Carnivorous plant care?

[Eldachleich]

I've always wanted to own these beauties. I've googled some basic care but I wanna know if anyone here owns or has owned them? I'm interested in possibly setting up something for them.
Experience?
Good species to try out?
Lighting?
So on and so forth?

Walking past the plants in my local nursery has finally become too tempting.

[cardgenius]

Ive had a Venus FlyTrap for 2 years now. Its pretty easy to care for once you know all the basics.

Heres some tips:

RO or Rainwater only. Flytraps need very clean water to survive.

Use bowl method to water. Put potted plant in a bowl. Add water to bowl so it gets sucked up through the bottom of the pot.
Soil must stay moist. Not too wet, not too dry. I keep mine outside and water it every other day.

Sphagnum and Perlite for repotting. Some sand is good too. Do not use Miracle Grow or any type of soil that has fertilizer in it. It will kill them.

6-8 hours of sunlight per day. I keep mine outside so it gets real good light. If you keep it inside, I would try to get it the most light you can. The glass in the windows will cut down a lot of the usable light for the plant. When mine was inside, the traps were long, skinny and just didnt look that good. Once I acclimated it to being outside, the traps grew closer to the ground and were bigger just looked healthier.

FlyTraps will grow flower on a large stem early in the season. It takes a lot of the plants energy to grow this so it will stunt your plants growth quite a bit if you let it grow out and flower. If your plant is small or young, its recommended to cut so your plant can grow more. If you have more than one plant you can let it grow with hopes that the flower will get pollinated and will get some seeds from it.

They go dormant in the winter and need a cool but not freezing place to stay. This was the hardest for me. It freezes here in the winter so I needed some place inside to take it. Read about people putting their plant in their fridge for the winter. Ive done it for 2 winters now and it works great(I can give more details if needed). If you dont let them go dormant for the winter they will only live a short time.

I dont have experience with them yet but I believe Sundews, butterworts and non tropical pitcher plants are the same for care. The tropical pitchers need humidity to survive and are harder to care for.

Ill post a pic in the morning.

[Eldachleich]

Sounds fairly basic and easy.
But knowing me I should probably learn to keep a small easy plant alive for a year first eh?
I really like sundews but venus fly traps are easier to find down here.
I was also considering a highland tropical pitcher plant. My kitchen has pretty much ideal conditions for it from what I can find.

[Cardoc]

Make sure if you get a venus, that it came from a grower and not taken from nature. I belive that it is against the law to harvest from nature, but plenty of people do it because of how much they can get for the plants. I think they are endangered, could be wrong might just be protected. I did plenty of looking around for a venus and finding out as much as I could, then settled on a bonsai tree instead.

[150EH]

We have a carnivorous nursery here in Maryland, try google for more info.

[Eden Marel]

For beginner and the ease, I recommend the basic VFT, North American Pitcher Plants like the trumpets Sarracenia (Yellow or purpurea), for sundews any of the 3 Sisters of Queensland, and for butterwort Pingucula primiflora.

VFT and the Sarrencia do need 3+ month Winter hibernation. Stick in a dark cold spot (fridge or garage) protected from frost and freeze.

Nepenthes require a little more work but they are pretty easy as well depending on which one. I have a Nepenthes ventrata. They can take low mineral tap, but need high humidity to produce pitchers, the more humid the larger the pitchers get as well, and they also have temperature requirements.

I do not recommend cephalotus or helianmphora or darlingtonia as some of them are rumored to be especially picky about temperature, light and humidity conditions. But I do not have personal experience with these myself.

(but then again you're in California, if you can provide the right light and humidity the Darlingtonia might work pretty good for you too since they are native to parts of CA)

[mluk27]

Cephalotus are easy IMO, heliamphora are easy as long as you can provide the right temparuture and humidity, sundews are probably the easiest and some of the best. Nepenthes can be easy depending the species. Pm me and I can give you some tips and freebies, I have a whole grow rack full.

[h4n]

Do you actually have to feed venus fly traps, flys?

