FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

We were at thw hobby shop this evening and my son found these kits for 2.99 and wanted them so bad. He said he wanted to grow them just like mommy. I couldn't say no so we bought them. Anyone ever used them? If so, were they successful? We didn't follow the directions on the package, I followed the advice of another grower on this forum, lol, seemed like a better idea. Even if they don't grow, my son is learning something new and enjoying it.

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Mine didn't do anything even after 5 moths. My son just had to have them. I felt so bad about it I ended up buying him a fly trap and a pitcher plant to make up for it, and that's how the madness began.

If you got lucky and the seeds are fresh you may have better luck than we did. It's always worth a shot just to teach the kids something.

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Lol, we will see what happens. He is only 10 so he will probably lose interest anyway. If not, I will probably do the same as you and just buy him some plants.

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It's usually not a good idea to start the hobby from seeds. Seeds can be finicky and even if they sprout, which they rarely do, you have to wait years until they grow into an enjoyable size.

These DuneCraft terrarium kits, even the large ones, are somewhat infamous in the CP community. They don't provide many seeds, they don't tell you how long these seeds have been packaged up for (so it's hard to tell if they are still viable), and they don't give you much room for success.

I recommend you to buy your son a real plant. A cheap one will cost anywhere from $5 to $10 so they're not terribly expensive and they will be much hardier than seeds. In addition, your son will get a lot more educational value studying a large plant than seedlings. With these terrariums, your son is almost guaranteed to be disappointed. Good luck!

Alan wrote:It's usually not a good idea to start the hobby from seeds. Seeds can be finicky and even if they sprout, which they rarely do, you have to wait years until they grow into an enjoyable size.

These DuneCraft terrarium kits, even the large ones, are somewhat infamous in the CP community. They don't provide many seeds, they don't tell you how long these seeds have been packaged up for (so it's hard to tell if they are still viable), and they don't give you much room for success.

I recommend you to buy your son a real plant. A cheap one will cost anywhere from $5 to $10 so they're not terribly expensive and they will be much hardier than seeds. In addition, your son will get a lot more educational value studying a large plant than seedlings. With these terrariums, your son is almost guaranteed to be disappointed. Good luck!

Thanks for your input. He had fun planting them and they were super cheap so if they don't grow, it's no biggy. If nothing happens with them, I'll buy him some plants of his own. I'm keeping mine for myself, lol.

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I was actually just looking at the packaging and it says "seed test date 7/17" so maybe he will get lucky and they were viable seeds.

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Even the packages with recent test dates seem to be really crappy. I just get good seeds from reliable sources.

You could get them from the FTC seedbank. I just checked and you qualify to get some fly trap seeds if you or your son really want to try it with some fresh seed. The cost of two stamps is a excellent price for them.

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Oh snap, that's what I get for being on here when I'm sleepy. I thought the date was June 3rd, but it's the 30th. So your only a little over a month away from qualifying.

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I'll get him some that I know are in good shape. Thanks for all the feedback.

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I've used the Dunecraft kit, that's what we got my daughter when she decided she was interested in them. As most have said the seeds aren't usually very viable. I had the kit with drosera, fly traps, and sarracenia. The sarracenia seeds I got 60% germination on, my first time germinating CP's. The drosera, and fly traps I got squat.

I actually still have the one sarr remaining in my collection producing about 10" pitchers currently. I lost the others to a freeze though.

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I love to see parents and kids getting involved in CP together.

Have you considered putting out a request to the FTC Community for a young plant to toss into your egg? A lot of us, myself included have a surplus of common plants that pop up from hitchhiking seeds.

Where do you live? There may be a member nearby. If you're in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, I could help you out with a freebie.

If you're not close, there's always Plan "B".
If you pay for postage ( $7.15 [small parcel cost] ) I could send you an adult, flowering size Drosera capensis "Typical Form". The plant is free, you just pay for shipping.

If that's too costly, Try Plan "C".
For the cost of two stamps, you could send an SASE to the seedbank.

Good growing,
Mike

Shadowtski wrote:I love to see parents and kids getting involved in CP together.

Have you considered putting out a request to the FTC Community for a young plant to toss into your egg? A lot of us, myself included have a surplus of common plants that pop up from hitchhiking seeds.

Where do you live? There may be a member nearby. If you're in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, I could help you out with a freebie.

If you're not close, there's always Plan "B".
If you pay for postage ( $7.15 [small parcel cost] ) I could send you an adult, flowering size Drosera capensis "Typical Form". The plant is free, you just pay for shipping.

If that's too costly, Try Plan "C".
For the cost of two stamps, you could send an SASE to the seedbank.

Good growing,
Mike

Thank you so much for your offer. I actually ordered him a small typical (and I may or may not have ordered myself a sundew ) today that is supposed to be here in about 2 days. He's pretty happy about that, I just hope the excitement continues, lol. As for the seeds that we bought, we will keep an eye on them and see what happens.

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boarderlib wrote:I've used the Dunecraft kit, that's what we got my daughter when she decided she was interested in them. As most have said the seeds aren't usually very viable. I had the kit with drosera, fly traps, and sarracenia. The sarracenia seeds I got 60% germination on, my first time germinating CP's. The drosera, and fly traps I got squat.

I actually still have the one sarr remaining in my collection producing about 10" pitchers currently. I lost the others to a freeze though.

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Thanks for sharing. That gives me a little ray of hope that he might get something out of them. If not, he has a plant on the way now. I might just do a little switch-a-roo so he thinks they actually grew, lol. Is that bad?

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DesireeCoffey wrote:

boarderlib wrote:I've used the Dunecraft kit, that's what we got my daughter when she decided she was interested in them. As most have said the seeds aren't usually very viable. I had the kit with drosera, fly traps, and sarracenia. The sarracenia seeds I got 60% germination on, my first time germinating CP's. The drosera, and fly traps I got squat.

I actually still have the one sarr remaining in my collection producing about 10" pitchers currently. I lost the others to a freeze though.

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Thanks for sharing. That gives me a little ray of hope that he might get something out of them. If not, he has a plant on the way now. I might just do a little switch-a-roo so he thinks they actually grew, lol. Is that bad?

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No, I wouldn't say that's bad. I would do the same thing. Best of luck with your new plants!

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