Expert: Christopher Littrell - 2/10/2009

Question
I bought a small flytrap at the New York botanical garden in January.  I fed it
when I got home (fruit flies from the pet store) and the traps closed one
them.  They have not opened since.  I read that it should only take a week or
two for the flies to be digested.  It doesn't look dead (it is still green, and
there are leaves and traps developing).  So, is there a reason why it isn't
opening?  Could be in a dormant state?
I appreciate your help.  This is my first try at carnivorous plants, and I bought
it on a whim, so I don't know much.

Answer
Hello Traci,

My apologies to you as it seems you were duped into buying a temperate plant that should have been dormant at that time of year. If it was dormant, the seller should have told you what to do and what to expect. If the plant was not dormant before you bought it it might not last a year when in actuality Venus Flytraps are perennials that can survive for decades.

Your Flytrap is probably suffering from low energy due to lack of light. It takes a large amount of energy to trap and digest insects. If the plant has been grown indoors it is probably not getting enough light. They are direct, full sun plants that need to be raised outside in most cases. The only way the plant is going to get enough energy inside is to be placed in a south window with a bank of 12000 lumen 40 watt florescent cool white shop light tubes directly over it about 4 inches from its leaves for 16 hours a day. I raise my Flytraps in that fashion and they survive well enough. Outside in full sun they would do even better.

Some tips:

Water only with distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water as tap water, drinking water, spring water, and other types of water generally contain too many minerals and chemicals that can harm your plant. Use a tray under the pot that can hold up to 1/4 the pot depth in water and keep the water level high in the tray. Flytraps are bog plants that like a lot of water near their roots.

Use only fertilizer free soil composed of sphagnum peat moss and perlite in equal proportions to repot the plant yearly.

Never fertilize the plant as it is unable to absorb nitrogen through its roots and will only rot from the roots up. Foliar feed fertilizers in extremely weak solution down to about 1/4 mix can be used lightly on the leaves once every month, but are completely unnecessary.

Ensure the plant gets full sun or a combination of strong window sun and strong florescent light as described above. The more light the better.

Feeding the plant is not necessary. Light is more important than insects in this case as Venus Flytraps use light to power their trapping and digestion mechanisms. Their traps are merely meant to attract and trap insects that can be used as fertilizer by the plant. Fertilizers for plants are more like vitamin supplments, not necessary in the long run, but helpful in small quantities. It would be like a human trying to survive on vitamin C only. Humans need real food first and foremost, plants need light first and foremost.

Only when the plant has enough light will it be able to trap and digest insects properly as well as grow properly.

Christopher