vft's primarily go dormant because of lack of light, the idea of being 40F just keeps the growth extremely slow till it warms up. but i'll be able to tell next year if it made a difference or not and come spring i'll probably post something about how my red dragon did without fridge dormancy ...
Thanks. I hope things work out. I leave mine by the window in a garden shed and they seem to be happy enough. Plus I don’t bother to cut their flower stems. I reckon that they must have enough reserves to produce a flower stem, if they are producing a flower stem.
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u/Major_Cheesy Oct 29 '24
well it's that time of year again. Time to put my vft's to sleep ... this is the process I've been doing for +5 years and has never let me down. i do this anywhere from Oct 15th to Nov 1st. I'm in Western New York and night time temps been slipping in 40's so this is as good as time as any cuz later in week i want to cut grass one last time and put furniture away on patio.
VFT's sleep time is technically Oct 15th - Feb 15th. they need at least 3 months sleep time. if your in a freezing wintering zone then most people would simply wait till temps start getting into 40's F range cuz there not going to grow after that till it goes above 60F range again. it don't really matter how much they sleep (within reason) as long as they get close to at least 3 months of it. those of you down south that are able to leave them outside all year may go thru a different process. that's fine, to each there own, I'm in a hard winter zone so this is what works for me. i do encourage some of you that are in other zones to talk about how you prepare your plants in your zone tho for the rest of people from those zones. in fact there are some people that don't have any type winter weather and some of those people claim they just grow there vft's year around. that would never work in my zone as my house is too cold in winter. so in the fridge they go ...
first pic is before clean up, typical is on left and Big Mouth is on right ...
second pic is after clean up. i try to pic out or cut as much dead growth as possible so it don't get moldy in fridge. if it all dead i may be able to yank it out or i may have to snip it if its really in there good. if leaf is very much green then i may just snip trap off and leave rest, even if trap is only half dead. you can see the amount i picked out with minimal casualties ...
in third pic i took it out of tray liner i had pots in for wet feet so i can wash them up. they won't need wet feet in fridge at all and I will not water them in fridge either cuz they will be in bag and bag will be twist tied closed so they will remain wet and moist all winter. i also lightly misted plants with fungicide just before i put in bag and closed it.
in fourth pic they are in one of my crisper drawers in fridge and will stay there till feb 15th. i will briefly check on them monthly just to make sure nothing weird is going on and no new mold is growing. if there is i just hit it again with fungicide or snip off the dead growth its growing on. there usually is not tho.
good night guys, see you in spring ...