Expert: Christopher Littrell - 9/19/2007

Question
I just bought a Venus Fly Trap today and I was wondering when should I feed it?
Do I do it today or wait about a week? I did put it in some miracle gro moss on
the day that I got it.

Answer
Hello Scott,

The biggest problem is not feeding the plant, but making sure it has enough sunlight, mineral free water, and fertilizer free moss.

If you bought the plant at a store, first order of business, the little instruction card on the plant pot can be torn up and burned... it will only help you kill your Venus Flytrap. It tells you to place the plant in indirect light, fertilize it once a month, and water it once a week, letting the soil dry up between waterings. Also, it says to repot the plant in Orchid mix. All that information is incorrect.

You indicated that you repotted it in miracle-gro moss... those little bags of moss are fertilized, so they will kill your Venus Flytrap slowly in a few weeks. Venus Flytraps are unable to absorb fertilizer in the soil, so their roots rot when they are planted in fertilizer rich moss and potting soils. My suggestion would be to find a bale of moss that is about 2 feet across that says premium Canadian sphagnum peat moss. It will be dry and wrapped in plastic and is found in plant nursery sections of stores. You can mix in some unfertilized perlite, they sell that in dry bales too, in a 50/50 mix to add drainage. Never trust little bags of moss and perlite unless you check with the manufacturer first to ensure it has no fertilizers in it.

Unpot the plant from the fertilized moss after mixing up some new unfertilized moss and perlite. After you dampen the moss it should be a chocolate brown. Clean the roots off with distilled water to remove the fertilized stuff. Repot the plant in a 4-5 inch pot with drainage holes in the bottom. Put a large tray that will hold about an inch of clean water under the pot. Use only distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water that has had all minerals removed... minerals build up in the Flytrap's soil and slowly kill it too.

Next, if the plant came in a humidity dome, slowly remove the dome by punching about 3-4 holes of 1/4 inch size or lifting the dome and bracing it up a fraction of an inch every 3 days. By two weeks, the dome should be so full of holes or lifted so high that it no longer holds humidity and can be removed. Your plant will now be adapted to low humidity and can be placed in brighter light. The reason the little instruction card says to place it in indirect light is because the dome would cook it. Place it in a morning sun window while you adapt it to low humidity.

After removing the dome, you can place the plant in an all day sun window for a week and then outside if your area does not have temperatures over 100 degrees or humidity too far under 30%. The large water tray should help with raising the ambient humidity around the plant, but is not the biggest concern. Light is the biggest concern for Venus Flytraps. When you bought it in the store, it was probably in a dim shelf where it could not get any light. Low light will kill your plant too. Venus Flytraps are more like a garden plants than house plants. They are not tropical, they come from North Carolina bogs where they get strong direct sunlight and lots of water all the time. If you cannot get your plant outside in direct light, place it in the brightest all day sun window you have and place at least one 100 watt equivalent compact florescent energy saver bulb over (about 4 inches) the plant. Venus Flytraps need all the light you can give them. If you notice any leaf burn, that is normal as the leaves the plant has now are not resistant to ultraviolet light, but the new leaves will be. In good sun, Venus Flytraps will grow bigger and faster and simply be healthier.

Now on to feeding. If your plant has been placed in an open pot with no dome, it will feed itself. I have an open pot Flytrap that captured 5 flies in one day on its own. Even if they do not catch anything for a long time, they will be fine. They eat sunlight, but only need insects as fertilizer, kind of like we use vitamin pills as a supplement. We can't live off of vitamin pills alone and the Venus Flytrap can't live off of flies alone. We can go without vitamin pills indefinitely, so can the Venus Flytrap go without flies for a long time.

Keep up the good care with your Flytrap,

Christopher