Expert: Christopher Littrell - 11/2/2007

Question
I have aquired a Venus Fly trap plant,it's been on my window sill & is not ding very well.  I think it would do better outside. We live in zone 9 We get down to about 30 degrees for only a few hours out of the winter the daytime winter temperature is mid 50's. Question Will the plant go dormant & if so what do I do over the winter time.
              THANK YOU

Answer
Hello Bob,

If you got the plant at a garden center at a typical store or hardware place it has been sitting in shade and is very weak by now. Venus Flytraps are high light intensity plants that do very well in full sun outside, but horribly indoors in most cases. Venus Flytraps also require a dormancy period as you surmised, but to overwinter a weak plant might be a death sentence for it as it might not have enough starches stored in it's rhizome to survive winter.

The best bet at this time would be to get as much light on the plant as possible for up to 12-16 hours a day to give the plant some energy. If you have 40 watt florescent shop lights or compact florescent energy saver lights that are 100 watt equivalent, they would help your plant recover. Place at least 6000-12000 lumens (that would take several lights and you just add the lumens together for each bulb or tube) of those lights as close to the plants as possible and keep them in the window. That light intensity should help them recover.

Some additional tips:

Water them with the tray method by placing a large water tray about an inch or so deep under their pot and ensure that the pot has drainage holes in the bottom. Top water the moss and add water to the tray as needed every few days or weekly to keep the moss moist, but not waterlogged. Keep no more than 1/4 of the pot in standing water.

Water them with only mineral free water, like distilled, reverse osmosis, or fresh rain water. Tap water contains too many impurities that can build up and kill carnivorous plants of most species. Calcium, magnesium, and salt are all minerals that you should watch out for in hard water as those simply sour the soil of carnivorous plants, causing plant deterioration.

Never fertilize the plant or it's soil. Venus Flytraps obtain fertilizer from catching insects, and it does not need much anyways. Over winter, insects will be the least concern for a carnivorous plant, so do not worry about that at all. You do not need to "feed" the plant anything except light and water.

For now, just keep the plant growing over winter and if it survives, provide conditions for dormancy next year when it is stronger. It really is kind of a toss up right now as winter is fast approaching and these plants do require dormancy to survive for years. The plant might be too weak to survive dormancy, but might also be too weak to continue growing past dormancy. If you rather try it in dormancy and see if it survives till next year, you can simply place it outside and nature will take its course. The plant will naturally go dormant, which might well be what it is doing now. If it is strong enough, it will spring back to life next spring. Just keep its moss barely moist all winter (do not leave much water in the tray through winter dormancy) and make sure that it does not get frozen solid in weather under 30 degrees as it will experience freeze drying and die off since pots are not good insulation. Your zone should be perfect for outside growing of Venus Flytraps if you get no freak freezes there for more than a day or two in winter and your summer temperatures do not exceed 100 degrees (Venus Flytraps are zone 8 plants so they should be fine outside in your zone all year). If this plant does die off, remember, you did nothing wrong, just try again with a specialist nursery online. (type in search words like "carnivorous plants for sale")

In addition, if you rather grow tropical plants indoors, their are a plethora of interesting carnivorous plants that are year round growers and lower light plants than Venus Flytraps that would do well in a sunny window or under florescent light alone.

I hope your Venus Flytraps pulls through,

Christopher