Q&A
If you have a question about Venus flytraps or would like help with a particular problem then leave a comment here and we will try to answer it for you.
I have been too busy to reply to questions here for quite some time, so comments have been closed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Photo courtesy of Jamie Duke.
Pete responded on 27 Oct 2007 at 12:52 am #
Hi.
Our flytrap is looking a bit sad at the moment. We water her with rain water, but some of the leaves turned black and I had to cut them off. There is lots of new growth coming though, and there is a long stem with a small flower starting to appear. I undrstand it’s coming to time for winter so the flytrap should be allowed to rest. Is this best done after flowering?
Also, we now keep her in our bathroom as the atmosphere in there is much more humid and there is less direct hot sunlight (the window is textured so it can’t be seen through properly). Is this better than where we had her before which was on the living room window ledge, over a radiator (heater) and in bright sun for whole afternoon? I wonder if these conditions were too stressful.
Thanks
Pete
Ryan responded on 27 Oct 2007 at 10:55 pm #
Hi Pete,
Direct sunlight is always the best situation for Venus flytraps. Even if it’s dryer than another part of your house and the radiator is keeping it warm then it’s still probably better off there than in your bathroom. Particularly if you live somewhere with regular overcast weather (I have this problem here in New Zealand).
If it’s just some ambient heat coming off the radiator then it’s probably not going to affect your plant too badly. They’re originally from North/South Carolina in the USA so are used to living in quite hot, albeit humid conditions. If it’s an intense burning heat, then your plant will probably dry out and die.
I’m guessing your plant isn’t in a terrarium either. Terrariums usually fix the humidity issue nicely and you don’t need to water them as often as it doesn’t evaporate out of the pot very quickly. In fact a terrarium might help your radiator problem as it may keep it insulated from the heat – or act like a green house and make it worse, I’m not sure which
The main problem I see, is that your plant is flowering. Only very healthy plants survive the flowering process, many die. And you need to snip them off when they’re a small stalk as by that stage the plant is already into flowering mode and it can’t turn back. I’ll have a post on this topic eventually, but in the mean time here’s a page by Flytrap expert Barry Rice about what to do if your plant flowers … http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2480.html
Barry is a little melodramatic though and many people seem to be able to get their plants to survive in some pretty hideous conditions, flower and still come back fighting fit and trapping flies.
Here’s some posts from here at http://flytrapgrowing.info which may be helpful to your particular situation:
Flowers … http://flytrapgrowing.info/flowers/
Lighting … http://flytrapgrowing.info/arghh-my-plant-is-dying-what-am-i-doing-wrong/
Winter dormancy … http://flytrapgrowing.info/dormancy-my-plant-died-during-winter-what-did-i-do-wrong/
Watering … http://flytrapgrowing.info/watering/
cheers,
Ryan
Robert responded on 03 Nov 2007 at 7:21 am #
Hi. I just read your comments about dormancy. How likely is that not putting my CP into dormancy will kill it? I just bought it and I’d like to keep it for showing to my family at Xmas time.
Ryan responded on 03 Nov 2007 at 6:00 pm #
Hi Robert,
Thanks for the question. It will depend on the situation your plant is in. If it is outside, then your Venus flytrap will enter dormancy naturally and you won’t have any choice. If it inside and the area it is in is heated, then it probably wont become properly dormant. Whether it can survive without going into dormancy will depend on it’s general health and well being. If it has nice big traps with red colouration inside each trap then it may be strong enough to survive the winter, if not it may die. It’s hard to judge. At the very least it isn’t going to do it any good by not going into dormancy.
The thing is though, as long as you don’t force into dormancy by placing it in the fridge, then you should still be able to show it off to your family. It will just be a little more wilted than normal. The traps will still be there and if you really must demonstrate it eating a bug then perhaps you could just demonstrate it once for them. One bug over winter isn’t likely to do too much harm, although that particular trap may not like it very much. Even outside they still catch the occasional bug during winter, just not as many that’s all.
Hopefully my answer wasn’t too vague!
benson responded on 04 Nov 2007 at 2:47 pm #
How about over-wintering where there is no winter? I live in Costa Rica and temperatures never fall below 60.
[edit: 60 degrees Fahrenheit = ~16 degrees Celcius]
Ryan responded on 04 Nov 2007 at 6:08 pm #
Good point Benson. Where I live the temperature gets down to about -6 deg. C in winter so I’ve never really thought about that before.
I guess that’s where sticking your plant in the fridge for the winter could be a good idea.
If the plant is healthy it should still be able to survive the winter without going dormant though. It just may not be as healthy looking as it would be if it were allowed to go properly dormant.
Avi responded on 12 Nov 2007 at 9:55 pm #
I have left my flytrap in a terrarium and have left the pot sitting in a tray of h20 and the traps have turned black,is this bad?
Is it better if i elevate them from the water.
Ryan responded on 16 Nov 2007 at 4:25 pm #
Hi Avi,
Apologies for the delay in responding! The website is supposed to email me whenever someone leaves a comment but for some reason it didn’t … anyhows, on to your question …
It isn’t bad to leave your pot sitting in a tray of water as long as it isn’t too deep. I usually leave mine in about 5 mm of water, although others leave them in even deeper water. I wouldn’t go much further than 10 mm though. Your leaves most likely turned black due to other reasons.
There are a whole heap of reasons your traps may have turned black. Including …
Water Quality
Recent change of potting mix
Your plant entered dormancy
Inadequate Lighting
Flow responded on 18 Nov 2007 at 7:27 pm #
if you do not feed your venus fly trap will it still live and just do photosynthesis?
Ryan responded on 19 Nov 2007 at 10:51 pm #
Thanks for the question Flow,
Yes your Venus flytrap will survive perfectly well without catching any bugs. The bugs are only used as an extra kick and they aren’t necessary for survival.
Growers sometimes report slower growth and smaller traps when they don’t catch anything for long periods of time (6 months +).
Photosynthesis should keep them chugging along quite nicely so don’t panic too much if your plant doesn’t find anything to eat. It won’t cause them too die unless they’re not very healthy to start off with.
Kristopher responded on 23 Nov 2007 at 12:05 am #
So i recently bought a dente flytrap from a local gardenshop, and in the past month has grown 3 times its original size and now has 30+ traps, (more than likely 2 or more plants, i realize this) however it was growing a flower stem, i removed it however. Some of the newer traps are turning black now so im sure its finally entering dormancy, i also have an Akai Ryu i recently bought, however when i received it (just yesterday infact, November 21st)the plant seemed rather….dead but had a couple of new traps growing, i place them in a small aquarium and spray the sides down, but keep them in their seperate pots, and every once in awhile stick them infront of a heat source to humidify the tank, is that a good thing to do? Also is it possible to cross breed the two cultivars?
Ryan responded on 23 Nov 2007 at 5:15 am #
Hi Kristopher,
You shouldn’t need to heat the tank to humidify it, just having a water supply in the tank should do the trick – particularly if the aquarium has a lid. All Venus flytrap cultivars are (in theory) cross breedable with other cultivars.
Kristopher also sent me before and after photos which you can see here … As purchased and After two weeks
Kristopher responded on 24 Nov 2007 at 8:14 pm #
i just recently transfered my two plants to the aquarium. i have them in with 2 parts premium canadian sphagnum, and 1 part perlite. is this right? i also watered the mixture before and after transplanting the plants to make sure the soil set right around the rhizome. i did not split the rhizome however, because of the time of year although it looked like i could. i also only covered to the top of the bulb so the rhizome wasnt more than a quarter inch under the soil. is that correct?
Ryan responded on 25 Nov 2007 at 8:27 pm #
Kristopher – I don’t have any experience with Canadian sphagnum but from all accounts it is good for use with Venus flytraps. Different people recommend different ratios of sphagnum : perlite : sand and I’m not sure which is the best option, I guess it depends on the particular batch of soil etc.
Your transplant method sounds good to me, although I must admit I’m no expert in this area. There are differences of opinion on this issue, but in general, even if some of the leaves are underneath the soil they will soon pop through the surface and continue growing as per normal.
I’ll post an article about planting at some stage. But it probably wont be until 2008.
Tonia responded on 28 Nov 2007 at 9:35 pm #
I am a college student and I recently bought a small venus flytrap for fun and to gussy up my apartment. I know that they become dormant around winter, but is it normal for the plant to not move at all when it is touched? I bought the plant at walmart and it is very green, but it will only close about 2 days after I initially put something in the plant, or touch it lightly. Why would it do this?
Ryan responded on 30 Nov 2007 at 6:19 pm #
Tonia – no that is not normal at all. Even in winter the traps will normally close quite rapidly when triggered.
Are you touching the small trigger hairs inside the trap? If not, that is the problem. The traps are only triggered when the trigger hairs are touched. The trigger hairs then need to be repeatedly touched after the trap has closed or the trap will eventually re-open.
If you are touching the small trigger hairs inside the trap, then there is something wrong with your plant. The best thing to do is to give it plenty of light, lots of water (rain or distilled) and don’t give it any fertilizer/plant food. Hopefully when in good conditions it will start trapping properly again.
Also, don’t intentionally trigger the traps with your fingers or any other non bug-like object as you will damage the plant. Live bugs are the only thing you should be putting in your traps.
We have some information about trap movement here … http://flytrapgrowing.info/how-do-the-traps-move/
Johnnie responded on 05 Dec 2007 at 8:29 am #
Hi, Someone from the North Carolina once told me that she has seen Venus Flytraps in the wild and she said she has seen traps up to FOUR inches wide!!! Is this true? Would that get that big if they were in their natural habitate and the conditions were just right? I don’t think this woman would intentionally lie to me, but do you think she was mistaken? I mean I could see a 4 inch trap being believable but it STILL seems pretty big!
Ryan responded on 06 Dec 2007 at 5:51 am #
It’s not impossible!
I haven’t seen any in the wild to know. But apparently some Venus flytraps have been found with traps up to 12 cm (~4 inches) wide.
That’s certainly at the extremely high end of the size range though. Most plants in the wild are much smaller.
Mitch responded on 17 Dec 2007 at 6:19 pm #
I’m thinking about buying a fly trap and i was just wondering
I live in Australia and is it necessary to water with distilled or rain water?
Ryan responded on 18 Dec 2007 at 4:34 am #
Hi Mitch,
Is watering your plant with rain water or distilled water a good idea?
Yes.
Necessary? Possibly not. It depends on the quality of your tap water. If your tap water contains a lot of dissolved solids, then it is wise to not water your plant with it.
Having said that, if your plant is well looked after it will probably still survive for a long time even with very poor quality tap water.
Another option is to use a high quality water filter, as many of them are quite effective at stripping out dissolved chemicals.
Or if you want to get really exotic and have access to one, you could use a reverse osmosis filter.
Cricket responded on 18 Dec 2007 at 1:05 pm #
how long does it usually take to grow a Venus Fly Trap
Ryan responded on 18 Dec 2007 at 7:57 pm #
Hi Cricket.
Venus flytraps take around about two to four years to grow to full size if they’re grown in good conditions from seed. Plants propagated vegatively will generally reach full size a little faster than from seed.
nickie responded on 26 Dec 2007 at 8:44 am #
hey is it okay to force a venus fly trap open… cos i tried and im kind of regretting that i had forced it open, its still closed… how long until it will open again?
Ryan responded on 26 Dec 2007 at 9:14 pm #
Whoa! You can definitely not force the trap open without damaging it.
The trap needs to open naturally through a series of reactions in the leaves which gradually pull the trap back into the open position.
Traps will normally open within one to two weeks. Although if you have forced it open you may have damaged it so it may take longer or not open at all. Don’t worry too much though. The worst that will happen is that the trap will die, turn black and fall off. A new one will replace it so it’s not the end of the world. Just don’t do it again!
Marcela responded on 26 Dec 2007 at 10:02 pm #
I just bought a venus flytrap and its still very green and small. I live in Costa Rica, and we dont really have a cold winter, will my plant be ok wthout going dormant? I read on another question that maybe putting it in the fridge is a good idea, if so, for how long?
And one more question, if I place my plant near a window how much light is enough? Im scared to burn it! thanks in advance for the help
Ryan responded on 27 Dec 2007 at 9:25 pm #
Marcela – your plant will probably survive fine without going dormant as long as it is in good condition, gets plenty of quality water and receives lots of light. However your plant will definitely be healthier if it is allowed to enter dormancy.
