My very first VFT *ever*!

I gave in today and bought a VFT.

I've been longing for one of these for decades but I knew they were hard to raise and I never gave into the urge to own one before but this Black Spring has made me crazy for greenery. I just couldn't resist those green leaves with red traps any longer.

Okay. Now what do I have to know and what do I have to do to keep it alive?

Right now it is sitting in a small plastic well inside a large ceramic dish filled with water. I have a nice set of plant lights to give it enough light. And, hey, I already fed it a bug. :)

I'd appreciate links to sites on care or other tidbits you all can provide. I'm also working my way through the archives.

I'm worried about what will happen when the AC is on this summer. Should it be an outside plant? Did I read right and see that it can winter outside (well mulched) in zone 5??


THX!

VFTs are outside plants and need a winter dormant period of 4-5 months. You do not need to feed them, once outside they will catch all they need. Use rainwater or distilled water ONLY. Tap water or "bottled" water is a NO NO.

A great CP forum is:

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/

Tom

Yes, you read correctly. In your zone which I believe is probably a 5 or a 6, this plant should be outside for at least 7 months of the year.

The International Carnivorous Plants Society has FAQs that are phenomenal for this plant-
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/

If you go to this area of their site and scroll down, there is an entire section devoted exclusively to venus fly traps-
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Thanks to both of you. I'll check out the links. I would never have dreamed this plant could be outside. That is REALLY exciting to me. I may have to invest in more of them now. :)

Oh you WILL get more! Resistance is futile! Try some American pitcher plants too!

Tom

Congratulations on your new baby! :-)



Venus Flyraps are not hard to raise; they are easy, if you follow their few but strict requirements.



Others may disagree with me, but Venus Flytraps are my favorite carnivorous plant (although Sarracenia are really growing on me) and they seem to like how I take care of them, so my very brief advice that covers the main points is this--


* Water -- Use only rainwater, distilled water or reverse osmosis water. Venus Flytraps require very pure water. Your tap water is likely to contain too many minerals, which will probably kill a Venus Flytrap in time. Always keep your Venus Flytraps moist, but never soggy for long, and never dry. One way to accomplish this is to water thoroughly from the top or by allowing water to soak into the medium from the bottom through the drainage hole, and then allow the planting medium to dry until it is just moist before watering again. Although some people recommend it, I personally don't like to place Venus Flytrap containers in a tray of water for hours or days unless it's absolutely necessary to prevent them from drying out while unattended (such as when you are taking a vacation or trip for a few days). When Venus Flytraps are very wet, they should also be warm and in the sun. Wet and cold is unhealthy (just like it is for people) and can cause fungal infections, rot and even death.

* Soil -- Venus Flytraps must have a particular kind of soil. They will very likely die in "potting soil" or soil from your garden or yard. Their soil must be like the soil in their natural habitat: acidic and with almost no nutrients, moisture retentive but well drained. Until you learn what various types of ingredients you can have in their soil (from research on the Internet or from books, for example), it is best to use pure shagnum peat moss (no other kind of "moss") mixed with a more or less equal amount of silica sand (not beach or river or "play" sand) and/or perlite.

* Sun -- Venus Flytraps like a lot of sun. However, if the sides of a planter become very hot in full sun, try to cool the planter so that the roots don't overheat or burn. One way to do this without depriving the Venus Flytrap of the sun it wants and needs, is to place the planting container inside another larger container, with perlite filling the space between the two to insulate the inside container. Another way is to plant the Venus Flytrap in a styrofoam container (like a 20 ounce insulated beverage cup with a drainage hole punched in the bottom) or in a polyurethane foam planter or other insulating container.

* Fertilizer? No--Never. Venus Flytraps will almost certainly die from fertilizer for the same reason that they usually die from tap water: too many minerals and chemicals. These burn the plants' roots and kill them. Venus Flytraps get all the nutrition they need from the sun (through photosynthesis like any plant) and from the insects they catch. If they are healthy and if you put them outside sometimes to "hunt," they will catch insects on their own. You can also feed them captured flies or other insects (but not meat, which will likely rot the trap!). It helps to place a captured fly in a glass bottle that is very cold (has been kept in the refrigerator or freezer) for a few minutes to make the fly lethargic. Use tweezers to hold the drowsy fly by a wing, then place the fly in a trap and move it a little to stimulate the trigger hairs near the middle of the trap, which should cause a healthy trap to close. Don't close the traps over and over again, because each trap must grow a very particular way to be able to close, and can only snap shut a few times (perhaps half a dozen) before it won't respond anymore.

* Dormancy -- Venus Flytraps must have a rest period of a few months every year. When the days become shorter and cooler in the Fall, the plants begin to slow down, not grow as much, and the traps begin to be sluggish. During dormancy Venus Flytraps should be kept cool (above freezing to about 50 degrees at night; they can be warmer, but still a little cool, during the day) and should not be watered nearly as often because they don't need nor use as much water during their dormancy. Carefully cut off any traps that turn black. This is natural. Venus Flytrap leaves, like all plants' leaves, eventually die and are replaced by fresh leaves in time. During dormancy a healthy Venus Flytrap can look almost dead on top, but assuming it has not dried out completely nor rotted from too much water, it is healthy and will begin to grow vigorously again sometime in the Spring. At that time it will appreciate being placed in warmer conditions and watered more frequently again.


