It is so nice to hear from everyone, after sending out our annual newsletter. Thank you for all the support and kindness, and it’s so good to hear that your plants are doing well! It makes me very proud to be part of such a supportive community. Please know you can comment on these posts and I will be happy to respond. Love the feedback!
As for the FlytrapStore “trappenings”, as one awesome creative artistic customer calls Flytrap happenings on his FB page, the Flytraps are doing well, with DC XLs in particular getting very nice red coloration on its trap interiors during dormancy. So pretty. B52s are also looking really nice, despite being dormant – very nice coloration.
Hope your week has gone well, everyone, and thanks again for the replies and support about the Newsletter! That thing took me forever to do, and I appreciate it so much! (*ergh I just saw my one typo on the newsletter, darnit!….did you find it?)
I’m in Okeechobee Fl 34972 zone 9b with Dec day temps 60 to mid 80s & nites 60s with occasional lows 39/40. I’d like to put my new 4” pot plants out for dormancy since even under led grow lights a couple have died then tuber rot. So what about rains we get outside, should I keep them free of over head rain till Spring?
Hi Janice!
Great idea to keep them outside, great weather you have there with little chance of freeze/frost, it sounds like. You can keep them in the rain for 1-2 days, but anymore than that and I’d move them out of it or they’ll get too waterlogged. The rain has some nice nutrients for them, and Venus Flytraps need to always have some moisture available to them, but they don’t like to sit around in water constantly, or they’ll often rot.
Hope this helps, thanks for writing!
I love reading what you write about. There is a lot of information on the web but you present in a very thoughtful and very informative way.
On question I have because I am new to venus fly traps is about dormancy. I live in the Philippines and I am not sure about dormancy here and how do you know when they are going into dormancy and not just dying?
Thanks so much Doug! You know it’s Dormancy because there will be perfectly good new growth (just slower-growing than usual) with no deformations or blackening, and the traps that die will almost all be the outer and taller ones. A sick or dying Flytrap will have new growth that blackens or is deformed, and various traps will die. A sick or dying Flytrap often has odd blackening, with spots or mottling or tiny little Seurat-like dots (usually indicating mite damage). Also, if your Flytrap is blackening around the time it should be for Dormancy, that is a clue, whereas a sick Flytrap will be blackening or deforming at a time of year that it shouldn’t be (not Dormancy-time). If you are caring appropriately for your Flytrap (outdoors sunlight, mineral-free water and growing medium, not overwatering too much) there is very little that will make your Flytrap sick. Most Flytraps become ill because of rot or not enough sunlight. Otherwise, there isn’t too much that affects them. So if you have good care, and it’s dormancy-time, and the growth is good, it’s likely Dormancy. Hope this helps! I think I might write an article on this, actually, and we plan on making a video with examples of what I’m talking about, which will be posted here and here: https://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-trap-care-videos, https://www.youtube.com/user/FlytrapStore