The length of time you leave your plant in the fridge is quite flexible, although most seem to put the in the fridge for the whole winter (three months). But it should be okay to put in the fridge for a shorter period of time (say two months).
There is no limit to how much light your plant can receive. However if your plant is actually warming up from the extreme heat radiated from the sun then you could possibly consider moving it away from the window to keep it a little cooler.
Dinara responded on 27 Dec 2007 at 9:37 pm #
Hello Ryan,
Happy Holidays!
“If you live in a moderate climate (above freezing temperatures) and usually keep your plant inside, a simple way to place your plant into dormancy is to move it outside for the winter. [...] If you live in a colder climate (below freezing temperatures) then place your plant [...]inside sealed bag and stick it in your fridge for the winter” – I live in Seattle, it is usually about 0 degrees Celcius in winter. 1. Should I place it outside or in a fridge? 2. Should it also be in the bag in case you say it can be out outside? Is it okay if it rains a lot (it’s Seattle!) on the plant?3. Should it be the same watering schedule/putting a pot 5 mm in water if I place it outside? Lastly, I’ve read on this website that pouring water directly into the soil is not beneficial. What can I do if I don’t have a terrarium/greenhouse, besides immersing a pot into water that’s 5-10 mm in depth?
I realize that I’ve asked questions that have been addressed in parts on this website. I would like to make sure, however, that, for instance, watering schedule is the same when the plant is dormant. Thank you!
Ryan responded on 28 Dec 2007 at 3:54 am #
Hi Dinara,
You should be able to just plonk your plant outside, even mild frosts shouldn’t do it any harm. As long as it doesn’t get below -5 degrees Celcius for more than a week your plant should survive just fine.
It’s definitely okay if it rains a lot, rain will not harm your plant at all. A monsoon may do some damage, but Seattle aint that rainy.
Pouring water onto the soil isn’t harmful at all, it just isn’t necessary as long as you keep the soil nice and moist by keeping a small pool of water in the base of your pot.
You should treat the plant the same outdoors as you would indoors, although hopefully the rain will keep your watering habits to a minimum.
As long as the pot has some water in the base at all times it should be fine. My plants usually fluctuate between 10 mm and 1 mm of water depending on how much water has evaporated/absorbed into the soil. Sometimes they even go dry if I haven’t paid them enough attention. But as long as the soil is always moist the plants shouldn’t be too bothered by
it.
And no, you shouldn’t water your plant as often when it is dormant. Since the plant is not growing, it is not as important to keep your plant heavily watered, in fact some people report that their plants have suffered rot from excessive water during dormancy. So you should usually let the soil get a little less moist than normal during dormancy, although you should never let it get dry.
Good to see you’ve found some useful information on here and good luck with your plant
Jennifer responded on 02 Jan 2008 at 4:30 pm #
It is January 2nd and my plant is rather small but growing well and putting out new growth. Do I need to transition the plant so the foliage dies back before putting it in the refrigerator?
I am in Santa Barbara CA so it does not get cold enough during the day for the plant to go dormant.
Ryan responded on 03 Jan 2008 at 6:32 pm #
Hi Jennifer,
I’d love to hear how your plant copes with the process as I have never tried this method myself.
No, you shouldn’t need to transition the plant in any way. Hopefully it will happily enter dormancy of it’s own accord. Ultimately it would be nice for the plant to slowly cool down and then enter a natural dormancy, but since you don’t have that option then a rapid transition is probably the best you can do. Good luck with refrigerating your plant
vftLover responded on 03 Jan 2008 at 8:49 pm #
Hello Ryan.
I could not find anywhere on this website to contact you directly so are using the Q&A page. I hope you do not mind.
I love reading your site and like the addition of comments to the pages and the Q&A page. I think a forum would be a nice idea or a similar section to allow us to discuss things in more depth. There are other forums which I use, but your site is much nicer and more professional so it makes sense to me for you to move into this area.
Thanks for listening and I hope you do not mind me offering my advice.
Ryan responded on 03 Jan 2008 at 9:54 pm #
Hi vftLover. I did have a contact form here on the site but I had to remove as many people were sending me emails with questions instead of posting here in the Q&A section.
I do have some upgrades in the works, but they wont be ready for a wee while yet. The upgrades will include a forum though. If you or anyone else have any opinions on what other content I should add feel free to let me know.
Thanks for the input
Caitlin responded on 07 Jan 2008 at 5:58 pm #
Hi Ryan,
I recently bought a Venus Fly trap about a month and a half ago and it looked really healthy.
After about 2 weeks (I was keeping it in our bathroom as it gets quite sunny) it had grown an extra 10 traps(there was multiple plants) but then at the end of the week a few went black. the next day more were black and so on.
What was I doing wrong.
It was at this time I left my plant at my grandparents house for about 3 weeks(because we wwere going on holidays)and I went back to collect it and it looked horrible.
Since i came back about a week and a half ago i’ve had them outside in a sunny position and it has been quite humid and there has been a fair amount of rain and it hasnt perked up.
I live in Brisbane, Australia and i am wonderng if the climate has anything to do with it as my friend bought one the day after me and hers is getting lots of black leaves as well.
Another thing is that there are quite a few more traps growing but they are starting to go black before they open, why is this happening?
Caitlin
Ryan responded on 08 Jan 2008 at 3:35 am #
Hi Caitlin.
Having a few traps turn black isn’t a major problem, it is a normal part of the life cycle of your plant and is to be expected. However an excess of black traps is not good at all. Traps turning black before they have even opened is also not a good sign, although sometimes traps of seemingly healthy plants do this on occasion (but not regularly).
Is it possible that the soil is drying up? If the temperature is warm enough, the soil could dry out too much and cause some serious problems for your plant. I’ve never tried growing any plants in Brisbane like temperatures before so don’t have first hand experience, but it is my understanding that as long as the plant has a steady pool of water in the base, then the soil should stay sufficiently moist. Although combining a high temperature with a low humidity could swing the balance perhaps.
The actual temperature outside shouldn’t be a major problem as their native habitat of North/South Carolina also have extremely high temperatures, although possibly not quite as high as Brisbane. Perhaps your plant is being baked in the sun behind a window? In general, the experts recommend not letting the environment your plant is in exceed a temperature of 40 deg. celcius for an extended period of time, so as long as your plant isn’t being exposed to temperatures above that, it should fine.
Another potential catastrophic cause of rapid plant death is through the user of fertilizers. Fertilizers will rapidly kill your plant and leave it in a very sorry state of repair. There are some articles about this topic in the “habitat” section.
Finding the exact cause(s) of this type of problem can be tricky though as it’s hard to tell exactly where the problem may lie.
Good luck with recuperating your plant
Caitlin responded on 08 Jan 2008 at 2:46 pm #
Hi Ryan,
I was just reading through some of your articles looking for some reasons for why my plant might be the way it is and i found the article on Dozens of Traps and thought my plant might have been fresh out of tissue culture. When i bought it i remember there being heaps of traps and then lots started dying about a week after i bought it. That would also explain why my friends is going black too.
Caitlin
Dominique responded on 08 Jan 2008 at 5:19 pm #
Hey Ryan,
I purchased some VFT seeds in November and I put them in cold strat for a little while. Following the instructions that came with the seeds, I placed them in a peat/sand mix in a small pot and placed that in a zip lock bag. I guess this is to keep the moisture? Anyway, my question is how long does it take for seedlings to start growing?
Thanks!
Ryan responded on 09 Jan 2008 at 2:47 am #
Catilin – I forgot about that! I haven’t noticed this being a huge problem myself, but many others have reported this to be a problem with newly purchased plants. So perhaps you are one of the unlucky ones. At any rate, it’s definitely a good idea to keep your plants in their optimal condition to make sure that they get back to full health as soon as possible and in case the problem is related to something else. Perhaps you could contact the shop you purchased it from and ask them if this is a common issue for the plants they sell.
Dominque – the answer is … a REALLY long time! They will likely still be quite small even after two years of growth. They shouldn’t take too long to germinate though as long as they’re in good conditions – maybe 3-4 weeks.
Justin responded on 10 Jan 2008 at 11:09 pm #
Hello. I just recently picked up my venus fly trap from a local greenhouse. It’s looks very healthy, as far as I can tell. I’ve been doing some research and I know that sunlight is key, but I live in part of a building that doesn’t receive much sunlight. I was wondering if some kind of UV lamp would suffice. If so, is there any special kind? I do plan on growing my plant in a terrarium.
Thank You.
Ryan responded on 11 Jan 2008 at 1:06 am #
Yes, extra lighting does help a lot. However you need to be quite particular about what kind you use as regular UV lamps will cook your plant long before your plant receives any benefit from the light. I’m not an expert on artificial lighting for Venus flytraps, so I suggest you take a look at the following pages by Barry Rice which cover in depth the use of artificial lighting …
Light Intensity and Light quality
Thomas Choi responded on 02 Feb 2008 at 2:32 pm #
Hello, I’ve recently received a Venus Fly Trap and asked about it on Wikipedia, someone informed me about this website and it really has helped.
I’m no scientist, and I don’t have a green thumb but I’m starting out with some easy plants.
My mother bought the Venus Fly Trap at the dollar store (ewww) and despite the fact it was bought at the dollar store, I have been keeping it alive, and so far it’s been successful for 2 months.
The inside isn’t BRIGHT red, but it’s pinkish dark red in some traps.
I know it’s dormancy, but I fed it a few arachnids, and a bug too long. According to BBC and this website, that’s bad.
I can’t just take the bug out of there from it’s abdomen that’s showing, and the digestive enzymes have already started going out. What should I do? Can my plant survive a bug bigger than what I should feed it?
How should I make a terrarium? I would like more specific details, because I have a two liter bottle with the top cut off. I don’t understand where to go from here.
As for where I live, I live in Arizona. My plant is only okay because it’s winter and barely surviving. I’m not sure if I accidentally took it out of it’s dormancy period because it’s been growing a few leaves.
So far all I’ve really done to the plant is dip it in water, give it some insects dead and live, but the dead ones seem to kill my plant somehow.
I really want to put it in a terrarium because I think that would help. The ones bought at home depot, Lowe’s and the dollar store are like cylindrical terrariums. They have been elevated, and I made a hole in the bottom so water could go through it.
Then, at the top there is a detachable roof I can put that has holes in it to keep the humidity in, but it’s hard to reach the plant since the cylinder is so small.
P.S. If measurement’s are required, metric please.
Thomas Choi responded on 02 Feb 2008 at 2:53 pm #
One thing I forgot to add:
I have Perlite, and Sphagnum Peat Moss, does that work? I’m not sure if it’s Sphagnum Moss, or Peat Moss, it just says “Sphagnum Peat Moss.”
Ryan responded on 03 Feb 2008 at 2:28 am #
Thomas – I’m glad to hear you are finding the site useful.
Some plants wont gain a bright red colour unless under extreme sunlight conditions, so don’t worry if your traps aren’t as red as some of the images you see on the internet are.
Feeding your traps bugs which are too long is not good for them, but it usually won’t kill your plant. It is possible/likely that the individual trap will not reopen, turn black and then fall off. It will be replaced in time though. They are used to big insects landing in them in the wild, so the occasional mishap won’t cause too much harm – hopefully. Spiders are a particular problem for this as their legs often stick out of the trap, however the traps often seal around the legs anyway so often it doesn’t matter.
Simple terrarium’s are easy to make. Just take a big coke bottle (or other clear plastic bottle) and chop the bottom off. Stick it over the top of your plant (and the pot it is in) and bam! You have a terrarium! Depending on the end of the bottle you chop off, either the cap will be pointing upwards, or the bottom of the bottle will be. It doesn’t matter too much which end is pointing upwards. Totally sealing your plant up is not a good idea as it will need some air flow (but not much) to keep the CO2 level around the plant up.
When you want to feed or water your plant, just remove the whole bottle for easy access. It doesn’t matter if your plant is not in the terrarium all the time and taking the lid off will give it some fresh air.
