Venus flytrap question?

Hi, I'm kind of new to plants. I bought a venus flytrap from a store on a whim and I did some reasearch and found out it is in its dormancy period. I live in northern new jersey, and according to flytrapcare.com I should only keep it outside in a garden for the winter if I live in that climate, but I live in an apartment, so I can't. What I plan on doing is letting it sit outside from sunrise for light until I am about to go to bed, than taking it indoors for the night. Would this be too cold or not cold enough? Also, if anyone has any ideas I would be grateful. Also, how often, and how much should I feed it? And I may be paranoid, but is it okay to feed them crickets fed with calcium suplimented food, because I know its not recommend for tarantulas? Thanks!

heres a map of average temps in my area if it helps
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USNJ0060

I think some people store them in the fridge in the winter when they are dormant in areas outside of their climate range- key being that if they are dormant, the plant has died back so there shouldn't be leaves. They sprout again in the spring. I am luck enough to live where it is just cold enough to provide required dormancy and definitely not too cold so I grow them outdoors in an artificial bog I made. This is their normal growth pattern. They die after they flower so get seeds from the adult when that happens.

My suggestion would be to ensure that it gets a chance to go dormant before it starts getting so cold that it's too cold for them- exposure to 10-20 is fine, just not sudden- i.e. don't keep it inside and then suddenly decide to winterize it by putting it out in a snow storm. They grow natively in the Carolinas so they do tolerate some cold and they don't tolerate no cold so they are true mild-temperate plant.

Do you have access to a garage, or similar place, that may stay above freezing? We get very cold, but I have kept mine in a crawlspace under my home, and in the garage which is heated just enough to keep from freezing. If it was kept outside, it would be better in a bog, with a thick insulating layer over top. This holds ground heat and prevents freezing.
many people do keep in the fridge, but I understand mold can be an issue.

This winter id suggest keeping it in the fridge. Next year just leave it out in the weather. I've kept mine out year round before. Their more tollerant than you'd think. People have kept them in worse climates and have had them survive.

These fly traps seem complicated...when I was younger I saw a plastic egg that let you grow your own fly trap plant. I was si excited and made my father drive me there and buy one. I followed the instructions which toled me to water it once a week or daily, I forgot. And it also toled me i had to have it in the fridge the whole time until it grew. Months passed, and it never grew(or was it days?). I later realized I was giving it water from the faucet and I thought maybe that's what killed it. So I threw it away
Do you think that the water was the sole reason for the plants demise? I might give these plants another shot.

Water, Soil, Possibly it never got cold so the seed wasn't viable. Their are to many reasons those seeds probably were never going to grow, but here are some tips if you should decide to grow VFT's again.

Soil should be unfertilized peat. Your right about the water, they need pure water, with less than 50ppm of any kind of gunk found in water. Also, the soil needs to be damp, always. I used to keep my Flytraps, in 6" pots, and would have a minimum of 1" of water for the pot to be sitting in. Some people say 2" of water, but as long as theirs water available to the Flytraps at ALL times your fine. ALSO, sunlight is very very important. They can handle direct sunlight all day, every day until they go dormant. But the trouble is people take a plant out of a Death Cube (from a Big Box DIY & Garden Center) and stick it directly in the sun, and the plant will shrivel and die. Due to the shock, you have to start them out in a partially sunny area, assimilate the plant to lower humidity and more direct sunlight.

I would not recommend starting VFT's from seed, it can take 3yrs+ to get a large plant.

nepenthes said:

Water, Soil, Possibly it never got cold so the seed wasn't viable. Their are to many reasons those seeds probably were never going to grow, but here are some tips if you should decide to grow VFT's again.

Soil should be unfertilized peat. Your right about the water, they need pure water, with less than 50ppm of any kind of gunk found in water. Also, the soil needs to be damp, always. I used to keep my Flytraps, in 6" pots, and would have a minimum of 1" of water for the pot to be sitting in. Some people say 2" of water, but as long as theirs water available to the Flytraps at ALL times your fine. ALSO, sunlight is very very important. They can handle direct sunlight all day, every day until they go dormant. But the trouble is people take a plant out of a Death Cube (from a Big Box DIY & Garden Center) and stick it directly in the sun, and the plant will shrivel and die. Due to the shock, you have to start them out in a partially sunny area, assimilate the plant to lower humidity and more direct sunlight.

I would not recommend starting VFT's from seed, it can take 3yrs+ to get a large plant.

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Well, I bought it in a plastic egg with soil and everything in it already. I always had it damb,but with tap water. And for the water, do you measure it in a vial, or it's supposed to have literally 1" of water about the soil line? Thanks.

VictorHernandez said:

Well, I bought it in a plastic egg with soil and everything in it already. I always had it damb,but with tap water. And for the water, do you measure it in a vial, or it's supposed to have literally 1" of water about the soil line? Thanks.

