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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jun 28, 2015 0:17:27 GMT -5
I bought a small venus flytrap yesterday, I had been reading about their care for a little bit, I still have a lot to learn though.
It's a relativly small plant, two traps are closed (it was catching fruit flies in the store) and 2 are black. I understand that even healthy flytraps leaves turn black and wither away so that new ones may grow as they only last so long.
Right now it's living in a foam coffee cup filled with a 1:1 mix of peat moss/perlite sitting in a shallow dish of rain water I collected. It's living under a nice sunny skylight that gets plenty of sun each day (I've grown tomatoes, beans and a mint plant under the skylight before) on warm sunny days I plan to take it out on the deck so it can photosynsisize and "hunt"
Keep in mind I live in the Niagara region (welland) summers here are usually very warm and humid (I live 15 minutes walking distance from the canal) I'll be able to post pics of the little plant in the morning.
If there's anything I am doing wrong or something extra I can do for it to settle into it's coffee cup and grow healthy, let me know! I am here to learn!
Also the little guy has the corpse of a dead fruit fly in one of it's traps that is open, should I try and fish it out?
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Post by grackle on Jun 28, 2015 9:10:18 GMT -5
Digestion may have been disturbed so I'd remove the fly with a toothpick or similar tool. Have you made uptake/drainage holes in the coffee cup yet?
As they're just houseplants, and I have the time, I remove just the blackened bits leaving as much leaf as is healthy for as long as possible. People that take pride in trap size or serious cultivators might have different strategies.
I am glad that it is going well.
grack
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Post by lloyd on Jun 28, 2015 14:24:27 GMT -5
Get it used to full sun over a couple of weeks and it will do well outside.
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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jun 28, 2015 16:30:55 GMT -5
by Browser Shop"> Digestion may have been disturbed so I'd remove the fly with a toothpick or similar tool. Have you made uptake/drainage holes in the by Browser Shop"> coffee cup yet? As they're just houseplants, and I have the time, I remove just the blackened bits leaving as much leaf as is healthy for as long as possible. People that take pride in trap size or serious cultivators might have different strategies. I am glad that it is going well. grack Yup, I poked a hole in the cup before I put the mixture and the plant in, it's sucked up most of the water in the dish so I just went outside to get it more rain water. Right now it's not sunny because we just had a big storm but I took some pics  I also have 4 seeds I bought on vacation to Calgary, I just bought them at the zoo gift shop so I don't know if they'll germinate because I don't really know how fresh they are. Right now they're in the same 1:1 peat/perlite mixture (there is more peat on top because of how I mixed it. I know flytrap seeds take a loooong time to grow. I just sort of plopped them onto the top of the mixture, I didn't do anything with them which is probably wrong. There are 4 little seeds.  I will trim the black traps off, what should I do with the closed trap that's starting to go black? Leave it until it gets more black or trim it right away? |
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Post by lloyd on Jun 28, 2015 16:53:37 GMT -5
You don't have to prune.
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Post by Devon on Jun 28, 2015 23:26:32 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum.
It looks like a healthy plant. I agree with Lloyd that it will do better outside.
For the VFT seeds, Keep them as humid as possible to get the best germination rate. A ziploc bag works fine. Keep the seeds inside under your skylight.
Good luck!
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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jun 29, 2015 3:31:50 GMT -5
Would it be ok if I kept it outside on warm, sunny days and brought it inside on really windy/rainy days? What if I put it inside a 10 gallon tank standing upright to protect it from the wind? I really don't want it to blow away and we've had some nasty wind and rain storms lately.
I'll find a big freezer ziploc bag and I'll put the seed's pot inside the bag under the skylight tomorrow.
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Post by Devon on Jun 29, 2015 4:11:20 GMT -5
That will work. I have a similar set-up outside except I use plastic bins.
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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jun 30, 2015 15:35:32 GMT -5
Ok I think I figured out how to let the flytrap outside without blowing away, so I put the cup in a bigger plastic pot and filled the empty space with peat moss.  |
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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jul 3, 2015 0:47:55 GMT -5
The little plant has been staying outside whenever it's sunny and nice, I bring it in at night in case it gets cold or there's a bad storm (we've been having quite a few) the trap that was turning black is turning more black but I've been assured this is normal and healthy and to not trim the black traps. The little seeds are being kept moist in a ziplock bag, still no growth yet but ti's only been like a week so what did I expect lol.
On the weekend I will be buying 1-2 small mealworms to give to the plant when I get the spider's crickets, I'm not sure how regularly I'm supposed to feed it but I kind of assume when all the traps are open it is ready for more.
The man I bought it from said he was feeding it fruit flies as well as all the other plants he had. He was also the only person I've ever talked to about flytraps who knew it couldn't have tap water and that rain water was best (I dunno if he knew about r/o water) but since he's a reptile guy who really cares about his animals I suppose he took the time to learn some things.
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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jul 12, 2015 15:26:11 GMT -5
I'm happy to say that the little flytrap is doing exceptionally well, it grow 2 new traps that are about an inch tall now, there are two even smaller traps forming at the base of the plant and the new trap that was forming when I bought it is nearly fully formed. The little seeds haven't done anything yet, but I'm still keeping them nice and moist.
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Post by grackle on Jul 12, 2015 17:08:42 GMT -5
Well done.
Resisting overfeeding and over-pampering is the hardest thing at first.
grack
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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jul 13, 2015 1:28:44 GMT -5
Here's some pictures!    Don't ask why it's in front of a banana, it was just on the counter |
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Post by WillyCKH on Jul 13, 2015 16:00:43 GMT -5
Bananas make great yellow background color!
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Post by clockworkpeacock on Jul 18, 2015 23:50:26 GMT -5
We have germination I repeat we have germination!After weeks in a ziploc bag one seed out of four has made a little green sprout and it's beautiful 
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