Feeding your plant dead insects isn’t a good idea at all as they need to trigger the hairs inside the trap repeatedly or the trap will reopen. This topic is covered in the manual feeding page … http://flytrapgrowing.info/manual-feeding/
Sphagnum peat moss will be fine. Various people advise different concoctions of soils, but sphagnum peat moss is quite standard and used by many carnivorous plant enthusiasts.
Thomas Choi responded on 03 Feb 2008 at 3:15 pm #
Alright, thank you.
But according to the website putting in a terrarium can be devastating if the temperature in my region gets hot as well.
Well…that’s a tad bit of a big problem.
I live in Arizona where the temperature can reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
During May – October-ish the plant is apparently supposed to grow, it gets pretty hot during that time, and according to this place, it should be around 75 – 90 degree-ish.
How could I keep my plant that warm?
Thomas Choi responded on 03 Feb 2008 at 5:42 pm #
I also just now repotted it into what BBC says to do.
That was my first repotting ever, so I know I didn’t do so well.
Hopefully this picture shows if I did it okay.
An extra side note for the matter is that I accidentally triggered one of the traps with that Sphagnum Peat Moss stuff.
I got a feeling the whole plant will go black. -_-
I have a picture:
http://s223.photobucket.com/albums/dd61/TheCutNut/?action=view¤t=IMGP0590.jpg
Does it look alright? Despite that I pretty much pinched it with my hand and all.
P.S. It’s two bulbs which I didn’t know myself until I took it out.
Ryan responded on 05 Feb 2008 at 5:30 am #
Hmmm, that could be a problem then if your plant will be exposed to extremely high temperatures. That’s not a problem I ever have myself, as I live in a much milder climate. The only solution I can think of is some sort of cooling system, but you have to be quite serious about your carnivorous plant growing to go down that route. If you have an air conditioning unit, you could place it near that I guess and hope that the cooling effect from the air conditioner will do the trick perhaps.
Otherwise I guess the best you can do is give it lots of pure water in a big saucer and hope that it will provide enough humidity around the plant to keep it from drying out.
The trap which triggered with sphagnum moss will probably die off, but hopefully your plant will survive. It’s hard to tell much from your photo, but it looks like some of your traps are bent which isn’t good. But hopefully it will survive the repotting process anyway. This isn’t the best time for you to repot either, early spring or very late winter as the plant is leaving dormancy is usually the best time of year.
Good luck with your plant
Thomas Choi responded on 07 Feb 2008 at 2:40 am #
It kind of is the end of winter.
As for the the pure water in a saucer. It is in pure water in a saucer.
I followed BBC’s method and that’s how it came out to be.
I doubt the roots will make it past the perlite into the water though, so I guess I will have to keep watering it.
So far, I have that, but I bought another bottle of pepsi (2 liters) and I plan to drink it all, cut off the top and cover it with tape only to have a few holes.
Is that a good idea?
As for cooling, can I just place it in the shade or something or give it less light?
Ryan responded on 07 Feb 2008 at 4:06 am #
I’m stumped. I’ll do some research and find out what other people in ultra hot climates do to avoid this problem.
This isn’t something I’ve thought about in any depth as it isn’t something I’ve ever had to deal with.
Ryan responded on 09 Feb 2008 at 4:22 am #
Thomas – I’ve done asking around and have some tips for growing in extremely hot conditions.
By using larger pots, you can reduce the surface area exposed to the sun and hence amount of heat which is absorbed by your pot. Larger pots also take longer to heat up, so will keep a more even temperature throughout the day. Another solution is to bury the plant in the ground for an even more effective solution.
You can also use foam or clay plant holders, which allow the water to evaporate from the pot, hence allowing some dissipation of heat. Clay pots should be unglased, to allow dissipation of water.
Clay and foam pots usually require more watering than their water proof counterparts due to evaporation through the walls of the pot.
– Thanks to Warren at ICPS for the tips
James responded on 10 Feb 2008 at 7:30 am #
Hi, I just noticed that on the “Propagation page” you have some funny google toolbar HTML present that uses the horrible LAYER tag and gives the word “flytrap” a yellow background. What up wid dat?
James
Ryan responded on 11 Feb 2008 at 12:45 am #
James – thanks for pointing that out. I have no idea where that has come from! I’ll go inspect and see if I can find the culprit. I certainly never put that there intentionally.
EDIT: It’s fixed now, but I have no idea where it came from!
Anne responded on 15 Feb 2008 at 10:54 pm #
My fly trap is about four or five years old judging by the fact that it has three bulbs. I just got it in September and i didn’t allow it to go dormant. It seems to be flowering okay, but the flowers are going brown a day after blooming. Does this mean I need to force it into refridgerator dormancy?
Thanks.
Ryan responded on 16 Feb 2008 at 4:44 am #
Hi Anne,
Are you aware of the risks of growing flowers? Venus flytrap’s do not cope well with growing flowers unless they are very healthy. Here are some articles on the subject …
Removing flower stalks and Flowers.
I’m not sure why your flowers would be going brown a day after blooming. Is you plant generally in good health otherwise? A healthy plant will (in theory) grow good, healthy flowers.
A crude way of measuring how healthy your plant is, is to look at how upright the leaves are and how red the insides of the traps are. If you plant is healthy, the inside of the traps will generally be red and raised off the ground. This is not a definite measure of plant healthiness as some plants can be very healthy with bright green traps which lie on the ground, but it is a good sign of healthy plant growth.
Idman responded on 21 Feb 2008 at 3:05 pm #
I put my flytrap into dormancy at the end of November and and took her out at the beggining of February, it’s been a week and it won’t wake up, please tell me how i can wake it up. How do i wake it up?
Idman responded on 21 Feb 2008 at 3:10 pm #
Let me be more clear on the problem of my flytrap that won’t wake up. Her leaf is closed, and she is not growing at all, plaese, what do i do.
Ryan responded on 22 Feb 2008 at 3:05 am #
Idman – don’t worry, I’m not surprised your plant is taking a while to come out of dormancy. One week isn’t particularly long in plant terms and hopefully the traps will open up eventually.
How did you place your plant into dormancy? Did you place it in the fridge perhaps?
A more important concern is what colour the traps are and how stiff the leaves are. If your plants traps are raised above the soil and have a red colouration inside the traps then it is probably going to be fine.
As long as you keep giving it a good supply of pure water and it receives lots of good sunlight then hopefully the traps will open soon and begin growing quickly.
If your plant is suffering in any other way then post back here as it may be something more serious. But simply having closed traps and not growing rapidly is usually not a cause for concern.
Idman responded on 23 Feb 2008 at 8:09 pm #
Thank you Ryan,I can’t give it much light though because my dad won’t let me leave the light on for very long and he won’t let me buy a lamp for it. Plus outside is cloudy and has been for a while.
Idman responded on 23 Feb 2008 at 9:27 pm #
Bryan, how long will my flytrap live, i have heard that the longest living one was over 30 years old! Plus I want to know how to provide my flytrap with the right conditions for it to live that long or longer, so please tell me what conditions to give it, and if you don’t mind, i would like to know how long yours has lived, and thatnks for the advice earlier!
Idman responded on 23 Feb 2008 at 9:36 pm #
Sorry for the rapid questions, but how many divisions and how many traps will my plant make before I should transplant it into a bigger pot. It currently has only 1 leaf with 3 new ones coming up, so how long untill it gets & and up?
Devyn responded on 25 Feb 2008 at 11:42 am #
hi how long dos it tak a fltrap to grow
Amac responded on 25 Feb 2008 at 8:03 pm #
HI i live up in Canada and I was just wondering how to make it go dormant without putting it in the fridge or exposing it to the canadian cold(-8to-20)and when to start the dormancy period.
teara responded on 26 Feb 2008 at 10:43 pm #
ok im getting a venus fly trap soon and my dad said i needed to do a research on them first so could i use a lamp instead of sunlight because theres not much sun over here in oregon??
Ryan responded on 27 Feb 2008 at 3:36 am #
Devyn – about 2-3 years to grow to a decent flytraping size from seed.
Ryan responded on 27 Feb 2008 at 3:39 am #
Almac – I used to live in Calgary and my house had shockingly poor insulation and our windows always leaked cool air inside. If you house is the same, then just place your plant near the window and it should stay nice and cool. Even if your windows are well insulated, chances are that your window area will be cooler than other areas of your house so this should hopefully do the trick.
Also keep the plant closer to the bottom of the window (don’t hang it from the ceiling) as the air will likely be cooler closer to ground level.
Ryan responded on 27 Feb 2008 at 3:43 am #
Teara – last time I was in Oregon there was plenty of sun. Unless you are very serious about growing a super huge Venus flytrap, then you should be able to grow your plant fine as long as you have a nice sunny window to place it in. Or even better, a sunny area outside to grow it.
Make sure you give it lots of good clean water (read the articles about water here if you haven’t already) and don’t fertilize the soil. Other than that, as long as your plant is placed in the direct path of sunlight then it should grow into a good healthy plant.
AFAIK Oregon is quite wet too, which is good for Venus flytrap growing.
Idman responded on 27 Feb 2008 at 6:24 pm #
Ryan, it has been 3 weeks and my flytrap isn’t awake yet. How many more weeks untill it comes out of dormancy.
Ryan responded on 28 Feb 2008 at 4:12 am #
Idman – it doesn’t matter if it is cloudy outside. There is still likely to be more light outside than inside.
Also, I’m assuming you are using purpose designed lights for growing plants with? If you are using regular indoor house lights, these will not be having much effect on your plants as they do not emit light at an appropriate frequency.
Venus flytraps should (in theory) keep growing for quite a long time. Measuring how long they live for is tricky as often one plant will die and another will replace it without you even noticing it unless you dig the roots up regularly.
My longest lasting plant is about four years old I think. But I’ve moved countries/cities quite a bit and never had anywhere to put my existing plants so have often had to give them away instead of keeping them long term.
You don’t need to repot your plant at all. It will likely survive quite happily for a long time in the pot it came in from the shop. People normally repot their plants if they want them to grow more traps.
To grow your plant for as long as possible, just make sure it receives as much good quality light as possible (preferably sun light) and follow the advice here on flytrapgrowing.info about watering, feeding and soil maintenance and your plant should live to a ripe old age.
I have no idea how long your plant will take to come out of dormancy. If you post back with detailed information about why you think your plant isn’t out of dormancy yet I may be able to offer more advice.
Idman responded on 28 Feb 2008 at 4:58 pm #
Thanks Ryan and my plant has no red in it and lays there on the soil slowly rotting. I think it is because it has very little light and so should I take it outside even if it might snow and it is still very cold? I am not using plant lights because I can’t find any at the store.
Amac responded on 28 Feb 2008 at 7:16 pm #
hi me again, just wonderin what vtf breeds most nurserys sell
New Ryan responded on 29 Feb 2008 at 5:37 pm #
Amac, most nurseries sell Dentate traps and mostly typical traps.
New Ryan responded on 29 Feb 2008 at 5:44 pm #
Idman, you should order a light from online and shouldn’t leave your flytrap outside if it’s freezing.
Ryan responded on 01 Mar 2008 at 4:39 am #
Thanks New Ryan!
You are correct of course, Venus flytraps should not be left outside in extremely cold conditions. Although some exposure to snow is okay so long as the temperature doesn’t plunge to far below zero. I’ve heard various theories about how cold the plants can be taken before suffering ill effects including suggestions that even -10 deg. C is okay for them. Personally I wouldn’t want to let my plants get much more than a degree or so below zero for more than a week or so though. A major advantage of snow coverage is that it insulates the plant so that even if the temperature outside gets quite cold, the temperature exposed to the plant can still be within its tolerances.
Dentate traps are not available from any nurseries in my area. So I guess it depends on where you live. My local nurseries only stock typical Venus flytraps.
Amac responded on 01 Mar 2008 at 11:49 pm #
thanks for the quick reply,i read somewhere that typical ones can produce some of the fatest traps and the large vfts aren’t as fast is this true
Idman responded on 02 Mar 2008 at 11:49 am #
Amac, it is not neccesarily true, because B52 flytraps are large but grow fast as well, and typical traps grow about the same speed as other traps.
Ryan responded on 04 Mar 2008 at 4:29 am #
I don’t have any evidence to support my assumption. But I suspect that there is little/no difference in the growth rate of various similarly coloured Venus flytrap cultivars.
I assume red varieties probably grow slower though due to their inferior ability to photosynthesise.
