This makes me wonder: if you give them nicer soil than they evolved in, can they still use those nutrients instead, or do they require insects to survive now?
If you put them right into rich soil, it will absolutely kill them. If you put them in nutient-poor, moist soil that has juuust enough micronutrients, they can survive without insects.
But yes, even watering with tap water will kill them, due to too many dissolved minerals
They really don’t care where the nutrients come from. However they take very little to keep going for a long time.
Cell biologist I worked with tested tested this one.
He placed 10 small plants into sterile agar made with diluted Hoagland’s solution. He then sealed the petri dishes with petrifilm (gas permeable). Then placed them under a low light (4 T12’s at 20cm and a 12 hour photoperiod).
He started them about 5 years before I met him. We worked together for 11 years and he never lost a plant.
I guess this depends on if they lost functional roots or not. If they are like bromeliads that lost water uptake in their roots (which instead take up water and nutrients through trichomes in their tank) then they probably don’t care about how much nutrients are in the soil. I’d think that as most bromeliads are epiphytes without any real type of soil that that is the reason they lost this functionality. And that many species of carnivorous plants are usually just growing in nutrient-poor soils. So eating animals would just be a way to get more/sufficient nutrients but that it might be still useful for them to have functional roots.
But this is only speculation. Maybe someone else has more tangible info?
This makes me wonder: if you give them nicer soil than they evolved in, can they still use those nutrients instead, or do they require insects to survive now?
nope, it kills them because they cant handle all the extra stuff
If you put them right into rich soil, it will absolutely kill them. If you put them in nutient-poor, moist soil that has juuust enough micronutrients, they can survive without insects.
But yes, even watering with tap water will kill them, due to too many dissolved minerals
They really don’t care where the nutrients come from. However they take very little to keep going for a long time.
Cell biologist I worked with tested tested this one.
He placed 10 small plants into sterile agar made with diluted Hoagland’s solution. He then sealed the petri dishes with petrifilm (gas permeable). Then placed them under a low light (4 T12’s at 20cm and a 12 hour photoperiod).
He started them about 5 years before I met him. We worked together for 11 years and he never lost a plant.
I guess this depends on if they lost functional roots or not. If they are like bromeliads that lost water uptake in their roots (which instead take up water and nutrients through trichomes in their tank) then they probably don’t care about how much nutrients are in the soil. I’d think that as most bromeliads are epiphytes without any real type of soil that that is the reason they lost this functionality. And that many species of carnivorous plants are usually just growing in nutrient-poor soils. So eating animals would just be a way to get more/sufficient nutrients but that it might be still useful for them to have functional roots.
But this is only speculation. Maybe someone else has more tangible info?