Venus Fly Trap

 

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How to Grow Venus Flytraps https://leafyplace.com/venus-flytrap/

Water Test for Copperas Cove, TX 76522

Faucet Water: 179 ppm – High hardness water

Brita Water: 167 ppm – High hardness water

Boiled Water: 336 ppm – Scale will form

Boiled and Brita combined: 203 ppm Marginally Acceptable

Filtered Refrigerator Water from my moms: 164 ppm High Hardness Water

Faucet Water standing over night: 188 ppm High Hardness Water

Zero Water Filter: 7 ppm Ideal drinking water

Distilled water from HEB: 0 ppm Ideal drinking water

Water from kitchen sink: 189 ppm High Hardness Water

Water from the refrigerator at my house: 176 ppm High Hardness Water

To care for a Venus flytrap, grow the plant in pots with peat moss and perlite at a ratio of 2:1. Place on a sunny windowsill for best growth. Water regularly so the soil is constantly moist. During winter, keep the plant in cool temperatures, away from direct sunlight.

Venus flytraps “consume” small insects and spiders. A standard diet of Venus flytraps is ants, beetles, slugs, small caterpillars, flies, and even tiny frogs. After trapping its prey, a Venus flytrap secretes a liquid that breaks down the insect, taking three to five days. Then, it takes up to 12 days to finish the meal.

After feeding, the plant will open its trap, revealing the exoskeleton. This lures in the next unsuspecting insect, and the feeding process continues when the hungry plant traps its next victim. After around five meals, the trap no longer catches bugs, but it photosynthesizes before dropping off.

How to Feed Venus Flytrap?

You will need to catch flies or insects to feed your flytrap plant when growing it indoors. First, use a net to catch small bugs outdoors. Then using tweezers, gently brush the dead insect on one of the trap’s lobes. This should stimulate the lobes to close.

Alternatively, you can buy dried crickets, bloodworms, or mealworms to feed your bug-eating plants. Before serving the “meal,” rehydrate the worm or insect before feeding it to your plant.

After feeding the Venus flytrap, the lobes will stay closed for up to two weeks.

It’s vital not to overfeed a Venus flytrap, or it may die. The plant takes a long time to digest one insect, and you only feed one single trap of the whole plant. Then let the plant rest for a week or two between feedings.

There should always be one bug feeding at a time. So if you have six or eight traps or more, you may have to feed each individual trap once every week or two.

Here are a few handy tips when it comes to feeding a Venus flytrap:

• Don’t overstimulate the traps too much if you’re not feeding them. They only open and close up to ten times.
• Avoid feeding Venus flytrap plants during winter dormancy.
• Only feed the plant dead or living insects, never raw meat.
• If there are many traps on your plant, at least one trap should always be feeding on an insect.

 

Winter Dormancy for Venus Flytraps

For a Venus flytrap to grow year after year, it needs three to five months of winter dormancy. During the winter period, the leaves turn black and die. Therefore, you should place the potted plant in a cool, unheated location from late fall until early spring. Ideally, temperatures between 50°F and 35°F (10°C and -1°C) are perfect.

Keep the soil damp during the winter months, but don’t feed the plant with insects because it’s resting. When the temperatures start to warm over 50°F (10°C), place the plant in a sunnier location. Cut off any dead leaves. The plant will then start to grow again, ready to catch more bugs.

What happens if my Venus flytrap plant goes black?

It’s normal for Venus flytrap leaves to turn black as winter approaches. During the months of dormancy, the leaves will be black as the plant rests. You can remove all dead leaves in spring, and new leaves should grow from the underground stems.

Venus Fly Trap Temperature and Humidity Requirements

A Venus flytrap requires at least 60 percent relative humidity to flourish. If you sit the potted Venus flytrap on a water tray, the evaporating water will help provide humidity. Or you can grow the fly-catching plant near other houseplants to create a humid atmosphere.

The ideal temperature range for Venus flytrap plants is 70°F to 95°F (21°C – 35°C). During the winter dormancy period, the temperature should be between 40°F and 50°F (5°C – 10°C) to allow the tropical plant to rest. A Venus flytrap can stand light frosts at 35°F (-1°), but long spells below freezing could kill the plant’s roots.

Venus flytraps don’t require any kind of tropical plant or houseplant fertilizer. Instead, the plant thrives in poor soil and gets nutrients from a steady diet of spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, and other bugs.