My understanding is that B52’s have a tendency grow larger, but not necessarily at a faster rate. If anybody has evidence otherwise I’d love to hear though.
tash responded on 04 Mar 2008 at 7:03 am #
Hi!
I just got a flytrap for my birthday and its doing pretty well (i think), it has recently sprouted new traps but now they seem to be blackening from the stem.
I live in South Africa and average tempreture is about 30C not counting humidity and my plant does stay outside so maybe its just too hot for the little guy?
anyway i’m pretty worried about him so i’m hoping its nothing too serious.
thanks
Ryan responded on 04 Mar 2008 at 7:42 am #
Hi Tash,
It is quite hard to judge these things without seeing the conditions first hand. But if your plant is receiving plenty of light, is kept well watered (constant water in pot) and the humidity isn’t below 60% then it should be okay at 30 deg. C I think.
Blackening of the stems isn’t entirely uncommon, so as long as the entire plant isn’t turning black then it should be okay.
If you are sure that the high temperatures are causing a problem, then you could try using a larger pot as this will decrease the surface area exposed to the sun. You could also try an unglazed clay or foam pot as the water evaporation from these can help keep the pot cooler, although this will require more watering. Burying your plant in the ground is a more drastic solution to keeping it cool, although this makes it difficult to keep it watered as you can just keep the base with a constant pool of water.
If you do repot your plant, make sure you follow the advice on repotting and potting mix:
http://flytrapgrowing.info/potting-mix/
http://flytrapgrowing.info/should-i-repot/
Amac responded on 05 Mar 2008 at 3:08 pm #
hi sorry but i didn’t explain properly, what i meant was that typical vfts produce some of the fastest closing traps and giger ones close more slowly
Idman responded on 06 Mar 2008 at 4:41 pm #
Amac that is not necesarily true. The healthier the trap, the faster it will close. Also traps close faster on colder days.
Idman responded on 06 Mar 2008 at 4:42 pm #
I meant faster on warmer days.
laura responded on 12 Mar 2008 at 1:36 pm #
Hi i bought my plant last year, fed it on bugs it did very well and grew a flower on a stalk about 40 cm long. I left it and it has grown annother this year but very few traps. I have removed the flower stalk after reading your comments (thanks!!). Is there anything else I can do to support it ?
I live in the UK if that makes a difference, the plant has plenty of sunlight and warmth thanks to double glasing and rain water which i collect for it.
Thank you
Idman responded on 14 Mar 2008 at 8:07 pm #
MY FLYTRAP IS DeiNG, BUT STILL IS IN DORMANCY. All the leaves haved deied, exect for one which is now almost half dead, so i cut off some of its black spots, i know that the root ball can grow back the plant, but what do i do in the meantime.
Caitlin responded on 14 Mar 2008 at 11:35 pm #
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for all of your help in the past, my flytrap is looking really good now and it has lasted over 4 months now. It has been catching heaps of insects lately and we have been getting alot of light. I was just wondering, can venus flytraps get to much light, and how cold does it have to be for a venus fly trap to go into domancy?
thanks.
Ryan responded on 15 Mar 2008 at 5:04 am #
Hi Caitlin,
Good to hear your plant is growing well
It is generally impossible for your plant to receive too much light, the more the merrier.
The only time excess light can become a problem is if it causes your plant to become to warm and/or dry up, but that is more of a temperature issue. So as long as your plant isn’t burning up (consistent 40+ deg. C temperatures) it should never be a problem.
Venus flytraps usually enter dormancy when below 10 deg. C., although temperature changes may be more important than the absolute temperature. Ie: if your plant spends the summer at 40 deg. C, then the temperature drops to 15 deg. C there is a reasonable chance that the plant may enter dormancy, whereas if the temperature was 15 deg. C during the summer, a drop to around 5-10 deg. C may be necessary to trigger the dormancy process.
There is no exact temperature however and it entirely depends on the plant and it’s current growing conditions. And a bit of randomness
Ryan responded on 15 Mar 2008 at 5:05 am #
Idman – the only thing I can think of that could help is to make sure your plant is in the best conditions possible … good water, plenty of light, humid environment etc.
Ryan responded on 15 Mar 2008 at 5:08 am #
Hi Laura,
It sounds like your plant is being treated very well. Rain water is good, lots of sunlight is good and as long as your soil is nice and healthy then there isn’t much else you can do.
The key is always light, the more light the better. So if you really want to take things up a notch, you could install special plant lights in a terrarium to give it the best conditions possible. That is a big step though and not something I’m a big fan of as I prefer to have my plants out in the open where they can be admired rather than cooped up in a box somewhere with a light on top of them.
Aaron responded on 16 Mar 2008 at 2:45 am #
Hi Ryan,
I live in Malaysia and I’ve just received some small VFT from a local expert. The traps are pure green and about 1.3 cm. I grow them in pure sphagnum moss and water from top using filtered water. When will the traps grow bigger cause I want bigger traps?
Ryan responded on 17 Mar 2008 at 12:53 am #
Hi Aaron,
Determining when your traps will grow larger is tricky at best, impossible at worst.
13 mm isn’t too bad, the plant is probably quite yound and if you give it good conditions it may grow to 20 mm or so in the next 6 months if you are lucky.
As a rough guide, in the most recent article on growing in poor conditions, I reported that the tap water fed plant now had a trap with a 37 mm width, whereas when the experiment was first started, the largest trap was only 29 mm across, so that’s an 8 mm increase within 14 weeks.
Mimosa lover responded on 19 Mar 2008 at 2:57 pm #
I was wondering if some one could tell me how to grow my mimosa pudica well, thanks, and I hate venus flytraps!
Mimosa lover responded on 19 Mar 2008 at 3:00 pm #
Down with flytraps!
Ryan responded on 24 Mar 2008 at 6:16 am #
Mimosa lover – Here is a link to information about minosa pudica … http://www.fs.fed.us/global/iitf/pdf/shrubs/Mimosa%20pudica.pdf
Oh, and everyone knows that Venus flytraps are the greatest plant ever to grace the face of the earth. And if you don’t agree, there is clearly something wrong with you
Mimosa lover responded on 24 Mar 2008 at 9:02 pm #
Do venus flytraps have any medical properties, since they are herbs?
Idman responded on 24 Mar 2008 at 9:06 pm #
I don’t think so but, I’m not sure.
Idman responded on 24 Mar 2008 at 9:07 pm #
Ryan, do flytraps have any medical properties?
Odhran responded on 26 Mar 2008 at 4:45 am #
Hi,
I have a problem with my venus fly trap. He’s a bit sick at the moment! My mother bought it in the Netherlands in September of 2007 and brought it home to the kitchen to help with flies. He was perfectly healthy for a few months but then he started to get droopy before christmas. Basically all the stalks with heads began to droop and hang over the side. Later a few of the heads started to go black and die. So we cut them off. I read up online to see if i could find a reason for this. I came across a website which stated that a venus fly trap needed a kind of hibernation period when it isnt in its natural habitat. I thought this could be the reason for its condition as maybe it had expended too much energy and nutrients trying to stay active and ‘awake’ all year round. So I did as the website recommended and took him out of the kitchen and left him in the out house where it was relatively cold. I left him out there for about a month but this didnt do anything really. So we took him back inside and began to cut the dead/ dying heads off. I was just wondering if perhaps you knew what could be wrong. I’d greatly appreciate any help you can give me! I live in cork in Ireland and we keep the fly trap in our kitchen on the windowsill of a large window. The kitchen is heated to room temperature most days. If you need any further info please ask.
thanks very much!!
Ryan responded on 27 Mar 2008 at 3:11 am #
Mimosa lover – nope, no medical properties. Unless you call feeling ill after eating them a medical property.
Ryan responded on 27 Mar 2008 at 3:16 am #
Hi Odhran,
If you are trying to put your plant into dormancy, you want to do it and leave it. The plant should then start to die off a little and once the winter is over it should start looking more normal again.
Make sure that wherever you put your plant isn’t too dark though. Even though they prefer cooler temperatures in winter, they still need a good amount of sun light. Placing your plant closer to the window can help (particularly if you don’t have double glazing).
I wouldn’t worry too much about your plant at this stage. It’s probably a little confused about whether it’s supposed to be dormany right now or not. But come spring it will hopefully burst back to life (in theory).
Just make sure it’s well watered, gets plenty of light and it should be fine.
It may be best not to worry about dormancy now as it’s quite late in Irish winter now so you may cause more harm than good by forcing it back into an unwanted dormancy. Although it may already be dormant – it’s hard to tell.
Good luck
jake responded on 27 Mar 2008 at 4:18 pm #
I suggest you take your plant OUT of the terrarium. Its somewhat of a myth that vft’s need such high humidity. You should grow it outside in full sunlight as long as your temperatures do not exceed much over 100 daily in the summer, or drop too far below freezing for days at a time during winter.
Plant Dude responded on 28 Mar 2008 at 11:44 pm #
How do I get my flytrap out of dormancy, I kept it in the fridge and have taken it out since February, but its leaves have just died, all off them, should I cut them all off, whan will they grow back, and do you know any good websites on plant growing tips?
Ryan responded on 29 Mar 2008 at 3:31 am #
Hi jake,
Venus flytraps will indeed survive outside of a terrarium, but it should in theory help a little, particularly in very dry areas.
An added bonus of using a terrarium is that you don’t need to water them as often, this is my main reason for keeping my own plants in terraria.
Ryan responded on 29 Mar 2008 at 3:33 am #
Hi Plant dude,
Well the website I know of best is this one! We have plenty of articles on growing Venus flytraps.
There is no way to know when your leaves will grow back. Good things take time and hopefully they will grow back eventually. In the mean time, make sure you keep your plant well watered, receives as much sunlight as possible and is kept in the best conditions possible.
Beetle lover responded on 31 Mar 2008 at 4:04 pm #
Do you know any good ladybug faq’s where you can just type in your question without regeristing or download something, thanks!
P.S. I also like flytraps to!
Ryan responded on 31 Mar 2008 at 5:50 pm #
Sorry, but no, I don’t know any good ladybug FAQ’s.
Plant Dude responded on 03 Apr 2008 at 3:47 pm #
I er… I forgot to water my dormant flytrap for about 2 or 3 weeks, and it has been black ever since I put it in dormancy, I just watered it now, will it survive?
Ryan responded on 04 Apr 2008 at 9:06 am #
Plant Dude – I have no idea! That certainly won’t help your situation, but not watering for 2-3 weeks is unlikely to kill your plant alone. I’ve left plants for much longer without water and not noticed any long term ill effects. Although rate of evaporation is quite important. If the temperature was quite low and the humidity quite high the situation shouldn’t be too bad as the plant will have kept some water for most of it’s dry spell.
It’s impossible for me to tell how healthy your plant is from here. But good luck and I hope it grows back nice and healthy.
And as always, make sure your plant gets plenty of light, pure water (although a little less during dormancy) and never feed it fertilizers or food for human consumption.
Alonzo responded on 04 Apr 2008 at 4:22 pm #
Hi Ryan
I bought a Venus fly trap just few days ago and it came in a little container because the venus fly trap is very little. My question is:
Is necessary to change it to a bigger container?
Murasaki responded on 06 Apr 2008 at 4:01 pm #
Hi… nice that there are sites like this ones…
I have a question, I read half of the already answered ones, and i didnt find the answer for mine…
What is the size of a Venus fly-trap seed?
Cos a friend gave me a kit and the packet of the seeds seems empty…
thank you very much!
Ryan responded on 06 Apr 2008 at 5:14 pm #
Hi Alonzo,
4×6 cm is usually big enough for them to grow healthily. But if you want more traps, then you would need to move to a bigger pot.
You may find the “Should I Repot” article useful.
Ryan responded on 06 Apr 2008 at 5:15 pm #
Murasaki – Venus flytrap seeds are usually 1 – 2 mm across.
Christina responded on 06 Apr 2008 at 9:15 pm #
Wondering if I should do anything about the carcasses left behind in my traps. I bought the plant about 3 months ago – and I’ve managed to kill and revive it since then – and it just successfully ate its first fruit fly (hooray!) I water the plant using a spray bottle, and I was thinking in the wild, maybe the rain would wash the bug remains out of the plant, so I’ve been considering just giving it a little spray of water to get it out of there. But is this even necessary? I’m just wondering if it’s harmful for the trap if it catches another bug while the previous bug’s remains are still in there.
