Early in their education, children become familiar with the terms carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. Some of us probably remember how much fun it was at recess to play “dinosaurs” or “animal kingdom! Children occasionally don’t learn about the fascinating life cycles of carnivorous plants, though. A Venus Flytrap closing on a housefly for the very first time is a moment of pure magic for a set of young eyes. If kids begin spending hours catching insects simply to feed their new houseplant, don’t be shocked!
Other characteristics of Venus flytraps make them some of the greatest houseplants for youngsters. These “snappy houseplants” can withstand a few overly exuberant waterings because they naturally flourish in marshy conditions! With an old fish bowl or tank, older kids will love creating a terrarium while learning more about microclimates and ecosystems.
How challenging is it to maintain a Venus flytrap?
Despite appearing self-sufficient, Venus flytraps are notoriously challenging to maintain. This is mostly due to how terribly unprepared the majority of people are to meet their requirements, and little to do with the environment. Plants that ordinarily survive for years in their natural habitat only last a few months as a result. The instructions that follow are intended to show you how to take care of Venus flytraps indoors and to highlight some of the most typical mistakes people make when taking care of them.
How much time do Venus flytraps spend inside?
The spring is when Venus flytraps blossom, the summer and fall are when they grow, and the winter is when they go dormant (roughly 3-5 months). Despite what might seem to be the case, they do not actually perish in the cold. To save energy for the upcoming growing season, they are just not trying as hard to grow.
This does not imply that you can ignore them. They still require water and sunlight to carry out photosynthesis. The following advice can help your plant survive the winter:
- Outdoors is the best place to store them, but make sure you don’t live anywhere that freezes and frosts easily. The best advice is to transplant plants into the ground, where the thick layer of soil can function as insulation to shield the rhizomes from freezing, as plants in pots are more likely to do. Use acidic, sandy soil that is suited for Venus flytraps, and never forget to water.
- Don’t let the plants freeze; instead, keep them cool. For dormancy, a temperature range of between 32 oF and 55 oF is recommended (0 oC-11 oC). However, at greater temperatures, it will continue to be dormant.
- Some individuals spend the entire winter keeping their flytraps in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. If you decide to do this, get rid of any dead leaves (brown or black in color) and spray them with fungicide to stop mold and fungus from growing. Ensure periodic checks to make sure they have access to enough water.
- Give them a little sun, but not as much as normal. It is believed that the combination of lowering temperatures and fewer days causes dormancy (shorter amount of daylight). Less than 12 hours of light each day should be provided to the plants throughout the winter.
- Maintain moist soil, but you don’t need to water as frequently. Although the plant won’t be needing as much water, it still requires some. For the first week, check the moss moisture every day to determine how frequently you need water.
Gradually increase the amount of sunlight, food, and water once it emerges from dormancy.
Why You Should Take Care of Them During Dormancy
Although you have the option to let them wither away during the winter, dormancy enables the Venus flytrap to stay robust and healthy. They can live for up to 20 years if given the correct care.
Can a Venus flytrap live in the absence of insects?
What do plants like Venus flytraps eat? Their primary food source is flies or other small insects, as suggested by their name. The catch is that the prey must still be alive when it is captured. In order for the Venus flytrap to close and start digesting the meal, the insect must move around inside the trap. Dead flies won’t operate in this situation. In order to keep out bacteria, it must also be small enough for the trap to close firmly around it.
The simplest Venus flytrap feeding technique is to release little flies into a closed terrarium where plants are being grown. The bugs will eventually be drawn to the traps and sucked into them. Although carnivorous, flytraps can go for extended periods of time (a month or more) without eating insects. They will have enough to eat organically if you raise them outside. You’ll need to give Venus flytraps bug food on a regular basis if you’re growing them indoors. If you’re feeding your flytrap, avoid giving it any insects that are bigger than one-third the size of the trap; small spiders, beetles, and caterpillars also work, however it may be challenging to use live flies.
What do Venus flytraps eat inside?
