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OK, I wrote my theory, and then read the article: same. But I will add that a commercial grower of venus flytraps once got curious, and took a few thousand clo
by IAmBroom 1y ago
OK, I wrote my theory, and then read the article: same.
But I will add that a commercial grower of venus flytraps once got curious, and took a few thousand cloned plantings, growing them in a variety of conditions. As soon as the soil became nourishing, the plants would die. Post mortem seemed to indicate their roots were fungally attacked.
So: plant adapts to living in a food desert (not an actual one, of course; it has to be wet for the carnivory to work, as the article points out). Plant gains weirdo digestion abilities, but at the same time, it no longer needs expensive anti-fungal defences - because the ground isn't rich enough to support parasitic fungi.
Then: human adds the nutrients back in. Boom! The ordinary fungus in the air, which has a tough time invading grass or tree or tobacco or pepper roots (because they have extensive defences, like capsaicin), lands in the rich soil of pretty-much helpless flytrap roots, and has a buffet.
- NegativeLatency 1y agoSorta similar with a lot of plants I imagine, we planted a Madrone tree and it's very tempting to want to water a small & new tree but they can also get root issues if the ground is too wet or doesn't drain well enough. They're highly adapted to living on the sides of cliffs.
- ge96 1y agoI've been trying to grow a mango from a seed for so long. The roots always get hit by black fungus and it dies off. Tallest I got one to grow was about 10"
- pantalaimon 1y agoSame with Lychee, after a bit the leaves all start getting brown from the tip and die off. Avocado on the other hand grows like a charm.
- thatcat 1y agoTry adding some natto innoculant to the seed
- kakapo5672 1y agoWeird. We just planted a madrone too. Labor of love (beautiful trees), but they are very iffy trees to get going. I did attempt to help things along by putting lots of madrone duff with it, so as to try to get the right biota.
- tetha 1y agoWe recently had this discussion about house plants as well. The unexpected part is: Too much watering hurts more than too little watering. Especially with bad drainage. If the watering is on the too-little side for the evaporation and plant size going on, well, the plant will look a little sad for a bit. Then you water it, and it goes back up and looks happy again. This is a situation plants regularly deal with in the wild - drought - and they have adapted to it. If you water too much, especially with bad drainage, there will be stagnant water in the pot, roots rot and the plant dies with little recourse. So now I make sure my pots can drain, take my plants outside once or twice a week, absolutely drown their soil and let that drain for an hour or two. This way, the soil becomes saturated without stagnant water and... some of these plants are reproducing and growing at unreasonable rates for the amount of effort placed into them.
- khafra 1y agoI hope there's a mad scientist somewhere, making a cross-genetic venus flytrap that also produces capsaicin and nicotine.
- konfusinomicon 1y agothrow thc in and that will make one hell of a hot tamale
- IAmBroom 1y agoGenius!
- Terr_ 1y agoSo it draws people in with the promise of a nicotine fix, and then sprays them with mace to stop them from struggling free...
- dyauspitr 1y agoAnd is also selecting for size. If other plants are anything to go by we can probably increase the size three fold.
- dylan604 1y agoWait, I've seen this movie. I'd suggest not trying this if your name is Seymour
- flir 1y agoHm. What about hydroponics? Lower risk of fungal infections there.
- belval 1y agoIn a clean room maybe, but honestly hydroponics usually makes things like that worse, not better and I say that as someone who's had a set up for over ~5 years at this point. At the end of the day it's a pit of water with nutrient that is usually somewhat warm. You can control algae with hydrogen peroxide but there is always some water that will stagnate somewhere and lead to some mold level. It's really best to grow plants with a clear growth => harvest cycle so that you can periodically re-sanitize everything.
- blacksmith_tb 1y agoI think that's a double whammy, not only are the fungi ready and willing to use those extra nutrients in the soil, the carnivorous plants have in many cases lost most of their unneeded-in-poor-soils ability to absorb the nutrients. That's why you can feed your flytrap tiny bits of hamburger (or maybe tofu, not sure if the amino balance matters unless that's all they're getting?)
- kragen 1y ago98% of grass or tree or tobacco or pepper roots are invaded by fungus, and cannot survive in soil if they are not invaded by fungus. Rice is one of the rare exceptions. Having their roots invaded by fungus is probably what enabled plants to colonize land in the first place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza