Venus Flytrap

[Patrick_G]

@OnlyGenusCaps, check this out. I bet this is beginner stuff for you but I’m proud! 😁 I see some more carnivorous plants in my future.

I bought some Dionaea muscipula at the grocery store of all places. My wife bought one at the nursery and put them both on this little box. 

[Guppysnail]

ORD 😍. YES PLEASE!

[SkaleyAquatics]

This is awesome! how are you feeding?

[AndreaW]

Beautiful! VFTs are fun!

Mine didn't make it through dormancy since I forgot to water it, but my son's are doing well. I'm sure he will buy me another one to try again. 

Your Xerographica is amazing! What do you have it sitting on?

[JoeQ]

Need it!! Where did you get it from? I need that little green house too! 

[brandonnaturally]

You might want to move it outside and leave it outside once it gets warm out (around May). Venus flytraps do not do well indoors long term as they need intense, direct sunlight and need a winter dormancy in order to survive year after year. Here in the PNW, it never gets too cold to kill them and there's no reason not to keep them outside too. By keeping them indoors, they will never get enough light and without a dormancy, they burn out similar to us pulling "all-nighters" every single night lol. Finally, while it is inside, I would remove the cloche cover on it, as they are native to bogs in North America with lots of airflow, not from uber tropical humid places like Nepenthes are. Nepenthes, tropical drosera, pings, or heliamphora make much better cloche-covered houseplants that I think you would enjoy! 🙂

 

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me as I used to work professionally with many carnivorous species of plants and still own one from every genus there is. Always a fun experiment to try to grow them indoors but like I said, usually does not end well long term 😅

 

Photos of a couple years ago when my bog planter was covered in snow vs when spring came lol

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Definitely not beginner stuff - despite those being the place almost all CP growers begin!  In that way it reminds me of goldfish.  A common entry point, but not something that is necessarily easy to maintain long-term. 

I'll echo the advice that @brandonnaturally kindly provided.  When I talk to people here about growing VFT's, I tell them that they like "tomato heat and sun in the summer" and that they aren't tropical so they need a cool, though not cold, winter dormancy.  Dark helps too.  We are on the other side of the equinox as of today, so I am sure you can just continue growing it and worry about dormancy next year.  It's almost certainly on its first summer out of tissue culture, which gives wiggle room.  I would keep the top off the container though.  Fewer potential problems that way. 

VFT's are kind of a pain to grow.  My few live with my Sarrs.  They go outside in their tubs in the summer, and then sit on a dark, hopefully not frozen, shelf in my garage through the winter.  Actually, as I think about it, it's getting time for me to start doing the shoulder season shuffle (move them out in the day, and back during the freezing night).  Such a pain!

If, you are looking to add species, might I suggest the Cape sundew (Drosera capensis)?  You can grow it from seed, it's big and showy, it moves (not as fast as a VFT but does), is happy on a bright windowsill, and best of all for someone who seems to have a number of house plants - it devours fungus gnats! 

[Patrick_G]

On 3/22/2022 at 8:08 AM, SkaleyAquatics said:

This is awesome! how are you feeding?

I have no idea. 😆

[Patrick_G]

@brandon4456 and @OnlyGenusCaps, thanks for the advice. I’ll transfer them out to  live with my Sar. I’m going to have tons of fun setting up a bigger bog display now that I’ve found a nearby nursery with a good selection of carnivorous plants. 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Just for reference, I took a photo of one of my pots of VFT today.  These haven't seen light since October.  Still dormant.  Still happy.  They will bound back with warm weather and loads of light to have 1.5" traps this summer (this is a large clone). 

[Patrick_G]

We ended up keeping these outside all summer. After a little necrosis they did great. My wife's in charge of houseplants, and I think she’ll leave them indoors with the grow light for a while and then move them out for the dormant period. 

[gardenman]

I keep my Venus Fly Trap on my front porch here (Southern New Jersey) through January then move it back inside under the lights. It's the easy way to give it a cold dormancy it wants.  They grow very well and quite fast. Mine's probably four times the size it was when I bought it.