Native to the coastal plain of Carolina, the venus flytrap is now critically endangered. Fortunately, the plants we buy for our homes are cultivated in commercial settings without harming the local fauna. As indoor plants, they thrive in our climate (USDA zone 7 and colder). It’s unusual and difficult to take care. A healthy Venus flytrap needs lots of food, clean water, and strong light. Although it can be grown with a dormancy period in the winter that may benefit the plant, this plant does not need to go into dormancy when grown inside. Other uncommon development circumstances include sensitivity to the growing medium’s composition, a requirement for live food (or simulated live food), and an intolerance to the majority of tap water.
Your plant doesn’t need to be taken out of the tiny covered container you purchased it in. Simply remove the covering of plastic protection. If you decide to re-pot your plant, make sure to adhere to the instructions in the section below on re-potting.
Light:
Being able to provide this plant with enough light is a significant difficulty. A plant needs strong direct light to remain healthy. The optimal lighting conditions are full, direct sunlight (at least 6 hours per day), from a southern exposure, and most owners will need to think about adding artificial light, especially during the winter months when there is less natural light. If your plant is modest, you might only require a single horticultural LED light, left on the plant for 12 to 16 hours each day. Without the proper lighting, it will gradually decay.
The amount of light needed will change if you decide to grow your plant with a dormant phase in the winter. Read the section below on Winter Dormancy.
Water and Humidity:
You’re probably not familiar with the water requirements for your Venus flytrap. This plant requires a potting mix that is similar to its natural marsh habitat—constantly damp but never soggy. For this, the proper planting material (see Re-potting, below), a container with a hole in the bottom, and a dish of water that is between 1/2 and 1 inch deep must all be used.
Water your plant by pouring water into the dish beneath the pot and allowing it to seep up into the pot. The distance between the top of the water level in the dish and the top of the soil level in the pot should always be at least 2 inches. Never allow the water dish to dry out. Care needs will change if you decide to grow your plant with a dormant season in the winter. Read the section below on Winter Dormancy.
The kind of water you use to take care of Dionaea muscipula affects it greatly. Use reverse osmosis, distilled, or rainfall. The plant may be killed by too much dissolved salt in tap water, even bottled or filtered water.
Your indoor growing environment will have very unique needs for additional humidity. As long as you are cautious with water, additional misting is frequently not necessary. The plant will experience some extremely localized humidity due to the moist growing environment. You can maintain your plant in a terrarium-like environment if the dryness of your home, particularly in the winter, causes the water dish to dry out too quickly. It is advisable to utilize a terrarium with adjustable ventilation because excessive heat buildup in the summer can make your plant wilt.
Temperature:
The ideal range for residential temperatures is between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep this plant away from heat and air conditioning vents, drafty doors and windows, and demanding microclimates. The plant will slow down and finally go dormant if it gets cold in your house. For information on temperature modifications if your plant will be cultivated during a winter dormant period, see Winter Dormancy below.
Re-potting:
Repotting a fresh plant is not necessary; it should be good for at least two years in the container and growing media it was purchased in. A little plant’s container is typically between 2 and 3 inches broad and 3 and 4 inches tall.
Your Dionaea is expanding quickly. After a year or two, it may outgrow its container and require re-potting. It’s time to re-pot when you see that the plant has filled the full container or when new traps are failing to form. If you’d like, you can divide the plant at the same time. Best season: spring. Even if your plant grows slowly, you should repot it every two years so that the growing media is changed.
Make sure to use a pot that has a hole or holes in the bottom and is tall enough to keep the planting soil surface at least two inches above the water line in the dish. (Usually, four inches tall is plenty.) A longer life for your Venus’ fly trap is possible with the correct potting soil. Half should be coarse horticultural sand and half should be high-quality sphagnum peat or peat moss. The incorrect peat may contain an excessive amount of minerals, while the incorrect sand may have mineral and clumping issues. To ensure that just the bulb’s roots and bottom are in the potting mix, you can add 1/2 inch of sand on top. The sand layer will prevent the majority of the plant from coming into contact with moisture, lowering the risk of rotting and discouraging fungus gnats from setting up residence.
Feeding:
Your Venus flytrap’s soil shouldn’t be fertilized. Because of the poor nutritional content of the soil in its natural environment, fertilizers will slowly kill your plant.
