Venus Flytrap?
Question:I just bought a Venus Flytrap, and i really want to keep it healthy. Does anybody have any tips? What all does it eat, how tall can it get, and is it okay to keep it inside?
Answers:
IF you live in a warm and humid climate, then you can keep you Venus Flytrap outside, but if not, then it is a good idea to keep it inside. The problem with houses is that we usually have our homes cooled in the summer and heated in the winter. This removes the necessary humidity from the environment that the flytrap requires. When you buy your flytrap, it may be in a small pot with a dome cover. As long as the plant is potted in the appropriate potting mixture you can leave it, although a larger terrarium will give you room for several additions (and you will probably find you want more vft). A good potting mixture for Venus Fly trap is 60% peat moss and 40% perlite or clean sand. Always water your Venus Flytrap from the tray if it's in a pot or, if in a terrarium, use a spray bottle and wet the top of the potting mixture well.
Never water your Venus Flytrap with tap water, the chlorine is poison to it. Use bottled distilled water or collect rain water, but not water that has run off your roof. If you must use tap water, collect the water and let it set out for several days to allow the chlorine to evaporate as much as possible.
If you take good care of your fly trap it will live a long time and will eventually flower. Unless you want to collect the seeds you should remove the flower since it will weaken the plant.
Six ways to kill a venus flytrap:
1.Excessive heat. Keep indoor plants (especially domed or terrarium grown plants) out of direct hot sun.
2. Not enough humidity. Keep humidity well above 50%. If you live in a dry climate, you will not be able to grow the Venus Fly trap without a terrarium or humid enclosure.
3. Keeping your Venus Fly trap too wet for the amount of light it is getting. Plants that are kept too wet may rot. During the summer if kept outdoors, they can be kept very wet. Indoors they will require less water, but never let them dry out.
4. Excessive handling. They may seem like pets but the more you handle them the more stressed they will be.
5. Force feeding. It's fun to watch the traps snap closed over a bug but flytraps are gluttons and don't know when to stop. They'll eat until they die.
6. Allow them to produce flowers. Your healthy, mature flytrap will produce insignificant flowers on long stems. Cut the flower stems off as soon as you recognize them. Allowing them to flower will weaken and almost surely kill your flytrap. If you have more than one flytrap and want to try to produce seeds then you might feel that you can sacrifice one of them.
GOOD LUCK! :)
If the soil has too much nitrogen in it, the plant won't produce fly catching leaves.
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