Thanks! And I love your site
Thomas responded on 07 Apr 2008 at 12:09 pm #
Ryan, first off thanks for putting up a web site full of great information on the Venus Fly Traps, my traps are now all looking great, I even have one I’m going to allow to flower and I don’t think it will die off. ( Yep I know the risks )
I was looking at your propagation pages and didn’t find any info on how to do a leaf or cutting type propagation of a Venus fly traps and was wondering if it is possible to use this method… because micropropagation or tissue culture seems fairly involved for my needs, I only wanting to get a few more plants to grow…
Ryan responded on 09 Apr 2008 at 12:09 am #
Hi Thomas,
Yep, it’s definitely possible to do leaf cuttings. I’m no expert on this matter though, hence I don’t have any information on it.
I’ll see what information I can rustle up tonight and post it for you.
If I don’t get back to you within the next week then post back because I’ve probably forgotten!
Ryan,
Ryan responded on 09 Apr 2008 at 12:11 am #
Hi Christina,
No, you can just leave the bugs there if you like. Often they become stuck and are impossible to remove anyway. Sometimes they can be plucked out with tweezers, but this is always quite tricky as may trigger the trap again by accident.
kim Elliott responded on 15 Apr 2008 at 3:41 am #
Hi,
I bought a venus trap on teh weekend. It has 6 traps which were all closed but now opening nicely, and 2 tiny growing traps. the plant stems are about 3 – 4″ long and traps just less than an inch. Its kept well watered (distilled) and in a mini Terrarium…..but
The stems are just sitting on the soil and not upright at all (n the pics ive seen on the net all teh plants have sticking up leaves/stems), so this is making the traps just hang off the edge of the pot? is this ok? is he sick?
thanks kim
Ryan responded on 15 Apr 2008 at 4:12 am #
Hi Kim,
I doubt there is any problem with your plant.
If you look in the research section here you will see that the control plant I used for the low light experiment started off with quite low lying traps. They’ve started to grow taller lately though.
As long as your plant is kept in good conditions the traps may raise off the ground in time.
I also had a very sick looking plant I stored in the dark for the winter. It was very unhealthy when put it in the light at the start of spring, it’s traps were yellowish and lying on the soil, but now that summer is nearly over it is growing very healthily and it’s traps have raised up off the soil.
Plant Dude responded on 20 Apr 2008 at 10:26 am #
Hi Ryan I just got a new flytraps yesterday, it is very big and healthy but some of the traps won’t close when i feed them, all of the triger hairs were touched and I know that there is a time when the traps stop working, but they don’t look like they have stopped working yet, whats going on.
Plant Dude responded on 21 Apr 2008 at 5:52 pm #
I have been Idman, Plant Dude, Mimosa lover, New Ryan, beetle lover, and maybe some others, I can’t remember.
Plant Dude responded on 21 Apr 2008 at 5:54 pm #
I just like pranks, but from now on, Ill just be plant lover.
Plant Lover(Idman, mimosa lover, plant dude, New Ryan, beetle lover, and maybe some others, I can't remember.) responded on 21 Apr 2008 at 6:14 pm #
How do u make that little smiley face at the end of your sentences. thanks
plz write back responded on 24 Apr 2008 at 5:51 pm #
hi,
i just got a vft, venus fly trap at the store. it had a hard plastic cover over it so i thought i would kill some ants and feed it to it =. i did and it closed. but its been 2 days and it isnt opening should i be worried? plz write back im geting upset?
Ryan responded on 24 Apr 2008 at 7:39 pm #
Plant Dude – Yes, I had noticed your multiple usernames. You will likely start getting yourself caught by the Akismet spam filter if you keep doing that and then your comments will stop appearing on blogs.
You can make smiley faces by adding : and ) straight after each other (no spaces or ‘and’ in the middle)
plz write back – Don’t panic. Your trap may take up to two weeks before it reopens. Incidentally, ants aren’t particularly good food for them. The hard exoskeleton can’t be digested very well. Try flies, spiders and other softer bugs.
Plant Dude responded on 28 Apr 2008 at 3:04 pm #
Thanks Ryan:(
Plant Dude responded on 28 Apr 2008 at 3:06 pm #
plus there are 2 new emerging heads on my traps leaf, I have heard of this before, but will it be safe for my trap, thanks:)
CS responded on 02 May 2008 at 5:27 am #
Hi Ryan,
My God what a wealth of information! I have successfully smuggled a Venus Fly Trap home to South India (from a dollar shop in the USA!). It has looked healthier since it has been here than from the shop but recently I’ve become worried. It’s continually putting out new leafs and traps. But lately the older ones start by the traps turning brown at the outer edges and the brown slowly works it way to the leaf and then I cut the whole bit off. We are talking about a SMALL plant here! I keep it on the balcony which recieves all day bright but indirect sunlight. The temps here range from lows of 25C to highs of 34C with the relative humidity never going much below 75pct and generally higher. Should I be worried? There seems to be a continual supply of new leaves and traps and perhaps the ones that have died off were all the “originals”? I water it with boiled and filtered (through ceramic candles) water same as I drink. Any suggestions? I realize that it will have to be going into the refrigerator at some time for its dormancy period and should adjust this for my location? Thanks.
Ryan responded on 04 May 2008 at 2:52 am #
Hi CS,
There is no point in boiling the water, unless there is a very serious bacteria in your water.
If filtering through ceramic candles is as ineffective as it sounds (I’ve never heard of it before) then that won’t make any difference either.
You need distilled or rain water for your plant. Or at the very least, heavily filtered water (charcoal filtered preferably).
How often are your plants leaves dying off? It isn’t uncommon for them to be replaced every few months. They usually turn black/very dark brown before falling off and being replaced by fresh green/red ones.
Aaron responded on 08 May 2008 at 5:07 am #
Aaron again. I’ve propagrated by Venus Flytrap using leaf cutting. the white ends are turning red in colour. Why??? Is it going to grow a plantlet.
Aaron responded on 09 May 2008 at 8:45 pm #
Hi,
This is Aaron again.
There are very short traps coming out from the side.Why?I don’t think they are other VFT.
Tyler responded on 10 May 2008 at 12:32 am #
I just bought a VF and i was just wondering what kind of surface to keep the plant on? i have a overturned plastic barrel that i usually keep my personal stash on, but this might get to hot for the flytrap. The alternative is brick it outlines the outside of our house and that may soak up some of its water but it may help i dont know. or should i just keep it in a very shallow dish of rain/distilled water? any help would be appreatiated thank you
tom responded on 10 May 2008 at 4:42 am #
would i be able to grow a venus fly trap in a north facing room in england?
And how often do they need watering
Ryan responded on 10 May 2008 at 4:57 am #
Aaron – What are the “white bits” you are referring to?
Ryan responded on 10 May 2008 at 5:03 am #
Tyler – The very shallow dish of rain/distilled water sounds like the best option. Although it is hard to know without more information. In particular, if you live in a cold environment it may actually be beneficial to put it on a warmer surface.
Ryan responded on 10 May 2008 at 5:07 am #
Tom – You can grow them anywhere as long as they get plenty of light, good soil and water. Lots of people successfully grow them in England.
You need to keep the soil moist, the exact rate of watering will depend on how rapidly the soil dries out.
Aaron responded on 10 May 2008 at 5:20 am #
The white bits are part of the bulb when you tear out the leaves.
Tyler responded on 10 May 2008 at 2:03 pm #
I live in northern TX VERY HUMID RIGHT NOW and obout 85 degrees already the very top of the soil is dry but i bet its still very moist below, there are some traps that are burieed underneath the soil? what do i do with those?
Angie responded on 11 May 2008 at 4:48 am #
If it’s possible to grow vft in Thailand? The weather is hot and humid, but I want to grow them in my office. I have another problem, I got my vft for my present and it flowering right now some of them were open and some already gone. Should I remove them now or should I leave it till it’s gone? *Little help please..*
Ian responded on 11 May 2008 at 8:26 am #
recently my flytrap had flowered but all the flowers bloomed and then died later on. should i cut the stem off?
Heather responded on 11 May 2008 at 8:10 pm #
I just got a little venus flytrap and now the leave are wilting and closing. I had to cut off many black leaves already. Should I feed the plant or put it in to a warmer room it is not warn here right now? What do I do to save my plant?
Patrick responded on 14 May 2008 at 11:16 am #
Hi i bought my first VFT from a garden centre, then one of the internet as a pack with a sarrencinian and a cape sundew. then back and my garden centre i saw a venus fly trap bright red and big traps. i know it is a normal one that has just been given good care but.
do you have to let your new grown traps mature in a way, before feeding them? because at the moment i am feeding them straight away and i am thinking thats why some of my traps are miniscule. and also its not very sunny in north yorkshire ( England ) only on odd actions. i have a asian water dragon and she has a UVB flurensent light and a normal flurensent light. i have been putting the plants on a chair close to the glass. when it’s not sunny but will this be doing anything for them?
its about 15 inches away from the UVB and about a whole meter away from the normal light. i cant get it closer without putting it inside the vivarium and since the plants are not from the asian jungle it will be to hot and humid for them.
any advice Welcome
pat
Tyler responded on 15 May 2008 at 1:37 pm #
Ryan i have a question about my flytrap, i have tried to trigger the hairs with a soft-bodies insect and no matter how many times i try it the trap wont close or if it does it takes about 5 minuts, which is a snails pace. am i doing something wrong? i know they aer supposed to be moving much faster, any help would be great!
Nate responded on 15 May 2008 at 5:15 pm #
I was wondering how to grow a seperate venus fly trap off of the one I already own. Such as seeds or maybe cutting off half the plant and giving it TLC.
Ryan responded on 15 May 2008 at 8:54 pm #
Tyler, you can try to remove the soil from around traps, although I tend to just leave them to do their own thing, they generally make their way to the surface eventually – or die off and are replaced by ones growing above ground.
Angie, yes it is possible to grow Venus flytraps in Thailand. As long as the conditions are right, you can grow them anywhere. If your plant is flowering, you may as well leave it continue the process, there is little benefit in removing it now.
Ian – Nope, there is no need to remove them stem. Although if it looks ugly then you may as well remove it, particularly if it is dried up and raggedy looking.
Heather – If it is inside, then it probably doesn’t need to be anywhere warmer. The amount of light they receive is much more important than their temperature so try to make sure it is in the sunniest part of the house. And keep it well watered.
Patrick – No, it shouldn’t matter if you feed them straight away. If they have traps, then the plant is intending to gobble something up with them. Just make sure you don’t overfeed them. Once a month should be plenty to keep the plant happy. And don’t place large bugs in small traps. A bug should be ~1/3 the size of the trap. The fluorescent lights will definitely help, just make sure they don’t get baked under them.
Tyler – Traps sometimes close slowly simply because the trap is malfunctioning. If it is only a few traps and the rest of them are functioning fine then don’t worry about it. If they are all behaving that way, then your plant is probably not very healthy. The usual recipe of light, light, light, more light and healthy dose of watering will usually do the trick.
Nate – I don’t have much information on here about cultivating new plants as this isn’t an area I have a huge amount of experience in. From what I’ve heard, the best advice is to take a cutting and grow a new plant from that. Growing from seeds takes a very long time.
Josh responded on 16 May 2008 at 2:00 pm #
I have 2 venus flytraps and for some reason they seem to be growing very oddly. The leaves grow fine but the traps stay very small or dont even grow from a bud. The leaves are all tangled up, Should i trim off most of them? I used to get big traps but now they are all small or dont grow at all. I use distilled water and keep it in peet moss and sphagnum moss.
Angie responded on 19 May 2008 at 8:35 am #
Another question please.. Do VFT needs wind or just good amount of water, warm/humid weather and a right sunlight? If they dont need wind so I can grow them in my office just fine. *Thanks again
Nathan Sokalski responded on 24 May 2008 at 1:50 pm #
I received my Venus Flytrap several days ago, and I beleive that it is in dormancy. One of the traps has a bug in it (which was there when I received it). The trap has been half open for about two days now (since I received it). Is this safe? I thought the trap was supposed to be sealed while digesting, and open in about a day for false alarms (it was like this when I received it, so I guess it could be a peice of dirt that fell in). Is there anything I should be doing?