[Eldachleich]

Well!
Thanks to you guys I became convinced and chanced a few carnivores.
I have 2 venus fly traps in a 1 gallon fish bowl in my windowsill. One seems to be standard but one is bright reddish purples. Very cool.

A decided o try the "well" method. Where you make a well of rocks in the center and have the scape slope towards it.
So far they don't looks to be suffering and appear quite happy.


h4n - I don't have alot of experience with these guys as I just bought them 3 days ago. But mine are constantly catching little flies and bugs all day. They seem quite adept at feeding themselves. Of course that doesnt meant that I don't catch and stick a bug in in there when someone comes over.



I also bought a highland pitcher plant. It's been re-potted and mounted on my wall in the kitchen. After researching the difference between nepenthes I found that highland nepenthes have climate needs that match my kitchen almost exactly. Though I do need to mist it now and again with RO water. It seems to be doing well. It is in a little shock from replanting but already seems to be recovering nicely.

I'm concerned that it might be a bit too bright in here for it though. The greenhouse it came from is much darker than my kitchen.



And finally. I want to start a small nano terrarium of sorts. I really like sundews and would like to incorporate them in somehow. But I have a bowl that a fair size. I havent measured it but its at least 15 inches on all sides.
I would like to have a year round display so I don't want to have too much that goes dormant. I am willing to have one or two plants that need to go in the fridge.
But I would like the majority of them to be around year round.

Any suggestions lol?
Googling is helping a little but I'm having a hard time finding the information I need. And it seems alot of these species might be difficult to keep together.
Maybe putting them in individual pots and hiding the pots might be better.

[Eldachleich]

Originally Posted by Cardoc

Make sure if you get a venus, that it came from a grower and not taken from nature. I belive that it is against the law to harvest from nature, but plenty of people do it because of how much they can get for the plants. I think they are endangered, could be wrong might just be protected. I did plenty of looking around for a venus and finding out as much as I could, then settled on a bonsai tree instead.

The carnivorous plants near me are shipped from a nearby carnivore nursery. Or from Northern California I believe.

[Eldachleich]

Originally Posted by Eden Marel

For beginner and the ease, I recommend the basic VFT, North American Pitcher Plants like the trumpets Sarracenia (Yellow or purpurea), for sundews any of the 3 Sisters of Queensland, and for butterwort Pingucula primiflora.

VFT and the Sarrencia do need 3+ month Winter hibernation. Stick in a dark cold spot (fridge or garage) protected from frost and freeze.

Nepenthes require a little more work but they are pretty easy as well depending on which one. I have a Nepenthes ventrata. They can take low mineral tap, but need high humidity to produce pitchers, the more humid the larger the pitchers get as well, and they also have temperature requirements.

I do not recommend cephalotus or helianmphora or darlingtonia as some of them are rumored to be especially picky about temperature, light and humidity conditions. But I do not have personal experience with these myself.

(but then again you're in California, if you can provide the right light and humidity the Darlingtonia might work pretty good for you too since they are native to parts of CA)

Wow!! Thanks alot.
I looked up Darlingtonia. It's from Northern California which honestly gets very different weather. They are cold temperate and we are hot temperate... If that makes sense...
I feel that it might get too hot here for them..

For now I shall stick with easier species.

My main interest is Sundews. I really like the buggers. Are any of them particularly picky? Do you know lol?
Bothering you cause you answered my question well...
I would also have like to incorporate one or two bigger different plants with them. But I would still like the smallest one possible.
Finding plant sizes has proven to be a challenge though.
That and I would like to not have to overwinter the whole thing.

I dunno... It seems I have alot more research to do before I really five into the world of carnivorous plants.

I believe purpurea was one of the main plants I was interested in? Do you have any personal experience you could share?

[HybridHerp]

I'm interested in this stuff too. I just bought a venus fly trap today and could use water tips I can get. I have the pot it came in sitting in a little bowl of tap water (not ideal I know but I don't have access to RO water and my pitcher plant has been doing very well with the tap I have)

Speaking of that, I have some sort of pitcher plant that I can't id, when I bought it I had to cut off a lot of dead and decaying pitchers and was left with only 2 healthy pitchers but now the plant has 4 healthy pitchers that are turning a bright red, though I admit I need to repot it.

