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Originally Posted by Bunbuku  Also do you think these plants need to eat bugs on can, we supply nutrients by other conventional means? (root tabs liquid ferts, etc). |
Most carnivorous plants can be "fertilized" by feeding them powdered milk (or so I've read - not sure where, though). Most experts, however, suggest you simply feed your plants "bugs" as suggested in the following link (Most aquarium stores usually carry the following bugs so this shouldn't be an issue):
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2440.html
Meat or bugs w/ too much fat in them are not good for carnivorous plants. Most insects they would naturally eat are actually very lean. Housefly's are not good to feed to carnivorous plants as well; They're the Big Mac of insects - not very nutritional and bound to lead to health problems if eaten regularly (If they caught one or two, i wouldn't remove them, but i don't think it's a good idea to feed them to the carnivorous plants either. Sarracenia may be the exception since they normally catch a lot of flys, but don't quote me on that.)
Feeding with powdered milk has been suggested for the easy to feed plants like drosera, pinguicula, etc. Utricularia, as far as i know, feed on microscopic bugs in the water so I'm not sure how to feed them other than raise bugs. (I'll also freely admit that I was never into Utricularia much either - what fun is a carnivorous plant when you can't see the trapping mechanism?).