Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 3/24/2010

Question
Hi, I'm planning on starting a fairly large carnivorous plant terrarium.  I live in USDA zone 4, and will most likely be growing my plants under artificial lights for most of the year.  I would like to grow a Venus flytrap or too as well, but I am not sure if I'll be able to.  Will I be able to grow healthy flytraps under flourescent lights for most of the growing season and get good results?  And if so, how long should I leave on the lights for each day?  Thanks, I haven't been able to get a clear answer to this question from anyone yet.

Answer
Hi Fred,

You can grow them under fluorescent lights as long as you get them very close to the lights (for standard T12 tubes).  When I've forced some under lights I've had them within 2 inches of the tubes.  For the daylight period look to what they would receive in nature.  Flytraps are from North Carolina, so they would have about a 15 hour day in the summer.  They'll grow and look good for awhile.  However, the devil in the details is winter.  Flytraps need their dormancy, or they tend to decrease in vigor and die after about a year and a half.  I generally tell folks that if you really, really want to grow flytraps indoors it's best to consider them an annual unless you're willing to jump through some hoops to give them that dormancy.  

Since your in zone 4, your winters are fairly cold.  You could just move it to a window that gets cold sometime in late September.  That way it would get the decrease in temperature and daylight hours.

Having said all this, I'm assuming you understand if you've read any of our literature that Venus flytraps are always at their best when grown outdoors.  There are plenty of ways to overwinter them in colder climates.  We have customers in Michigan, upstate New York and several states along the East Coast that winter their plant outdoors.  Even barring overwintering outside, they would still grow well outdoors during the summer.  At our nursery, even under 1,000 watt Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium lights, I've never had ones look as good as they do when just outside in a tray of water in a full sun location.  Terrariums are essentially a humid tropical climate, so they are better suited to tropical plants such as Nepenthes, Heliamphora, tropical sundews and butterworts.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com