Ryan responded on 27 May 2008 at 6:17 am #
Hi Josh,
I don’t think trimming them off will help. It sounds like your plant isn’t very healthy. Is it getting enough light? Is it possible that it was receiving a lot more light in the past and now isn’t?
Ryan responded on 27 May 2008 at 6:18 am #
Hi Angie,
No, Venus flytraps do not need wind at all. Just water and lots of sunlight will keep them happy.
Ryan responded on 27 May 2008 at 6:20 am #
Hi Nathan,
Sometimes traps do not shut properly. Don’t worry about it, there isn’t anything you can do (normally). The trap may become damaged, but a new one will grow to take it’s place eventually. This is a common problem in nature when large bugs/animals get half caught in the trap.
Josh responded on 28 May 2008 at 12:12 pm #
Well when i bought it it wasnt in direct sunlight at all and it looked normal so i dont know if im doing something rong.
Alec responded on 29 May 2008 at 12:47 pm #
My fly trap soil has dried up a little and I haven’t seen a sign of my fly trap for four weeks. Do I need a new seed or new soil, has it died???
Matthew responded on 31 May 2008 at 10:24 pm #
My Venus Fly trap is around a year and a half old I would guess and it was bought in a store in a fairly decent plant pot, it has survived a flower growing spree, and went through a period of every trap in the plant dying at christmas.
I am left with a very healthy plant to say the least.
My question is!
I noticed my plant has 9+ traps that are growing upwards(you know the stem thing that holds them) Is this normal?
(The traps are almost an Inch in size)
I also have 8 tiny traps growing on the soil, which are redish inside, am I right to assume the plant has split into two flowers?
If I could add more information
After the trap essentially died it was growing long thin things, I assume attempting to recover itself, the temperature was very cold, And I assumed the plant should ideally be hibernating and cut them back, did I do the right thing? they were growing out from the soil and were eventually going black before the trap could grow.
I’m not an expert but a few months later when the temperature picked up the plant went into grow mode, and now literally day by day the thing is just growing.
It’s amazing the way Venus Fly Traps can seemingly fool you into thinking its dying/dead and just… recover.
I pretty much am glad I stuck with the thing although I had people saying to me the thing is dead, and not to bother.
I’m glad I did, I think the Plant has personality, and was just telling me that christmas is a time it just has to rest and rest it did for months..
(Growing conditions)
Near the window, but not an open one.
Has direct sunlight.
Is fed mineral water/spring water(Which I guess it likes)
Alex responded on 01 Jun 2008 at 1:19 am #
i bought a vft from lowes last week and i put it on a window sill for another week and it started drying up so i gave it some rain water through the bottom and it perked back up. I recently put it in a bigger pot that has nothing but sphagnum peat moss in it. im not sure how deep the pot is but im worried that its not getting water because the roots arent that long. do you think its getting water. is it safe to mist it with rain water on the leaves? also will the plant grow more than the 3 traps that it had when i bought it? thanks
Ann responded on 01 Jun 2008 at 4:31 pm #
I want to start a bog garden, and I was wondering if it would be safe in winter for my venus fly traps. I live in northern Utah.
Ann responded on 02 Jun 2008 at 4:26 pm #
I have 17 venus fly traps growing in a 10 gallon terrarium, and I think they need more room, so I am hoping to put them in a bog garden outside. I just don’t know if they could survive the cold winters here in Northern Utah. I live in Davis County, and I was wondering if you could give me any advice on growing my fly traps outdoors.
Ann responded on 03 Jun 2008 at 9:53 am #
I own 17 venus fly traps. My lagest one’s traps are about 3″ long, and they don’t shut very well. They do shut, but they shut very slowly. I have all my fly traps in a terrarium, there are two twenty watt compact flourescent lights about a foot above all the plants, the temperature in the terrarium during the daytime is around 75-80F, at noght it goes down to about 70-73F. Also the humidity is about 80 percent. Do think i am doing anything wrong?
Thomas responded on 04 Jun 2008 at 1:17 am #
Hey Ryan,
I have a VFT that I allowed to flower now it’s doing OK, but there is flowers and traps starting to grow on the flower stalk, I seen photos on your site of traps and no flowers and just flowers, but not both..
I was wondering if I should cut it and plant it or allow it to continue making seeds, which is why I was letting it flower in the first place…
Daniel responded on 04 Jun 2008 at 2:59 pm #
Hey ryan, I just got a Rosetted VFT, It accidently fell in some water, while potting it, and some of the traps closed. Will my trap be OK? or will it make black and dry? Another questions is, is my windowsill a good spot to grow my VFT?
Patrick responded on 06 Jun 2008 at 11:14 am #
Hi just a quick question will a fish tank light be OK for a Fly trap?
Its fluresent and i think thats the main point……. i think
Thomas responded on 06 Jun 2008 at 1:33 pm #
Patrick …
About the fish tank light it depends on the coloring of the tube, fish and lizard use lighting some times contain huge amounts of UVA, and UVB which the plants don’t really require. (( If I had the bulb numbering I could let you know what it’s best for ))
VFT’s like most plants you don’t want to flower should get a white to blueish white light, A Cool White, or daylight tube would be best, stay away from warm white, unless you want to promote flowering… (( and on a positive note cool white and daylight tubes are the cheapest tubes you can buy and they preform better then a good full spectrum grow tube ))
Ben responded on 06 Jun 2008 at 3:23 pm #
I have just got some seeds but i dont know how to plant them and get them going. Need some tips, Ben
Karan responded on 07 Jun 2008 at 10:12 am #
Hey Ryan… i’m a student living in the UK as u probably no our summers are not the hottest and even if it does get hot it not consistent. I was wondering wether useing UV lamps as a articfical light source?
Also .. erm the place i go to buy the venus flytrap doesnt do peat soil…apperently because of it aciditiy its harms other plants which is fair enough..i was wondering if there was an alternate soil that can substitute the peat soil? cheers buddy !!
Ann responded on 07 Jun 2008 at 7:34 pm #
I was wondering how to make leaf cuttings from an adult venus fly trap. I have 17 venus fly traps in a ten gallon terrarium, and I am going to move them into a 35 gallon terrarium in about a week or two, and I was thinking it would be nice to have more venus fly traps to put in such a big space, even if it would take a while for them to grow. I have two adult venus fly traps that have each produced two baby venus fly traps, so I was thinking those would be the bes ones to make leaf cuttings from. Do you know anything about making leaf cuttings?
Also, I have tried to post this three times, and it didn’t work.
Ryan responded on 07 Jun 2008 at 8:14 pm #
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the delay in replying, I’ve been busy for the past while and didn’t have time to respond to you all.
Alex,
Do you mean that your traps have died and are not present anymore? If so, then it doesn’t sound promising. Keep watering it, keep it in sunlight and hope for the best.
Matthew,
It sounds like your plant is growing great! ALl of the things you mentioned sound normal, although I’d be cautious of cutting back healthy plant material even if it is likely to turn black and die.
Alex,
If you keep a constant pool of water in the base of the pot, then the soil should hopefully soak it up and keep your plant wet enough. The roots will eventually grow downwards and hopefully reach the bottom. As long as it isn’t more than 20 cm or so deep it should be okay.
If you want to ensure that the soil is wet right through, then pour the water in from the top so that is has to soak through the soil.
Ann,
As long as the temperature doesn’t drop below -5 deg. C or so then it should be fine to grow a bog garden. Much colder than that and the plants may perish. Growing outside is definitely less hassle than in a terrarium. I prefer the concept of growing things naturally too, it just feels ‘right’. Plus there are a lot more bugs outside for them.
I’m not sure why your traps aren’t closing rapidly. It sounds like you are doing everything fine. Perhaps read up on the best practices for maintain your soil and what and how much to water your plants.
Thomas,
Do you mean there are traps growing on the flower stalk itself? If so, it sounds like false vivapary … http://flytrapgrowing.info/flowers-that-grow-traps/
I haven’t seen this happen before, but it does happen occasionally apparently.
‘Waiting till the stalk looks like it’s stopped growing, then clip it and root the new cuttings in the ground. With luck they’ll grow into nice big healthy plants.’
Danel,
Your plant should be fine. They can cope fine with the occasional accidental trap closure, this happens all the time in nature.
Your window will will be fine so long as it receives plenty of light.
Patrick,
A fish tank light is totally useless. You need a light designed for causing photosynthesis … fish don’t photosynthesis.
Ben,
I may add a section to the site about growing from seeds eventually, but not yet.
Karan,
Where I live has similar weather to southern England and I don’t have any trouble growing them without articial lighting.
Regular UV lamps are no good, you need ones designed specifically for plant growing.
Sphagnum moss is a good substitute for Peat. Although I suspect if you shop around you will find somewhere which sells Peat, it’s quite common stuff.
Ann,
I’m not really an expert on making leaf cuttings. I just chop the traps off and shove them in the dirt … it works … but there is probably a better, more methodical approach to it.
Ben responded on 08 Jun 2008 at 4:24 am #
Thanx for the tips Karan. hope to here more from you, Ben.
Ann responded on 08 Jun 2008 at 1:29 pm #
Thanks for the answers to my questions, but I have one more. Do you know how to pollinate venus fly trap flowers? Every spring I allow my fly traps to flower, and they seem to grow even better than when I didn’t allow them to flower.
Thanks.
Josh responded on 09 Jun 2008 at 12:32 pm #
Two of my venus flytraps died back to the base are they already going dormant?
Ryan responded on 11 Jun 2008 at 6:00 am #
Ben,
I formatted my last comment oddly and it looks like Karan posted another comment … except they didn’t, it was me
I won’t format comments like that anymore as it’s obviously confusing things.
Ryan responded on 11 Jun 2008 at 6:03 am #
Ann – I haven’t personally had much luck polinating Venus flytrap flowers.
Barry Rice has some good instructions for polinating flowers on his site … Barry Rice
Ryan responded on 11 Jun 2008 at 6:06 am #
Hi Josh,
Your plant may be going dormant, but I can’t confirm as you haven’t given me much information to work from.
Where are you? What exactly has happened to your plant? Are there any traps left? Is it green? Red coloured perhaps? What conditions is it in? How moist is the soil/atmosphere etc.?
Josh responded on 11 Jun 2008 at 11:48 am #
I live in Illinois, my plant is in my room on the windowsill, it was growing fine for a few months then suddenly it started growing all tangled up and then the traps started getting less and less then i had no mo9re leaves left. I had to cut off the remaining leaves that were tangled and then no more leaves grew after that. The soil is moist . I checked the buld and it wasnt rotting or anything so im confused. I keep it watered enough for it to be humid.
jacoby responded on 14 Jun 2008 at 11:09 pm #
one day i saw my venus flytrap eating my other venus flytrap what does this mean is it going to kill it o_0 please help me
Nathan Sokalski responded on 15 Jun 2008 at 1:36 pm #
About a week ago I fed one of my traps, which I believe is a Justina Davis, a fly, which it ate as I expected. I believe everything is fine, but I have been unable to find anywhere that lets me know approximately how long it takes for the trap to reopen. Does this depend on the size of the bug at all? Although I don’t think it is a problem, the tip of the fly’s one wing is sticking out of the top of the trap (Hopefully the bug wasn’t too big!). Any ideas on time?
ayesha responded on 17 Jun 2008 at 1:42 am #
hi
can i know is it safe to keep venus fly trap at home?….are there any side effects or any harm to anyone..
Tom responded on 22 Jun 2008 at 4:21 pm #
I bought my first VFT from a local nursery yesterday. It is in its original terrarium. It is very small, with only two traps. One is red inside, one is green inside.
When I bought it, the red one was open, and the green one was closed. Today, the red one is closed, and the green one is open. No bugs were caught. Is this normal? Is the red one just dying while the green one is just maturing?
Also, I have the terrarium lid on, and cut three small holes toward the bottom of the lid to allow air flow. It is sitting in a pan with about a half inch of water in it. Will this be too humid for the plant? I live in a VERY dry climate, with humidity percent at about 10-20%.
The pot it’s in is 3 inches wide, and about 3 inches tall. With the lid on, it total height is about 6-7 inches.