Lastly, I just bought some sort of Nepenthes that I just bought as a hanging basket.

[rollinghills]

Is it recommended to keep the Venus flytraps in the plastic container that came with it? Looks so ugly in the container but I'm worried if I left the plant out it or the soil'll dry out too fast. Does the plant really need a lot of water at all times? This is for indoors with NYC weather. I'm guessing with air conditioner running it'll dry out even faster?

[Eden Marel]

Originally Posted by Eldachleich

Wow!! Thanks alot.
I looked up Darlingtonia. It's from Northern California which honestly gets very different weather. They are cold temperate and we are hot temperate... If that makes sense...
I feel that it might get too hot here for them..

For now I shall stick with easier species.

My main interest is Sundews. I really like the buggers. Are any of them particularly picky? Do you know lol?
Bothering you cause you answered my question well...
I would also have like to incorporate one or two bigger different plants with them. But I would still like the smallest one possible.
Finding plant sizes has proven to be a challenge though.
That and I would like to not have to overwinter the whole thing.

I dunno... It seems I have alot more research to do before I really five into the world of carnivorous plants.

I believe purpurea was one of the main plants I was interested in? Do you have any personal experience you could share?

If you talking about Sarrecenia purpurea, that's a north american pitcher plant which requires the hibernation. They are easy otherwise. They typically look green and kinda skinny/tall in the stores, but suppose to purplish colored and big and fat in better condition.

I still recommend any of the three sisters of Queensland, since they are easy, but if you want a small one there are ones as small as a dime.

I have a reccomendation, join this site:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/index.php

Tons of info, and people are also always giving away free seeds (must provide SASE tho and sometimes an extra stamp), and sometimes free plants (pay postage). I grew a small sundew from seed from a person I got the seeds from on that site!

Originally Posted by HybridHerp

I'm interested in this stuff too. I just bought a venus fly trap today and could use water tips I can get. I have the pot it came in sitting in a little bowl of tap water (not ideal I know but I don't have access to RO water and my pitcher plant has been doing very well with the tap I have)

Speaking of that, I have some sort of pitcher plant that I can't id, when I bought it I had to cut off a lot of dead and decaying pitchers and was left with only 2 healthy pitchers but now the plant has 4 healthy pitchers that are turning a bright red, though I admit I need to repot it.

Lastly, I just bought some sort of Nepenthes that I just bought as a hanging basket.

Nepenthes can tolerate tap water, I water my Sarrencia species with tap as well, but I killed my VFT with tap water.

Originally Posted by rollinghills

Is it recommended to keep the Venus flytraps in the plastic container that came with it? Looks so ugly in the container but I'm worried if I left the plant out it or the soil'll dry out too fast. Does the plant really need a lot of water at all times? This is for indoors with NYC weather. I'm guessing with air conditioner running it'll dry out even faster?

Nope, they can get fungused.

just put it ina dish of RO water with pebbles on it to keep the humidity up, and soil moist.

[HybridHerp]

Originally Posted by Eden Marel

Tons of info, and people are also always giving away free seeds (must provide SASE tho and sometimes an extra stamp), and sometimes free plants (pay postage). I grew a small sundew from seed from a person I got the seeds from on that site!


Nepenthes can tolerate tap water, I water my Sarrencia species with tap as well, but I killed my VFT with tap water.

Dude, that site looks amazing, thanks for linking us all to it .
The pitcher that I've had growing with just my tap water is some sort of Sarrencia, not sure what kind exactly but I will figure that out later. Good to know that the Nepenthes can tolerate the tap as well, but what can I do to keep my VFT thriving?
Btw, if a Sarrencia is turning red in the veins is that a sign of it being happy or is that a sign of conditions being less than great? I'm assuming happy simply because the plant turned red and then started growing new pitchers much more quickly than before. I think it has to do with my moving it from the indoors to moving it under an awning outside (its been hot here though, but it gets its water and eats a good amount of small little pita bugs).