Christopher Littrell - Carnivorous Plants - Gardening - Style

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Expert Profile: Christopher Littrell

Expertise: I am capable of answering questions about the most common carnivorous plants found in cultivation. I have no personal experience with Byblis, Drosophyllum, Aldrovanda, Utricularia, and Heliamphora. I have not cultivated gemmae forming pygmy sundews nor tuberous sundews. For information regarding those aforementioned species, I would suggest contacting other experts. I can answer questions regarding most species of Nepenthes, tropical and temperate Drosera, Sarracenias, and Dionaea. I have some limited experience with growing Pinguicula, Cephalotus, and Darlingtonia.

Experience in the area
I have grown carnivorous plants off and on for about 27 years. I have made the same mistakes and suffered the same mishaps that many growers make as they attempt to separate the myths from the realities of growing these plants. Currently, I am successfully growing a variety of tropical sundews, a Nepenthes, several Venus Flytraps of varying ages, and Sarracenias. I have been successful in stratifying Sarracenia seeds and providing artificial dormancy requirements for my temperate plants when needed.

Education/Credentials
I hold a Master's degree in Educational Psychology. Over my lifetime, I have constantly read books involving the growing conditions of carnivorous plants. I hope to incorporate the educational aspects involved in psychology with teaching other people how to cultivate carnivorous plants.

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What do you like about this subject? I enjoy growing plants that capture their own fertilizer. Their adaptations are incredible to observe and often just as beautiful as any rose.

What do you still hope to achieve/learn in this field? I hope to increase my knowledge and experience by expanding my collection of plants to those species that I have not grown yet.

Something interesting about this subject that others may not know: Several carnivorous plant types derived similar adaptations, yet are unrelated taxonomically, while some derived as surprisingly different plants in structure, yet are related. For instance, Venus Flytraps are distant relatives of sundews, but Nepenthes and Sarracenias, despite their pitchers, are seemingly unrelated.

Something controversial or provocative about this subject Many carnivorous plants are becoming rare, even endangered, in their natural environments. If you find one growing naturally, it is against the law to take an endangered plant, it's leaves, or it's seeds from it's natural environment.

Average Ratings
Prestige Points: 3890
Knowledge	9.86 Best of the best
Clarity of Response	9.92 Best of the best
Timeliness	9.98 Best of the best
Politeness	9.98 Best of the best
Number Of Questions (in Past 24 Hours)		0
Max Questions to be Asked (in 24 Hour period)		3
Total Questions (since joining AllExperts)		383

Recent Reviews from Users

Knowl	Clarity	Time	Politeness	Date
10	10	10	10	08/21/08
10	10	10	10	08/21/08
10	10	10	10	08/20/08
10	10	10	10	08/08/08
10	10	10	10	08/07/08

User Comments

Awesome
(Marian on 08/21/08)

Thank You!
(Lydia on 08/21/08)

Thanks for the advice.
(Sean on 08/20/08)

thankyou for your advise it will be very helpfull
(Hannah on 08/08/08)

tks your so much help ...I love this site where people can help you out with out the great expense of going to a flower shop..again tks for doing a go
(Judy on 08/07/08)

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Recent Answers from Christopher Littrell

2008-08-21 Light for Pings: Hello Marian, Those compact florescent lights do put out a lot more heat then the shop lights. The only way you might be able to up the intensity would be to use the highest wattage cfl bulbs possible...

2008-08-21 Light for Pings: Hello Marian, You can use stronger lights than that. You can place a set of 40 watt shop light tubes over them. I use 12000 lumens of cool white florescent tubes, that would be 4 40 watt tubes of the...

2008-08-21 Cutting/Trimming Flytraps: Hello Lydia, I just cut off whatever is dead. One trick is to wait until the trap is almost completely blackened before clipping it at the petiole. Often enough the petiole remains green for a while...

2008-08-18 Aquatic worms?: Hello Sean, Since they are so small I would bet that they are difficult to identify. The worm like motion seems to indicate that they are indeed a wormlike critter of some type since mosquito larvae...

2008-08-18 Despite sulfur, cotton-like fungus killing seeds: Hello Jonathan, Fungus is an ever present problem when trying to grow plants from seeds. The fungus can and will attack the seedlings when they are small, but once they get a few months old, should...