CARNIVOROUS BYBLIS

 

 

Byblis is a carnivorous “Godsend” plant for many gardeners faced with flying pests troubles.

Their long sticky leaves trapped anything that flies by.

Enquire for availability in SHOP

 

 

And all they need to thrive are filtered water and as much sun as they could get.

They can be placed outdoor without mosquitoes breeding risk if they are set securely with zero accessibility to wet medium which they preferred.

 

 

Thus these plants are easy to maintain and grow for organic pests prevention.

It is not difficult to propagate the plants by stem cutting.

I preferred using a net-cup and sponge over sphagnum moss to establish the cutting, following in the footstep of Brendan Goh. 

 

 

TIPS FOR GROWING WELL – SUN, WATER, INSECTS

 

HOW TO PROPAGATE THIS PLANT

 

STEP 1 – Chose a netcup size that fit a shallow container

The cutting will not have any roots and its cutting’s end need to be submerged in water.

 

 

STEP 2 – SATURATE SPONGES

Soak sponges ahead of time so that the cutting will be supported by a moist environment to reduce stress to the cutting.

 

 

STEP 3 – Chose a green stem

For easier handling, chose longish (6 – 8 cm) stem for the cutting, however, even short green stem can root.

Remove lower leaves while its still attached to the mother’s plant.

The lower stem will be tucked in the sponge.

Thereafter tuck in, can cut the stem for rooting.

 

Short stem can also root

 

 

The cutting’s end needs to be outside the sponge’s edge.

The water level will reach midpoint of the sponge height.

 

 

STEP 4 – Insert sponge (with cutting) into a netcup.

The latter will be placed over a reservoir container.

 

 

See how this method completely sealed access to stagnant water?

With this method, I will be testing them in outdoor gardens without worrying about mosquitoes breeding.

While we wait for roots to show, this entire container can be placed in the sun and all we need to do is periodically check if water needs topping up.

 

 

 

A shallow container can be further inserted into another taller container to prevent leaves from flopping to the ground.

 

 

This cutting rooted in 10 days on October 30 2018.

It also fell from height due to windy conditions at home but the sponge and netcup buffer the fall well.

 

 

 

 

PLANTS’ CARE NOTES

 

When the roots grew longer, we move netcup holder to another taller container instead of uprooting to transplant the Byblis.

This is a less stressful way to transplant.

They thrive and bloom faster the lesser the stress in their environment.

 

 

REDUCE WATER LEVEL

When the roots grew longer, the sponge will no longer be soaked in water.

This part will be dry, only roots in water.

I hope that this will reduce mealy bugs problem as seen from some posts this morning (October 20 2018).

 

 

SHIELD WATER FROM LIGHT

Without light, algae won’t grow.

Not only are they an unsightly growth, but they also choke off oxygen in the reservoir.

Roots grew better as well in the dark.

Other ways to shield small containers from light with things available in every household.

 

 

 

PART 2 – REVIVAL

We noticed that byblis plants can turn woody over time.

It usually starts at the lower stem area and then progressing higher.

Left untreated, sometimes the plants died.

Drier browning leaves do not trap insects well and they become weaker.

 

 

 

STEPS TO REVIVE BYBLIS

STEP 1 – CUT away dry brown leaves at the lower stem

 

 

 

STEP 2 – TUCK lower stem (where drier leaves were removed) into liquid base if possible.

The sponge now supports the higher area where leaves are still green.

Please Note – Tucked End will not grow roots

 

 

 

STEP 3 – SUPPORT higher stem upright position to harness the sun.

 

 

 

REVIVAL Option 2 – Is better, straight away do re-rooting

Cut away the brownish stem

Root the greener stem again

 

 

BALD STALK REVIVAL

This happened when there is a pests infestation on the plant and we are left with a very short green length (has roots).

A bald stalk can regrow when the roots are established and stem is healthy (green).

The following pictures showed how bald stem revived itself.

 

 

New growth from the sides instead of cut point.

 

 

 

 

 

USING GROW LIGHTS, INDOOR SYSTEMS

Full-spectrum grow lights supplement sunlight on cloudy days.

Flower buds soon showed with the extended daylight.

 

TIP – Leaves cannot touch light panel

 

 

With this netcup setup, it is also possible to plug this carnivorous plant in high tech systems, as a pests prevention measure.

The care maintenance of this plant is just lights and water and any flying insects could be trapped by its long sticky leaves.

The more lights received, the better they thrived.

 

TIP – Needs its own reservoir, not able to tolerate nutrients

 

 

 

OBSERVATIONS

 

1. SUPPORT  – In an indoor environment, BYBLIS that were supported in an upright position seems to thrive better.

 

 

When they recover, these plants will grow new leaves, regained back the sticky sap to trap more insects.

 

2. Green stems had a better chance of rooting than dry brown parts of plants.

 

 

 

4. MEALY Pests can kill BYBLIS

Watch for ants who host mealy bugs and carried these to the plant.

Mealybugs can suck the life out of Byblis.

 

 

If the pests are spotted early,  propagate and re-root from none mealy part of the stem.

Otherwise the mealy had to be physically removed from the plant to save it.

 

 

Ants are usually the culprit or hosts who carried these pests to the plant, even in enclosed systems!

 

 

A new pot designed to protect our Byblis from lashing wind while remaining mosquitoes safe in its own reservoir.

This pot could be used in indoor systems under grow lights.

 

 

 

4. Outdoor Gardens

We found mosquitoes’ presence greatly reduced after it was introduced outdoor.

Access to stagnant water must be sealed completely, thus the sponge method works very well.

When it rained, water-soaked through and in drier times, we could add water and then closing the access.

 

 

 

 

5. Fragile leaves (and stem)

Byblis’s leaves (and stem) were observed to be quite fragile.

They easily break if rubbed against another surface too often. Any tear can cause browning of stem over time and the plant will die.

 

 

 

The only remedy is to cut the green portion of the plant and root with the above steps on propagation.

 

 

These are really pretty and useful plants to grow and propagate.

From one mother plant, we had many cuttings to protect our gardens from common flying pests.

This is how the cut point revived on the mother plant.

Instead of a single offshoot, sometimes two parts emerged. Thus it became a denser bush if we propagate often.

 

 

6. FLOWERS

Byblis flowers (or buds) can survive and bloom without roots on new cutting.

 

 

 

7. NO SEEDS

It is tricky to get Byblis to seed and we’d need cross-pollination from different species to be successful.

 

 

8. ROOTLESS CUTTINGS

Even without roots, the new cuttings could still trapped insects and “feast”.

The more they ate, the faster roots showed.

And then the cycle begins again.

 

 

October 20, 2018, cutting that was used in the propagation steps showed flowers on November 8.

 

 

Mosquitoes and any flying Pests Natural Solution.

 

 

Can be hung on windows to trap more household pests.

Propagate and park them everywhere.

 

 

PS. These handy netcups and sponges and BYBLIS plants are available for SALE here!

 

Last but not least, I am sure there are many other ways to propagate the byblis plants, but this is the way I preferred to do ours.

They are really wonderful to keep pests at bay and we hung these plants everywhere at home.

 

How BYBLIS Plants Trapped Insects.