The Venus flytrap has evolved an unusual feeding method in response to this low-nutrient environment. Your plant’s modified leaves that act as traps need to be periodically fed (about once a week to two weeks). While plants can go for long periods without food, their growth will be slower. Your plant should have no trouble catching prey on its own if it is kept outside during the summer. Don’t feed meat to your Venus fly trap! A Venus fly trap’s preferred meal is live prey, including flies, spiders, crickets, and slugs. A excellent alternative are live meal worms or crickets obtained from a pet store. Ants may not receive adequate nutrients and occasionally come into contact with poisonous materials as they scour your home. Because certain caterpillars can eat their way out of the trap, they are not a suitable choice.
Larger insects take too long to digest and can create bacterial rot that will kill the trap, so never feed a trap anything that is larger than about a third of the size of the trap. To save energy on utilizing inert sources, it reacts to an insect’s movement. When the insect is trapped, its motion will cause the trap to enter the digestive phase and prepare itself for the process. While the plant is digesting its dinner, the trap may remain closed for around a week.
Every time you feed, you just need to feed one or two of the traps on a plant, not all of them. Repeatedly feeding the same traps is OK. After numerous digestions, they will finally pass away, but that is normal. Old ones will be replaced by new ones!
Dried blood worms can be purchased at your neighborhood pet store to feed your Venus flytrap. Reconstituted dried worms are a dependable and simple source of nourishment for your plant. They are sold as fish food. Verify the product’s label to ensure there are no additional additions. Some dried blood worms can be made soft and meaty by adding a few drops of water, then squeezed out and given in a blob that is around one-third the size of the trap. To make the plant believe that the feed is alive, gently massage the trap. With pictures showing how to feed blood worms to a Venus flytrap and instructions on how to get your trap to fully seal and digest its food, the International Carnivorous Plant Society has a fantastic fact page linked in the side column.
Winter Dormancy:
Experts on the Venus flytrap disagree as to whether or not winter hibernation is required. These plants do become dormant over the winter in their natural habitat, which is a natural way for the plant to recover. Give your plant a winter of hibernation if you have problems providing it with the light it needs to continue growing healthily in the winter or if it appears as though it could use a break.
As the number of daylight hours decreases in the winter and the temperature drops, dormancy will happen naturally. If you don’t add grow lights to your plant’s natural light source and keep it warm, your plant’s leaves will start to die back around November. Allowing your plant to go into a period of dormancy will allow it to rest. To achieve this, stop feeding it, gradually lower the temperature to 45 to 50 degrees, and gradually lower the light level. Once the leaves are totally black, you can clip them off. Around March, it will be prepared to start growing again, and you can gradually return it to its regular environment and routine.
Flowers:
In the early spring, Dionaea produce tiny white flowers. It’s preferable to get rid of them before they blossom because flowering consumes a lot of the plant’s energy and may cause fewer leaves to grow.
Things to watch for:
Under your home, the Venus flytrap will be green, but in intense light, plants can turn more reddish. Some varieties of Venus fly traps, such as Dionaea “Red Dragon,” D. “Red Piranha,” and D. “Colin’s Red Sunset,” are chosen for their naturally redder hue. In the wild, the combination of bright crimson color and a faintly pleasant aroma works to draw in prey.
After a few months, leaves become black and eventually wither. No need for concern! The leaves of a healthy plant only last for this period before being replaced by fresh ones. When the dead leaves are totally black, you can clip them off.
Your plant is probably not getting enough sunlight if it starts to look unhealthy. To enable it to grow wholesomely and robustly, it requires the full, bright sun or additional lighting. Your plant won’t survive on a softly lighted windowsill. To supplement the natural sunlight, think about installing a full-spectrum horticultural LED light. Other frequent issues include root rot if the growing media is very wet, a buildup of salt if distilled water isn’t utilized, and roots that become entirely dry, even temporarily.
In comparison to summer, the leaves may seem differently in the spring and fall. Your plant might lengthen more. Summertime brings upright leaves on longer petioles.