Expert: Christopher Littrell - 6/7/2007

Question
Hi Chris i just got a fly trap and dont know how to take care of it. i cant really put  it out side so... what can i do to keep it inside and alive. can i keep take the moisture lid of that it came with. any info u know about taking care of it i would appreciate it if u gave it to me thanks

Answer
Hello Andrew,

First things first, don't panic. Plants are patient.

A Venus Flytrap is just like any other plant in that it needs light, water, and soil, it just needs some special considerations to ensure it's health.

1.  First off, yes, you can remove the humidity dome slowly over the course of 2 weeks to give the plant time to adapt to low humidity. This is a good thing as your Flytrap will grow healthier leaves in low humidity. To do this, punch a few holes with a knife or ice pick in the plastic dome or prop it up about half an inch with a pencil or tape it up with a toothpick as a brace under one side. After 3 days, punch more holes or prop up another side. Keep doing that every three days until the dome looks like Swiss cheese or is propped up over two inches, then take it off completely after two weeks. Getting that dome off will reduce the chance of infection, mold, and weak leaf growth and will allow the plant to get more light without cooking it.

2.  Now we can move on to light. While your plant is adapting to low humidity for two weeks, just place it in a window that gets indirect light all day long or place it under strong florescent light of about 12000 lumens or more. The 40 watt cool white shop lights have two tubes each that provide 3000 lumens per tube. If you get a couple of those florescent lights hanging over the plant, place them 3-4 inches from it's leaves, or as close as possible with the dome. After the dome is off, you can step up the light each week by placing it in a direct sun window that gets morning sun for one week, then a window that gets direct sun all day, like a south window if you live in North America. Since you can't place it outside, place it in the sunniest window you have after that and supplement the window with those florescent lights right over the plant about 3-4 inches from it's leaves. Venus Flytraps really prefer full sun outside, but a sunny window and extra light from florescent lights can do if you just have to.

If you have no sunny windows, you will have to provide all the florescents you can as close to the plant as possible. 12000 lumens 1-2 inches from the leaves can do for a while, but the plant might eventually weaken, so if you can, add more lumens with compact florescents of 100 watt equivalent cool white light to try to provide as many lumens as you can. In general, the sun provides 25000-36000 or even more lumens to plants outside, so try to bring the sun to the plants inside. Venus Flytraps really need it.

3.  Water the plant with distilled, reverse osmosis, or fresh rain water or with soft tap water under 50-100 parts per million. If your tap water is hard, do not use it at all as hard water alters their soil and kills them. If the pot the plant is in has drainage, you can keep it for now and place a tray of water about an inch deep under the pot for self-watering to keep the soil moist. Venus Flytraps are temperate North Carolina bog plants that like lots of moist soil at all times, but never waterlogged and never dry. If the pot does not have drainage holes, punch some in the bottom with an ice pick or repot the plant into a 5 inch pot with drainage holes and a tray that is a couple of inches bigger around than the pot.

4.  If you repot, you will need the right kind of soil. You will eventually have to repot the plant anyway as their soil gets old after a year or two and the pot might be too small for the plant after a while. The soil you need is Canadian premium sphagnum peat moss sold in dry bales at hardware stores and plant nurseries. You can mix the moss with perlite or silica sand in a 50/50 mix and dampen it until it looks chocolate brown, then plant the Flytrap in it. Make sure none of the soil you use has fertilizer at all as that will rot their roots. Venus Flytraps adapted to nutrient poor bogs by catching insects and digesting them to obtain nitrogen through their leaves, but their roots are no longer able to handle fertilizer.

5.  Dormancy is required by temperate carnivorous plants. Venus Flytraps go dormant in winter when it gets cold and the days are shorter. They conserve energy this way so that they can grow back bigger and stronger next year. Inside, you will have to simulate dormancy at the start of November by giving the plant less light per day. Each week, cut down on the hours of light by one hour until the plant is at 8 hours a day. Next, you need to chill the plant down to about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to use an ice chest by placing frozen jugs and bottles of water around the pot in the ice chest and closing it at night. open it in the day to allow light and air in and change the frozen bottles every 12 hours. Keep that up for 3 months or so and then during February you will have to reverse the process by warming the plant up and placing it in one hour more of light per week until it gets 12 or more hours a day. If it is in a window, you can give it less florescent light and let the plant go dormant naturally, then chill it. Just make sure not to freeze dry it by taking the temperature down below 35 degrees for too long. In a pot it would have a harder time surviving that.

6.  Indoors, the plant will still be able to catch insects, but eating insects is not the most important part of Venus Flytrap life. Insects are like vitamin pills for these plants, just a supplement that gives them a boost every now and then. The plant will attract and catch the flies that get in the house, however; if you notice that it has not caught anything for a month or so, you can feed it a small insect every now and then (perhaps once every couple of weeks is a good rule) just to make sure. Only feed it something that is 1/3 the size of it's leaf and only to a healthy, mature leaf. Only feed one leaf at a time and only use live insects, never steak or hamburger or other human foods. Human food has too much fat and is the wrong type of nutrition for them. They can't digest fat and the trap will rot. (In addition, I have never seen any cows small enough for a Flytrap to catch naturally.) They will enjoy small crickets, flies, maggots, spiders, and small grasshoppers. Just make sure that not too many legs or wings are sticking out when the trap closes. If you notice it catching insects every now and then, dont worry about feeding it anything.

That is pretty much it for the basics.

Keep up the good care and the Flytrap will thrive.

Christopher