FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I fell in love with CPs and had always thought they were rain forest based and whatnot. Well I've educated myself through this website and from everyone's posts here. I'm a bit scared of how VFT can handle 100F+ heat and our direct sunlight can burn many plants to crisps. And even though we have Gilcrease Orchards (our only local farm where we can pick our own veggies and fruit), has successfully grown a variety of plants and veggies out here.

I've ordered a few species from the store along with potting soil and long strand moss so I can replant the one I bought from a local store here and give it a happier home. Here's a few photos of him with full bellies. My friends say I'm strange but I'm fascinated by the one that caught the spider

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hello and welcome! nice pictures.

as far as i understand, the heat should not be a problem so long as the potting media does not dry out. acclimate it gradually to the sun and it should be just fine. it appears you are using some sort of dome over it, though, and left in the sun that way, the heat would likely bake and kill the plant. Flytraps don't actually need humidity to be happy, and prefer good air circulation. however, I'm not an expert, so others please correct me if I'm mistaken.

good luck and enjoy your plants! mine capture mostly flies, but as an arachnaphobe, I'm extra happy when they capture spiders.

Hi Orit!

Thanks for your tips about gradually acclimating him into full sun. And yes, you're correct, he's in a little cup but no dome on it for a short time until I receive my shipment of potting soil (which I got my email today that my orders on the way! So excited!). It's the original cup he came in, but he's got a little small pool of distilled water he soaks up daily and the window sill he sits in gets a lot of sun from 6am until about 4pm. I use cling wrap with toothpick punctures to keep their meals inside and also to raise the humidity in the cup. When their meal is captured, I remove the cling wrap and they're near an air vent. They're indoors during the daytime and temp goes up to 85F.

We're in our monsoon season so when I repot him and his siblings (there's three groupings of VFT in the small pot), I plan to start acclimating them to full sunlight. We have zero humidity out here (I think I'm zone 8 or 9), so I'm trying to think how to keep them well watered out here. The fall back is a deeper outer dish their pots could sit in during the day time and when I get home to pull them out and let them drain a bit so they're not sitting in a pool of water full time. Am I on the right track?

a lot of people leave their flytrap pots in a tray of water full time and do just fine. i think the general consensus here is that it's better not to, but in any case it's not as big of a deal to do so in the summer, whereas over winter/during dormancy, they should be kept drier (but never dry) as they're more susceptible to root rot. i wouldn't worry about the sun through the window, but yes, when they go outside, they will get sunburned unless gradually acclimated. you can start with a few hours of morning sun and go up from there. if they do get a bad sunburn, their leaves will die, but all the new growth will be acclimated already.

I'm in Denver, also no humidity. i wouldn't use a dome, including cling wrap, regularly. Ive only used a dome/clear plastic bags for seeds and flower stalk propagation, for a relatively short time, and only indoors, as i learned firsthand with the sudden death of 100 sundew seedlings that any kind of clear cover in the sun is a recipe for disaster. that plastic bag was fully vented at the top, but the heat became too much in a very short period when i put them outside and I lost them all.

i wasnt sure, but it sounds like you're capturing flies and using the saran wrap to trap them until they get eaten. pretty cool! how are you capturing the flies? I've still never had the pleasure of watching my traps capture prey on their own no matter how long i stare.

did you order potting media from FTS? their potting mix will need to be rinsed of minerals, but their sphagnum moss is ready to go.

Hey from a former Las Vegan (vegasan? Idk). Lol. I moved to northern California from Vegas and it's been pretty hot up here too. 108+ some days with humidity. My VFTs handled it fine. You just gotta make sure they stay wet which means leaving them in a tray of water outside and making sure you check it everyday and keep it full when it's really hot out.

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Theres also a lot of people on here who grow VFTs in hot climates like Texas and Arizona and they do fine. You just gotta find what works for you, your plant and your climate.

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Orit, you're right on track about the wrap. I only use it sparingly with live food for them. I capture insects and bug I find while I'm out and about. Sometimes I'll find them in my back yard furthest away from my house, because we do spray our home. Or near some places we visit throughout the week, I know there's areas or parks I can visit and I'll scoop up live insects for my plant. I use a 2oz cup with a lid and they stay pretty secure in there. I've read that another poster here freezes captured flies or other insects and then hand feeds them to their CPs.

I didn't get to see it capture the spider, but I woke up the next day and saw it was enclosed in a mouth and it was exciting to see!

And yes, I did order the potting soil from FTS. Thanks for the tip about rinsing it before using it. I wasn't aware of that.

Hi thatonechick371!

Oh man, I saw the temps go up in your area. 108F with humidity! Normally it's us down here with the high temps and heat warnings. It's good to know that the VFT are hardy plants. They're such beauties that if I put them outside, they won't be appreciated in our boring desert landscape in our backyard. I may create a special stand for them to be closer to our patio area so I can tend to them easier and also bring them in for their dormant period.

Dezkin wrote:And yes, I did order the potting soil from FTS. Thanks for the tip about rinsing it before using it. I wasn't aware of that.

it says either on the purchase page or with the box once you receive it to flush it several times with distilled water, can't remember which. I haven't found the time to rinse the potting mix or purchase enough distilled water to do so, but it's been raining heavily, so I've left it outside in the pot to let nature rinse it since i don't need it right away. i will have to check the runoff with the TDS meter (recently picked up for under $15 online) before i use it to be sure. you mentioned monsoon season so that may be an option. I've never tried doing this before, though.

Dezkin wrote: I may create a special stand for them to be closer to our patio area so I can tend to them easier and also bring them in for their dormant period.

looks like vegas is in zone 8 or 9, so you're probably okay to just leave them out except for the occasional good freeze - lucky you! scroll down to the map:
https://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-trap-dormancy

Good memory Orit! The soil did come with instructions to flush it 3 to 4 times with distilled/RO/rain water. And my new VFT babies came in also! I'm so excited!

Nice deal on the TDS meter. I'll have to pick one up myself now.

And yes, I'm in zone 8/9. We typically get much colder temps the day after Halloween. That's when I plan to start their dormant period until about mid-February.

Thank you so much for your advice! Looking forward to more chats in the future

Hope you and yours are okay. I wish everyone was okay. After such an unspeakable tragedy, all I can say is that I'm thinking of you, all of you in Vegas. Wish I could do more than just send love, but I'm sending love regardless. It's beyond awful how just one evil person can destroy so much.

Orit wrote:Hope you and yours are okay. I wish everyone was okay. After such an unspeakable tragedy, all I can say is that I'm thinking of you, all of you in Vegas. Wish I could do more than just send love, but I'm sending love regardless. It's beyond awful how just one evil person can destroy so much.

love

Orit wrote:Hope you and yours are okay. I wish everyone was okay. After such an unspeakable tragedy, all I can say is that I'm thinking of you, all of you in Vegas. Wish I could do more than just send love, but I'm sending love regardless. It's beyond awful how just one evil person can destroy so much.

Hi Orit,

Fortunately we are okay. In my little circle, three people I know were at the event when it all happened. One of them was my brother, some of his friends were hit, but they're in stable condition. We're all a bit shocked, conspiracy theories are running amok, yet the community support and reaction is strong. Thank you for thinking of us out here. Love is what needs to triumph right now ♡

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Thank you for the update. I'm relieved to hear that they will be okay. I believe there is a lot more love all around than there was hate in that monster's heart. Wishing your brother's friends a speedy and full recovery, if one can ever completely recover from something like that.