You will do yourself a big favor if you visit some of the online carnivorous plant forums and read and ask questions about your new plant. :-)

CPUK Forum
http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/portal.php

TerraForums
http://terraforums.com/forums/index.php

International Carnivorous Plant Forum
http://icps.proboards105.com/

There are quite a few other sites to gain valuable information from, if you find them using a search engine ( my favorite is Clusty.com )

Best wishes, and happy healthy growing-- :-)

Steve
New Mexico US

Very nice informative post.

Thank you, Equilibrium. :-)

I should have mentioned that during dormancy (as everyone who grows them knows) Venus Flytraps can withstand freezing temperatures if the weather doesn't get too terribly cold (I don't know exactly how cold for how long, since I live in a southern U.S. climate and my Venus Flytraps have never had to experience the winters of colder climates (more northern, higher altitude, etc.). Perhaps someone who grows them in a more northern environment can comment on this.

From my point of view, the main advantage of keeping them from freezing is that if one does so, often last year's leaves will make it through dormancy (at least some of them) and become active again after dormancy, their traps suddenly strong and quick again, trapping the season's first prey which along with the photosynthesis the leaves perform, give the VFTs a good breakfast and a head start after their long nap.
:-)

-Steve


This message was edited Apr 20, 2007 4:41 AM

Hi everyone,
Just an update. My original VFT was doing so good that I bought it a companion (with a flower bud!) and moved them to a huge brandy snifter. I'm really enjoying them. I still don't have enough nerve to permantely plant them outside but I may summer them out there.

Hi Scott ,
They are nice plants you have there .
Watch out for rot .
From to much water .

Hey Ginger! What brings you over here? Does your wife know you escaped to over here? Lucky us! I understand you Aussies have some kick Drosera! If you can post photos of little penguins... you can post photos of Drosera. Cough up some photos love. You're from the land of Allen Lowrie so I know you've got the "good stuff".

What do you mean ?

Are these Carnivorous ?

Ummm, not exactly ;)

A neighbour 3 down has them growing WILD .

I was thinking more along the lines of something like this-
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v30n4p104_106.html

Not heard of them B4 .
But I`ll be looking from now on .

How long will the flower stalk grow before it blooms? It's about 8" long now and has pushed the cover off the brandy snifter and continued shooting up toward the light bank. Every morning it's about an inch longer than it was the night before. I'm starting to worry it's too close to my bed. :)

You are growing your vft in brandy sifter with a lid? Interesting.

Too close to your bed, eh? Uh oh :)

Loose lid, Equilibrium. It's really just the plastic dish that you put under a pot -- it happened to fit the top of the brandy snifter pretty darned good. I don't get a moisture build up and everyone seems pretty happy.

My flower spike is finally blooming and all is well. I don't have to move my bed..... YET. :)

Are yooooooooooooooooooooooou sure you don't have to move your bed???

Until a Venus Flytrap is mature and very healthy, it's probably best to cut off any emerging flower stalks, because the plant invests a lot of its current and stored resources into the production of the stalk, flowers and seed. If you cut the stalk off (before it gets too big), the plant will invest its energy into the production of photosynthesizing and trapping leaves instead, and the plant will then build up its reserves instead of depleting them.

A fully mature and healthy plant, however, can flower and seed with no harm to the plant. I have quite a few producing flowers and seed right now (May, 2007). I plan to germinate many of the seeds and send the rest to the International Carnivorous Plant Society's seed bank.
:-)

Steve

I agree 100% with Steve on this one. If in doubt, pinch those blooms!

Aw, shucks, I hate pinching off blooms. Well, one has flowered but the plant is putting up another stalk and the OTHER VFT is putting up a flower stalk, too. (It must be all those juicy Indiana ticks I've been feeding them.) Okay, *sigh*, I'll remove them.

Just out of curiousity, though, do I need male and female plants to produce viable seed?

Nope!

Pinch away!

With Venus Flytraps, you don't need male and female plants to produce seed. Each flower has both male (pollen producing anthers), and female (the pollen-receptive stigma on the style) parts.

However, on each flower, the pollen and stigma don't mature at the same time. First the pollen is produced and matures, then a number of hours or a day later the stigma (at the middle of the flower) spreads and develops a pad of tiny thread-like pollen receptors. A person can tell what stage the flower is in like this--

1. The flower petals unfurl
2. The anthers develop a fluffy coating of pollen (the pollen is ripe to fertilize another flower whose stigma is ready and receptive)
3. Some hours (perhaps a day) later the filaments that the anthers are attached to bend away from the center of the flower as the pollen production part of the cycle is over
4. The stigma at the center of the flower (on top of the style which is attached to the ovary, all of which together are called the pistil) spreads at the top to form a pad with tiny threadlike pollen receptors. The flower is ready to be pollinated by another flower's pollen.
5. The flower petals begin to curl inward; fertilization is either complete or has not occurred.
6. The ovary either turns black in a couple days or so (if it was not fertilized), or it begins to swell as seed are produced.

Hope that helps. :-)

Steve

I just love it when he visits and provides the expert answer!