Any help or advice would be very appreciated. I don’t want to see my plant die. I know its only been one day, but I want to know as much as possible. Thanks.
Nathan Sokalski responded on 24 Jun 2008 at 4:54 pm #
When a leaf turns black and dies or falls off, should I leave it there or take it out of the pot? Also, if there are any dead leaves that have not fallen off but have been there for a while, should I do anything about them?
Barry Moore responded on 26 Jun 2008 at 2:06 am #
The flytrap takes about 5 to 10 days to reopen.
Dude responded on 27 Jun 2008 at 4:21 pm #
Do you know any hermit crab faq where you can laeve a comment on the faq just like hear, or do you at least know a hermit crab faq.
karan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 12:34 pm #
Hey, i was just wondering, to increase humidity, can i put the plant in a container and seal the top wiv cling film and punch air holes in them?
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:21 pm #
Hi Josh,
I don’t think there much I can help with here. If you are following the various advice here on the site your plant should be fine. The main things to ensure are that your plant is getting plenty of light, you don’t fertilize it and it’s watered lots.
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:29 pm #
Hi jacoby,
I have a plant which is doing this at the moment. It is best avoided, but is unlikely to kill your plant, at worst those traps aren’t able to catch any flies, but the plants can survive without feeding on flies anyway, so they should be fine. If you can untangle them, do, otherwise don’t worry about it.
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:31 pm #
Hi Nathan Sokalski,
If the fly was sticking out of the trap then it was definitely too big. This is often not a big problem though as the trap can sometimes seal itself around the edges of the bug, particularly if it’s just a small leg or wing. The trap should open with a week or two once it has digested the proteins in the fly.
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:31 pm #
Hi ayesha,
Yes it is safe to keep a Venus flytrap at home. They are not toxic or dangerous to humans – just bugs.
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:35 pm #
Hi Tom,
The red trap was probably triggered as the green one was opening. This is not a problem. When a trap dies, it turns black, not red. Red traps is generally a sign that the plant is healthy, whereas green traps is often a sign that the plant is not receiving enough light (although there are many exceptions to this).
You can’t create a climate which is too humid, the more humid the better.
Good luck with your plant
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:36 pm #
Hi Nathan Sokalski,
The black leaves will not cause any harm. I usually remove them since they look ugly, but they won’t cause any problems if you leave them there.
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:37 pm #
Thanks Barry Moore
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:38 pm #
Hi Dude,
No I don’t know of any hermit crab faq.
Ryan responded on 28 Jun 2008 at 10:41 pm #
Hi karan,
Yes you could do that, although you would probably want more than a few small pin holes to provide an adequate the air flow. If the airflow is too low the CO2 levels will drop and slow down your plants growth.
Amac responded on 01 Jul 2008 at 5:15 pm #
hi one of the heads of the plant has been open for awhile and it’s all green inside i’ve been facing it towards sun but it never gets red all the other traps do instead i’ve even been moving it following the sun what do i do??
Rose responded on 06 Jul 2008 at 1:38 pm #
Hi Ryan,
I bought a VFT with my summer plants and planted it into normal compost. When I looked it up on the internet I discovered that this was not at all good for it, so I repotted in a 70% peat moss 30% perlite mix. However, when I repotted the plant, I noticed that the roots are very straggley and short. Is it likely that my plant will recover from my mitreatment and is there anything I can do to help it along?
Also, I was wondering if water from a brita water filter would be adequate to filter out impurities?
Your advice would be much appreciated.
Ryan responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 5:41 am #
Hi Amac,
Don’t worry about it. All traps are different and one of yours for whatever reason just doesn’t want to turn red. I wouldn’t fret about.
The only thing I can think of that you could try is to move the plant to a different location with more sunlight.
I often use the same pivoting technique to give the various traps equal lighting. I’m not sure if it works and since many of my plants look quite ugly and irregular I suspect it isn’t helping one little bit. The theory I had was that by rotating them, the plants would grow in a more symmetrical fashion, but they just seem to grow wild and out of control as per normal. Nature is a strange beast and not that easy to tame it seems
Amy responded on 14 Jul 2008 at 10:35 am #
can a venus fly trap eat a lady bug?? mine did and it turned brown at the tip…
patrick responded on 18 Jul 2008 at 2:49 pm #
Hi i asked a wile ago if a fish light was any good , any the verdict was a definite no. but my question is would a a reptile UV light be any good to grow fly traps? it admits 5.0 UV and a some UVB. at the moment i am putting my plants out in the sun and its great wen i do this the traps turning red with time but were i live i am lucky to get sunlight even when its summer!
Any advice would be appreciated
Patrick
luis responded on 20 Jul 2008 at 9:11 pm #
i have a small vft, it has 2 closed traps, 1 halfway, and 1 open, it has 2 leaves that are dying, i have one question. do the leaves die after the trap does?
Cj responded on 22 Jul 2008 at 7:17 pm #
Hey,I Wanted to know if Venus Fly Traps needed light during dormancy. I live in Edmonton Canada, the winters are very harsh and the house is always heated. I have no choice but to put it in the fridge . There’s obviously no light in there. I was also wondering how cold it should be for the Venus Fly Trap during dormancy.
Mark Paling responded on 28 Jul 2008 at 1:51 pm #
Hi there can you tell me the best way to remove the fly sketons from the traps.I have been using a cocktail stick but am worried that I may hurt the plant,which by the way has just sent up a flower stalk.The plant looks very healthy and is growing new traps like there is no tomorrow.
CJ responded on 04 Aug 2008 at 7:52 pm #
Hey,, Me again. My aunt’s venus fly trap seems to be doing fine for the past few weeks, until i noticed that one of its NEW summer traps are turning black. I know its normal for traps to die after digestion but this is a new, one. Hasn’t even opened up yet. Im really worried. I’ve been giving it lots of sunlight, and distilled water. I put it in a mini terrarium during the night and some cold stormy days! What am i doing wrong.
Amac responded on 05 Aug 2008 at 7:36 pm #
hi a few my fly trap’s leaves have died in the space of a week none were fed and now my trap is replacing them with summer leaves but the traps are really tiny, i found a small flower stalk which i cut off right away is my pot to small for the plant which admitedly is pretty small compared to my vft which is now 2 plants joined together and that’s why the traps are so small or is it because of the flower stalk please reply quickly i’m worried about my plant
Homer responded on 07 Aug 2008 at 4:57 pm #
I just bought a Venus Flytrap and i dropped it on the floor after packing all the plant back together i noticed all but 2 (very small) traps had closed!!! will they open in time to get food or will the plant die !
???
Nice Website btw
Justin responded on 08 Aug 2008 at 3:12 pm #
Hi i am worried about my Fly trap and i was wondering if you could help me figure what going on with my plant?
I just bought it from the store and it looked gren and health when i bought it and for two days it looked ok but then i noticed that the leaves were turning brown ad had some black. it has plenty of water(Purified)i may of over feed it and i cut the leaves of so that it with not create in bacteria and i was wondering if it is overfeed will it grow new leaves.
P.S. Can to much heat kill it even though it has plenty of water.
Thanks
Justin
KT responded on 08 Aug 2008 at 7:29 pm #
I just recently got my fly trap, and I was wondering if I could feed it fleas?
polly responded on 11 Aug 2008 at 11:54 pm #
i just purchased a venus flytrap yesterday. not knowing much about them except that eat bugs, so i removed the top of the little terranium that it came in, to allow it to catch bugs if some came by. but now i have found your wonderful website! if i understand correctly they don’t have to have bugs to suvive. is this right? so, i replaced the top in order to keep it’s moisture and keep it in my dining room window on the west side. i am a plant nut, and so hope that i can keep this one living. please let me know if i am doing the right thing. thank you so much. i live in louisiana.
DiCE6 responded on 21 Aug 2008 at 12:41 pm #
Hey there. Ryan I just recieved my plant ‘dente’. It is in a dome and I’m asking if I just take the dome off and and go from there. They do seem to be in dormancy right now. Please respond. Thank you.
mystic man1 responded on 23 Aug 2008 at 8:19 pm #
hi
well i just bought a fly trap today and i need to no how often to feed it and water it so plz tell me
thnx
mystic man1 responded on 23 Aug 2008 at 9:58 pm #
hi
well i just asked somthing but heres another question ok i bought my vtf and there is no pollen is that ok or is it dying or can i do somthing abouut it?
thnx
Tania responded on 28 Aug 2008 at 6:35 pm #
Hello,
I have got a few plants and they were doing great up until recently: 2 of them got most of their newly grown traps half black, so i had to cut them off; even the recently grown traps turned yellow-ish ; is it a lack of sun? because only 2 plants out of 2 are doing this
Help me please, thanks. Tx
Ryan responded on 04 Sep 2008 at 3:37 am #
Amac,
Some plants just don’t turn red. Perhaps this is the case here?
Rose,
I have no idea what a brita water filter is sorry.
The best thing to do, is to flush the plant with as much water as possible to rinse out any nasty fertlizers. If you don’t have a large quantity of suitable water, then you may be best of placing it under a tap, flushing the heck out of it with tap water, then putting some clean water through afterwards to rinse out the tap water.
Amy,
Yes a venus flytrap can eat a lady bug. They’re a bit hard, kinda like ants in that way, but they’re insect so will do the trick. You probably find most of the shell left in the trap once it opens.
Patrick,
A reptile UV light would not be much good either. You will probably just bake your plant. Plants operate by absorbing light and oddly enough the range of light they absorb is smack bang in the middle of the photospectrum of the sun! This is why plants are usually green as that is the middle of the suns photospectrum. UV light is much higher energy than visible or IR light, so is far more likely to burn/bake your plant much like it does to humans. Reptiles require the heat from the UV lamp to stay warm, this doesn’t apply to plants though.
Luis,
I don’t understand your question. The leaves are the trap.
Cj,
No they don’t ‘require’ light during dormancy, however they apparently cope better if they do receive some light. If you place your plant in the fridge, then it will be in total hibernation and others have reported problems when they have placed their plant this deep into dormancy AND given it light. The temperature should be somewhere below 10 deg. C, although you can get away with higher temperatures often.
Mark Paling,
I use tweezers to remove skeletons. Just don’t poke the plant that’s all.
Your Aunt’s plant should be fine hopefully. Traps often die and turn black for no apparent reason and sometimes it happens before they open for the first time. This may be signal that the plant is not happy, but it is probably not a dire situation. Many of my traps do this from time to time.
Amac,
It sounds like you are panicing too much! I need more information about the environment of the plant to help. In particular what part of the world you are in as it may just be a dormancy issue you are seeing.
Homer,
The plant will be fine. Traps shut and close all the time and the plant can survive for a VERY long time (ie: many years) without any food whatsoever. The food just allows the plant to grow a little faster that’s all.
Justin,
Why did you cut the leaves off? How did bacteria get on your plant.
Excessive heat will definitely kill it as the leaves/soil will dry out.
KT,
Sorry, but I’m not sure about flea actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before.
Polly,
Yes you are doing the right thing. If you want to see it catch some bugs then catch some and dump them in the pot. They will eventually get munched down by the plant
DiCE6,
If the plant is in dormancy then you are better of leaving it there.
mystic man1
There is lots of information about your question throughout this site. Please check there.
Pollen? Does it have a flower? Or do you mean there is no pollen in the trap? There will never be pollen in the trap unless it falls there from a flower.
Tania,
No they shouldn’t be turning yellowish. That sounds like there is a problem. How moist is the soil?
antoine responded on 05 Sep 2008 at 3:00 am #
Hi ryan. Can you please describe what the venus fly trap looks like in dormancy?
Nathan Sokalski responded on 05 Sep 2008 at 4:59 pm #
My plants have recently been only opening one end when they finish digesting. Whether they catch the bug on their own or I feed it to them, they only open at one end after the couple weeks of digestion. They eventually after another week or so open all the way, but the initial opening only one end allows the leftovers to dry out and be hard to remove. this has happend to several of the traps so far, so I know it is not just one odd occurrence. Why did they start opening only one end?
Tania responded on 07 Sep 2008 at 5:43 am #
Thanks for replying Ryan.
They are all sitting in about 2cm of rain water
Could it be the lack of sun?
I only leave them outside when it is sunny and that must only have happened 3 times.