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Just moist. IME the water doesn't actually matter that much. I use the hose with city water to dampen my bog if it gets dryish during the spring/fall months (dry season here). The substrate- peat or sphagnum with sand- should prevent any nutrients/salts from staying around very long due to the naturally low pH. Also I know another gardener here in town that purposely fertilizes her plants because she grows them in a sun patio that doesn't have insect-access. They do fine, she's got quite the carnivorous garden. Makes mine look miniscule, accidental hybrids of Sarracenia species all over the place that have colonized the trough she uses to retain some water.

Note about that cube/egg you buy them in- while the water itself isn't so important, if your cube doesn't allow draining then you may have a problem with nutrient build up. While the pH prevents the assorted components found in any random water from sticking around the roots of your plant (keeps it soluble) it will still be trapped at the bottom of the egg container and so can still burn your VFT. To compensate you need to dialyze it with pure water- in other words, soak the substrate with repeated changes of pure water to leach out and reduce/remove the excess minerals and such.

As far as how much water- just so the substrate is relatively moist. No specific number of inches necessary. As long as it is constantly moist it's good.

I bet your neighbor is using SuperThrive Tarac, Ive used it and it is safe for CP's, I dont remember the reasoning though. When Ever I would trans plant my VFT's (or any CP) I would dilute some in a gallon of water and use it to soak the roots in once they were uprooted. I never had a problem transplanting them.

Id guess that the reason you dont have problems with your city water are, either your city has very clean water. Ive heard of some city water having less than 100ppm. Which would work fine! But another though that comes to mind when you water a bog. Theirs more area for any "hardness" from the water to dissipate too and what ever rains you get leach them out too. But in a small container Those nasties are bound to build up, thats why pure water is recommended for smaller containers.

When I potted my large plants i would use 3-4 6" pots in a long window potter, and would just eye ball the water with that. It worked great for retaining humidity around younger plants. I never had problems with this set up. I had a few S. psittacina and S. minor in that same style set up, with a bit more water; The two species are notorious for being picky growers. I would collect rain water and use Water from Walmart on occasion! They sound difficult but once you figure one out, odds are you can grow allot of other ones.

Yes, small containers are more likely to have problems without more frequent flushing- the key is that they do have to be flushed. We don't have problems here because before anything can build up to that level (assuming a moderately sized outdoor bog- say the size of half a whiskey barrel) it rains. If you have a closed bottom container, sure you will have problems and the rate at which they occur is sped up in smaller volumes, just like water issues in fish tanks and so on. Smaller systems are always more difficult in this regard.

My neighbor uses 1/4 strength straight up miracle grow actually, I was shocked when I found this out as well. She has a really amazing carnivorous garden. If I remember that long from now I will take a pic in early summer so you can see it, it's inspiring to all would-be CP gardeners (we're lucky to live in an area where the outdoor weather is naturally correct remember, makes it easier for sure). It's basically a series of shallow troughs that she very very slowly trickles water through, as in drops at a time. Kinda weird, but demonstrates that bogs are slowly seeping and not stagnant bodies of water. Nutrients are everywhere in nature of course, just have to have it setup so you don't over-do it by regulating the amount that goes in relative to your garden size and how it gets back out, either by flushing or slow drainage. Soaking in purified water is fine for small containers if you do it more frequently. Although note that she trickles city water on non-rainy days- we have hard water here as does much of Florida, pH is correspondingly relatively high. Plants don't seem to care so long as your media and sun are correct and they don't stagnate for too long. The summer temps will aid in correcting a lot of that anyway, especially is shallow troughs.

I would really like to see a picture! Her bog sounds nice, I still find it hard to believe she's using mirical grow! Ill just have to take your word for it, what works for you I guess!

nepenthes said:

I would really like to see a picture! Her bog sounds nice, I still find it hard to believe she's using mirical grow! Ill just have to take your word for it, what works for you I guess!

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It is really spectacular when the Sarracenia are all blooming, I'll see if I can dig a picture up on my cell phone or something. I know took some photos awhile ago to show to my Botany buddies who were drooling. I know that many CP growers have no problem using the acid version of miracle grow (azalea/camellia fertilizer) without issue. Main thing I think is pH shock and too much at once. It is the water soluble kind as well, no little slow release crap. That's deadly here anyway for lots of "normal" plants since most of it is temperature correlated and will suddenly dump on your plants in the heat of summer.

Note that I'm lazy and let nature feed my bog, so I don't have personal experience but I know for certain she uses veggie garden miracle grow and her CP collection is way better looking and much larger than mine. I only just started fertilizing my orchids in fact, they do much much better with fairly high nitrogen which I learned from a paper I read not long ago that indicated that cloud forest type orchids and many others actually have access to higher nitrogen levels than plants found in the same forest floor. Counterintuitive, but it's true.