Venus fly traps are fun to have but can be tough to keep alive for more than a few weeks... unless you know how to grow them.  Once you figure this out they can thrive for years and give you a lot of fun and pleasure. Venus fly traps are carnivorous plants.  Carnivorous plants usually grow in bogs or other areas in which nutrients naturally found in soil from decaying vegetation has been leached out by a water continuously moving through the soil.  Since carnivorous plants can not get the nutrients necessary for their growth from the soil, they have to trap and digest insects to get the nutrients they need to grow. The essential thing in growing venus fly trap (or any other plant, for that matter) is to mimick its natural habitat as closely as possible.  Here's how: SOIL: Venus fly traps MUST have a nutrient free soil mix.  This is best attained using sphagnum peat moss mixed with either sand or perlite.  I use a 60/40 mix of peat/perlite.  Remember, do not fertilize your plant or use a soil that has fertilizer in it. WATER: Venus fly traps grow in bogs, which are constantly wet.  Place the pot with your venus fly trap in a saucer with approxametaly ½ - 1" of water in it.  It is alright to let the water in the saucer dry out every once in a while, but only occasionally and for short periods of time. The soil should never dry out completely.  As I have said before, carnivorous plants do not like extra nutrients and minerals in their soil, so it is essential to use distilled or rain water unless you have excellent tap water (ie.  low mineral content). LIGHT: Venus fly traps like light.  You can grow them on a bright windowsill or outside, but not in the shade.  A south, west, east, or southwest/southeast facing windowsill should be fine.  You can also use artificial lighting.  This is best done using fluorescent lights.  While some growers prefer to use wide-spectrum lights or specialty "grow lights", cool white or warm white bulbs seem to work fine.  Keep the light about 12 " above your plants.  Two bulbs is ussually enough, although using four bulbs may be needed and will give your plants more coloration. TEMPERATURE: Venus fly traps like warm summers (up to 85 F, 30 C) and cold winters (down to 33 F, 0 C).  For more on the winters, see the section titled "DORMANCY". DORMANCY: Most plants that live in temperate climates (climates which have a cold winter and a warm or hot summer) have a natural dormancy period.  Dormancy is when plant rest during harsher conditions (very cold, very dry, etc.) and ready themselves for more favorable conditions. When trees lose their leaves in the winter they are in dormancy.  Dormancy could be compared to humans sleeping.  We need sleep to survive, right?  Venus fly traps NEED dormancy to survive. If the miss one or two dormancies they will likely die and in the spring look a little like you do if you try pulling an allnighter or two in a row and you haven't had your coffee yet.  Anyway, I hope I have made it clear enough that vfts need dormancy in the winter.  There are exceptions to this rule: if you are growing them from seed you can skip dormancy the first two winters.  If you have just received your plants from a nursery that does tc they may not need a dormancy.  Ask the nursery about this. There are several methods of how you can give your flytraps dormancy.  They will need less light, temperature, and water.  If you live in an area where the winters get cold (most parts of the world) you can leave your flytraps outside.  However, it is good to have them in a 6"+ pot or cover them to insure that they don't freeze solid.  They can be covered in snow however freezing can kill them.  In the wild they often experience cold weather and occasionally get snowed over.  If you have a basement or garage that gets cold (around 40 F) then you can put them there for the winter. The other method you can try is ussually called the refridgeration method.  Here you can do two things.  You can either put the whole pot including the vft into a ziplock bag and place that in the fridge or you can carefully uproot the plant and put it in the ziplock bag with some tissue paper and place that in the fridge.  Either way you choose, it is good to use fungicide to make sure you plants don't mold or rot.  Depending on what method you are using, dip either the washed plant or the whole pot into a fungicide solution before placing them in the fridge.  Do not use soap or other alkaline based fungicides. FEEDING: You don't have to.  In most cases, venus fly traps can catch all the bugs they need themselves.  After all, nobody goes around the natural vft habitats feeding them all the time, do they?  Venus fly traps will grow fine even if they only catch something every two weeks or so.  They receive their energy from the sun and only need the insects to attain the minerals and nutrients they need to grow.  If you do want to feed your venus fly trap, make sure the insect you feed it is not more than 2/3 the length of the trap, but large enough to trigger the trap and not be able to get out.  Usually ants are too small, and bumble bees are too large.  You can buy insects or maggots to feed your plants at bait shops (for fishing) or you can catch bugs in your garden.  DO NOT feed you plants anything that is dead, especially hamburger meat.  The trap needs to be triggered even after it is closed otherwise it will re-open within a few hours.  Do not feed your plants hamburger meat, it can kill the trap and stink. FLOWERING: Like most plants, venus fly traps flower.  They generally, but not always, do this in the spring. You can tell if your venus fly trap is flowering if you seen a stem coming up from the middle, topped with a little nubby bud. If this happens, you have two options: You can let the venus fly trap flower, possibly producing seed, or you can cut the flower stalk off to conserve energy for the plant so that it can make more traps. The flowers are not stunning, so unless your plant is healthy like the one pictured on the right, I would suggest cutting the flower stalk off early. If you have any more questions, check out the CP FAQ, email me at nelhardt@hotmail.com or post your question here.

Growing Information

Copyright (c) Noah Elhardt, 2002 - 2005