I tough that maybe the guy I bought it from grow them under a fake light and now they are suffering from a lack of sun??? Let me know
Thanks
Tania
Daniel responded on 07 Sep 2008 at 9:15 pm #
One of my plants is turning wrinkley, the traps are getting tiny while the petiole is huge, whats wrong, and how can I fix it?
shannon responded on 11 Sep 2008 at 6:23 pm #
I need to be able to control what my venus flytraps are eating to monitor each one’s growth according to it’s diet. Any ideas how to do this since the plant thrives best in the great outdoors? I was thinking of some kind of greenhouse but need something simple, it’s for a middle school science experiment.
B.Barger responded on 16 Sep 2008 at 10:53 am #
Can I use bottled water instead of rainwater or distilled water for my Venus Fly Traps?
Thank you!
Cayce responded on 17 Sep 2008 at 11:18 pm #
Hello Ryan,
I just wanted to say I recently found your site and it’s been the most helpful so far. I’m not a total newbie to flytraps, I had some as a kid, but I do have a couple questions.
I understand buying traps from big brand retailers is not a good idea but while at the hardware store one caught my eye and was in incredible shape with 20 traps/7 each three separate plants! so I nabbed it, and I’ts been doing great. However even though it’s condition has been improving even more most of the traps fail to stand upright on their own and droop over the side of the pot. But most of the new growth seems to be growing in the upright position, am I over watering? It’s sitting in about 10mm of distilled water.
Also, a couple days ago I fed a couple of the traps live weevils I found outside, from what I can tell by the shadow they are digesting well but on each trap that ate one on the outside they developed dimples (some seem rather large and thin the width of the leave), but only on the traps I fed weevils, is this common?
And one last one (I know!) I live in southern california, I don’t believe it will be cold enough for natural dormancy in the winter. And I was looking at buying a large terrarium online as well as 2-3 more traps, would it be better for me to wait until spring to get the new plants? Or buy them immediately and shove em in the fridge for winter?
Thanks in advanced
Trevor Joseph responded on 18 Sep 2008 at 2:45 am #
Hi,
My question is about habitat. Does the Venus flytrap grow in the rainforests of central or south America?
I can find information on the net which states both that it is and isn’t a rainforest plant. It is quite confusing!
Gra responded on 06 Oct 2008 at 1:21 pm #
Hi,
How often should you repot a plant and at what time of year? also when it starts to flower what do you do best to help the plant survive.
Thanks Gra
Wyatt responded on 06 Oct 2008 at 7:25 pm #
I just bought my Venus Flytrap from my local Fred Meyer. I’m looking for information. One of my questions is, If no fly ventures into to the trap, and say it closed because a finger touched it, how long will it stay closed?
josh responded on 13 Oct 2008 at 5:03 pm #
can venus fly traps eat fish food
Tanya responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 4:02 pm #
Hi there,
I live in California, in the Valley. I bought my B52 from a street faire, from a guy specializing in carnivorous plants. Mine had a flower bud when I first bought it, and it bloomed and it was beautiful! Er, he didn’t tell me that the bloom was a waste of energy but it didn’t seem to have any affect on my plant.
I have had my plant (my son named her Veranise) for maybe 5 or 6 months; this is the longest I’ve had one without it dying Woo Hoo! Veranise keeps popping up with babies and it’s so exciting!
My question is this…what do I do with her, now that it’s fall? The lows here have been in the 50’s, highs in the 80’s or 90’s…she lives outside and gets plenty of sun…how do I care for her when it starts going gray and gloomy and colder?
Indoors might be an option, but there isn’t a spot in the house that is safe from the cats…unless I covered her with a soda bottle….but would that change in air flow and temperature hurt her? If I keep her by the window for sunlight, would the cold from the window affect her negatively? Should I put her outside a few times a week for fresh air, since she is used to it?
As of now, her little plastic pot sits inside a larger one and I keep it filled with distilled water, half way up the pot. She’s thriving and happy, I hope to keep her that way!
Also, when it does get colder every day, should I expect her appearance to be different? Say, if she starts to change colors or anything is that normal?
Thank you!
Ryan responded on 16 Oct 2008 at 10:02 pm #
antoine – The flytrap should have significantly less/smaller traps than normal. You may notice some turn black and/or lose some of their colour.
Nathan Sokalski – Some times the traps only open at one end because they have digested a large bug which has become sticky after digestion. The juice becomes like glue and pours to one end of the trap and sticks the leaves together. After a few weeks the force of the trap opening overcomes the stickiness and pops the trap open. This may be the probelem you are seeing.
I have fixed this in the past by using some tweezers to pry the traps apart. I’m not sure it’s a good idea though as you can potentially damage the traps in the process. It seemed to work when I tried it though and I didn’t notice any problems. Just make sure you are careful and don’t over-force the traps if you try this approach.
Tania – Hmm, not sure what the problem is there. Perhaps just keep giving it as much sun, good water and hope for the best.
Daniel – Sounds like a lack of light and/or water. It’s hard to say specifically what the problem is without knowing more about the plant and the conditions it lives in though.
shannon – keeping it in a terrarium will do the trick. You can place the terrarium outside too; the terrarium will result in slightly less light reaching your plant, but at least the environment can be controlled. A cruder method would be to use insect repellant to keep the bugs away from the plant – I’ve never tried that though. If you do use insect repellant (which I’m not sure is a good idea), make sure you don’t get any on the plant itself or the soil it is in – jus the surrounding area.
B.Barger – bottled water is often worse than rain or distilled water, particularly if it is bottled mineral water which tends to contain large amounts of dissolve minerals.
Cayce – The traps are supposed to be growing upwards, so if that is happening then you are doing something right!
I’ve never seen a weevil, but according to Wikipedia they area an insect so should be okay to feed your plant I guess. Perhaps the weevils ate part of the inside of your plant which has left the dimples?
I’ve never lived anywhere as hot as California is in the winter so I don’t have any first hand experience of this situation. Personally I’d buy them now and stick them in the fridge. Or you could skip dormancy all together and hope they survive fine (if they’re watered and get lots of sun then they should be fine).
Gra – I never repot my plants unless I have a specific reason to do so (rare). If you do need to, then they are best repotted in early spring or very late winter … http://flytrapgrowing.info/should-i-repot/
If the plant starts to flower, then there is nothing you can do but keep treating your plant as well as possible (max light, lots of good water).
Wyatt – If the plant is healthy, the trap should open in a day or two. maybe less if it is particularly healthy.
josh – No, Venus flytraps can not eat regular fish food – only bugs.
Tanya – I’m guessing 50’s is in farenheight? In which case that is 10 deg. C.
Once winter kicks in, you just need to reduce your watering a little. If you are manually feeding the plant, then stop as it won’t help. The plant will go into dormancy and will lose some traps. Then come spring it will pop back into life again. During dormancy the plant may lose some colour and will likely lose traps/grow smaller ones. Some traps may also turn black. I don’t think you will need to keep it inside, they’re plenty hardy enough to survive coolish temperatures. As long as they’re not sitting in snow or frost for extended periods of time then they should survive with no problems at all.
Mary responded on 21 Oct 2008 at 1:24 pm #
Question: Do squirrels or other outdoor critter pose problems for venus flytraps? I ask because our venus flytrap has experienced trauma and still survives; first being knocked off the deck railing, second something pulled the who plant out of it’s pot and third, when I arrived home yesterday someone or something had snipped off the traps without making a mess which was heartbreaking leaving us no alternative except to bring the survivor indoors. Can you recommend a website that sells products to protect plants outdoors from being eaten i.e. cages or boxes? Many thanks in advance for any info you can provide.
rickey responded on 25 Oct 2008 at 12:45 pm #
im woundering how fast does it grow?
Jason responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 11:29 am #
Hello,
I live in Palm Springs and just started growing CP’s this past summer. We have extreme conditions in the summer (125F, 15% humidity) so I grow them inside during that time. However, I was thinking of putting it outside for the winter because our temps in Jan/Feb are usually a Low/High of 35F/50F. The humidity is low, but I believe I read somewhere that the humidity was not important during dormancy.
My question is, how long do they need the cold temperatures for dormancy?
It can get as warm as 90F in Feb, so the winter does not last long here. Yesterday, 10/31/08, it was 91F. Can I put it outside now, or should I wait a few more weeks?
Jules responded on 03 Nov 2008 at 3:03 pm #
Have cultivated VFs from seeds and they’re growing fine but now in Nov. If I leave the bulbs in the pot soil and remove black foliage (when they decide to turn black in subdued light) do I need to use a fungicide during dormancy – can you suggest best type?
Also how do you use offcuts from VFs for new plants?
Cheers
Jules
Jules responded on 03 Nov 2008 at 3:12 pm #
Oh yes,
What’s the best time of year to replant healthy offcuts of traps?
Jules
joshua responded on 03 Nov 2008 at 6:35 pm #
Hi umm yea my flytrap is taking long to digest a moth. What is the average digesting time?
Nathan Sokalski responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 10:57 pm #
Am I REALLY supposed to put my plant in a ziplock bag in the fridge during dormancy??? On the site http://www.bugbitingplants.com/seasonal_careguide.php it tells me to do this, but it seems very strange to me to take away not only light, but fresh air as well. My plant currently looks ok, but this is also my first year, so I could be misjudging, and I want to keep my plants as healthy as possible.
John responded on 28 Nov 2008 at 2:52 pm #
I have bought a fly trap and it said that it should hibernate in 40-50degrees farenheit .I live near Atlanta, Georgia and outside it gets down to 27-37 degrees. So the only place I could think of that was between 40-50 degrees is the refregerator but im afraid that it will die because of the light going out . Is that unhealthy for it?
kim responded on 23 Dec 2008 at 11:23 pm #
i just got a venus fly trap and im trying to figure out if i would be able to plant it in my lizard tank it is about a 75 gal tank but i am unsure if the lizrds will eat the plant (or vice versa)they are only small anole lizards, but i want to be sure i have always wants a venus fly trap and dont want to kill it. any adivce?
Amac responded on 08 Jan 2009 at 4:45 pm #
hi thanks for the help but sad to say my plant still died i watered it faithfully kept it watered every few days thinking it was in dormancy, but i guess it died before it got to dormancy. I’m just wondering wether i threw out something alive or dead because i couldn’t tell and thought it was dead. It had no green traps and everything that should have looked green or a shade of green at least was all black. i dug up the bulb and that was blackish purple and crispy. Just wondering whether this was miracuolsy alive or i chucked out failed try at a venus fly trap.
andy responded on 08 Jan 2009 at 5:23 pm #
poop on u
derek clontz responded on 17 Jan 2009 at 8:51 am #
greetings vft people! question: i want to dry, powder and encapsulate vft for its medicinal uses, which include cancers of every description, crohn’s disease, lyme disease, arterial plaque, and more. please advise. also, please advise which parts of the plant contain the highest concentrations of plumbagin and drosenin (sp?), alkaloids proved to the sources of medicinal benefit. thank you and … great site.
Tom responded on 22 Jan 2009 at 10:10 pm #
What kind of light bulb should i use for a terrarium plant?
john williams responded on 26 Jan 2009 at 5:03 pm #
hi there,
i wish to transplant my venus flytrap into a made to be terraium, clear plastic tupperware container. i bought some “forest moss” from a pet store, all i could find at this point.
a) is this type of moss ok?
b) can i leave plant in small pot that it came in and still put it in the terraium? i was going to bring moss up to the top of small pot, with rocks underneath moss.
c) do i need the sand too?
can you , would you advise me best direction to go. am a pure novice at this.
john,
edmonton, alberta, canada
aramida responded on 29 Jan 2009 at 8:48 pm #
I am thinking about getting a venus flytrap for the first time, and I was wondering if it is ok to feed them mealworms. I have been researching on the web and some sites say yes and some say no, so I’m confused right now.
The reason I ask is because I raise my own mealworms.
Matt responded on 31 Jan 2009 at 1:11 pm #
Just wondering how sensitive VFTs are to salt air? I have been growing my plant in it’s natural habitat(I’m in NC, they grow wild a few miles from my house) but I have just moved to the ocean front, will it effect my plant outside?
Ryan responded on 08 Feb 2009 at 6:58 am #
Apologies, but I am too busy to respond to questions here anymore. I’m closing the comments for this section to save people asking questions which I may not answer for many months.