Venus Fly Trap Info

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Coyote24
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Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by Coyote24 »

I got a venus fly trap today and it is sweet looking. I found alot about them on the internet. They live in North Carolina/South Carolina. They live in very wet conditions so that the plants soil basically needs to be wet at all times. They need full sun all day basically. I read that they need 14 hours of sunlight. NEVER feed the plants any human food. ONLY INSECTS! It could kill the plant if this does happen. For the plant never use any soil from the backyard (It is to nutritional). The plant is use to living in soils where there is bearly any nutrition. SO NO FERTILIZERS! This will easily kill your plant. For the plant use 50/50 peat moss and clean sand or 1/3 sand and 2/3 peat moss or just pure peat moss. I also found other stuff about trimming and transplanting (It is just best if you hear from the professionals). I do have one question though about feeding the plant insects.

Can you overfeed the venus fly trap plant? If so, how does it hurt the plant? They will say about you feeding the plant and how often you should, but never say about hurting the plant by overfeeding it. I really don't think you can overfeed the plant because in the wild you can't control how many insects it catches.
H E L L O ! ! ! ! ! !
pure light
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by pure light »

i live in eastern north carolina i am northeast of wilimington n.c. that part of the state is a prime area for the fly trap and the pitcher plant also a insect eater. i also lived in pensacola fla. both types of plants lived there also. urban sprawl has reduced there range making them very rare over the past 40yrs or so. i keeped a few of the fly traps. never fed them more than maybe 4 house flys a month. had one plant 2yrs. i agree with the info that you got the internet. i will add one caution don't water the f.trap or the pitcher plant with tap water use distilled or rain water. hope this helps. pure light
stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

Just to revisit this topic, my venus fly trap did survive over the winter. I buried this pot into the soil, and had other potted plants over it along with the tarp I kept many other plants in, and today it is finally starting to open up its traps. It looks a bit beat up, but it should produce many more traps in the next month, and the dormancy cycle should help it out. The important thing is that it had its dormancy cycle of about 5-6 months of cold temperatures which is required for it to keep growing vigorously year after year.

Being a bog plant, I purposely flooded this guy before I buried it last winter, and put it all the way at the bottom to make sure it never dried out, and I'm happy that its coming back this year.

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Unfortunately some of my zone 9 rated succulents and palms did not make it through the winter under the tarp, but its not that big of a deal.
stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

I did grow venus fly traps in the past and ended up giving them away since I didn't see them as too exciting anymore, but now that I've learned that they have types that can get exceptionally large traps, up to 2.5 inch traps, I've started growing them again. B-52 and DCXL are supposed to be some of the largest species.

Here's the before and after with the initial B-52.

3 days ago.
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Today
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Here are some of the other B-52s that just got planted today
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For all these venus fly traps, I split them up to get multiple plants which should take pretty well as long as the conditions are right. Here are some of the DCXL venus fly traps which just got planted up, and should have very fast results as traps grow pretty quickly. The goal is to have them fill out their pots by the time it is OK to bring them outdoors to grow even bigger.
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Alan_L
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by Alan_L »

Steve, did these already get their dormant period this year? Seems early to be waking them up, but I haven't been growing these long.
stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

The DCXL was definitely a tissue culture propagule, and both of them have gotten about 1-2 months of time in the greenhouse, and they are currently being eased out of dormancy as they are right on the windowsills. I only took them down on a table to take pictures. I don't intend to take them entirely out of dormancy until some time in March. Based on what I've read, temperature does have a bit to do with the dormancy cycle, but it is also the amount of light that the traps receive which induce dormancy. Also they aren't supposed to really turn black if you ease them into dormancy properly.

I believe they should make multiple traps and look fairly decent in another 2-3 months.
stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

Looks like only the DCXL seems to be making forward progress while the B-52s almost died off only to finally start looking OK now.

Here's a before and after from 3 days ago since I separated one of them. They were struggling when I got them, but now appear to be growing stronger by the day.
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Here's after I fed them with watered down fish flakes and separated the double one.
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canadianplant
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by canadianplant »

I keep mine in a cup full of water. Ive had three of them, and without doing this they die quick. I keep mine in a plastic tube for humidity.

one thing I did notice that you may want to know is that they seem to go dormant. Mine die back twice a year and seem to rest for a month or two them surprise me with quick growth and a good upsize. they also seem to spread in the pot after this too.
stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

Do you bring yours outdoors for the summer?

In the past when I had the other venus fly trap, I've found that the formula to fast growth has been as much light, heat and humidity as possible. Humidity domes seem to give them an edge in growth speed.

I'm not sure if it's the species of venus fly trap, but before, I've never had the venus fly traps die back. They just make smaller traps when they go into dormancy, and will flower right along with longer traps. Currently my DCXL venus fly trap still appears to be in dormancy mode with the short traps which I've seen with the one I had before. Mine will almost certainly gain size once it experiences warmer temperatures and brighter light by summer.
stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

Just wanted to bring some updated pictures of the fly traps. They are definitely waking up now because it looks like they are about to go through a big growth spurt in the next week with all these new traps. I believe it's a combination of the insects I've fed it as well as the gradual strengthening of the sun which is bringing on this growth.

I separated them into 2 different pots.
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stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

My biggest DCXL looks like it is getting serious about it's growth. Traps look like they are getting longer stems, and the traps themselves are progressively increasing in size.
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stevelau1911
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Re: Venus Fly Trap Info

Post by stevelau1911 »

Only my biggest venus fly trap survived the move to full light outside, but on the flip side, it has produced a dozen traps, and I ended up dividing it since there are 12 open traps. Since it's adapted to full sun, I believe it shouldn't have a problem filling out its new pot now.

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Up-potted and separated
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