FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I've always seen a lot of posts about people wanting Red Traps so I'm here to explain how to achieve them(in detail)...

Firstly there are two types of growers,

1) The grower who enjoys the plant for the fact that it can close and digest insects/ or you grow your plants outside where they catch a lot of insects
2) The grower who grows the plants for their beauty (primarily)

If you are type 1, then achieving red traps will be significantly harder because you like to feed them and trigger the traps, etc. When you feed them the trap isn't open so it can't turn red on the inner lobes. Also you wear the trap don eventually, and it stops coloration once it reaches the end of it's closing lifetime. When they digest insects there is a another problem. They extract the nitrogen from the insect and put it into new growth. Nitrogen will produce a lot of green in your plant. This is not what you want. Believe it or not, flytraps do indeed take nutrients from the soil. Just not a lot of them. And it is plenty to keep them growing big and healthy.

If you are type 2, it should be fairly easy for you. Grow your plants under T5 High Output fixtures, outside or in a greenhouse. Outside only applies f you do not have many insects around. What you want is for the trap to be blasted constantly with light. So do not feed them, trigger the traps, or do anything to cease this barrier between the inside lobes and the light. The plant will eventually build large amounts of carbohydrates and then they will start to color up very fast. I've had King Henry's who have opened up traps that were already a nice shade of red. In about a week or maybe a few days less, the traps were deep blood red. Oddly enough, I've found my plants producing traps just as large as the ones who gorge themselves with flies, bees, and spiders outside.

The main factors you should take into consideration for the color of your flytrap

What medium it is growing in:

A medium with a low pH will produce much better coloration than one with a higher acidic pH
Personally, I use 100% Long Fibered Sphagnum Moss, which I deem as the superior growing medium.

How much light its receiving and how strong the light is:

If you live in Florida as opposed to California, your plants probably won't look as nice as the other guys.Reason being CA has more intense and stronger sunlight than FL, and also Florida rains all year as opposed to CA which usually only rains in the winter, where the plants don't mind it too much. So in a place like Florida, you can still get red traps, but it will take longer and the coloration will probably not be as intense.

Although, for growing, they do appreciate some cloudy days, as they can get stressed out when left under strong light for long periods of time. Believe it or not, they really aren't truly full sun plants.

Your Climate:

Optimal temperatures is usually in the cooler region for flytraps. When it get's too hot they seem not to get very red.
Also low humidity does not benefit them at all. This brings me to another subject:

Flytraps can live almost anywhere and thrive. But that doesn't mean they're in optimal conditions. You can have a beautiful plant in Texas outside but the plant would grow better where the temperatures were cooler and the humidity was higher. I know folks who think that high humidity isn't good for flytraps, but this is when they're in a terrarium or somewhere where the airflow isn't good. This leads to mold and other fungi.

Time of year:

After your plants have been "blasted" in the sun for a while and the year starts to end, you will likely have some nice Maroon and Burgundy traps. This method I use has colored up plants like 'Dentate Traps' to a blood red with a nice thick red band on the outer lobes of the traps, and even gets 'Justina Davis' a very obvious blush, rather than the light one it has. You will likely find the best coloration comes during the fall and winter, when they're dormant. If you have one of the warmer dormancies, your plant will be more colorful in the springtime than it would if you had a colder one. My plants retain their leaves during dormancy and they can still build up with more carbs.

Age of the plant:

For red plants like 'Green Dragon', they seem to be more colorful and produce more anthocyanin than their older counterparts.


I am in the process of completely redoing a test I did for all he mentioned factors. Pics to come.

Thanks for reading,

Chas

Thanks for taking the time to write this its very informative. Is this from your own experience? Where are you from? What do you do?

Chas wrote:What medium it is growing in:

A medium with a low pH will produce much better coloration than one with a higher acidic pH

I don't know if this was just a typo but isn't low pH an acidic pH?

Chas wrote:When it get's too hot they seem not to get very red.

Chas wrote:You can have a beautiful plant in Texas outside but the plant would grow better where the temperatures were cooler and the humidity was higher

I live in Kansas where its dry 20% humidity and hot 100+ F for weeks at a time and my red variety flytraps were red. If they could get more red I'd be surprised. My green variety traps colored up nicely as well which is due to the amount of light they received. The only thing I had to worry about was keeping the moisture levels ups. I did noticed a retard in growth in the hot summer days but not in coloration.

Once again thanks for the good info. I'm sure this will help a lot of newbies out.

jwbates26 wrote:Thanks for taking the time to write this its very informative. Is this from your own experience? Where are you from? What do you do?

Chas wrote:What medium it is growing in:

A medium with a low pH will produce much better coloration than one with a higher acidic pH

I don't know if this was just a typo but isn't low pH an acidic pH?

Chas wrote:When it get's too hot they seem not to get very red.

Chas wrote:You can have a beautiful plant in Texas outside but the plant would grow better where the temperatures were cooler and the humidity was higher

I live in Kansas where its dry 20% humidity and hot 100+ F for weeks at a time and my red variety flytraps were red. If they could get more red I'd be surprised. My green variety traps colored up nicely as well which is due to the amount of light they received. The only thing I had to worry about was keeping the moisture levels ups.

Flytrap.jpg

B52.jpg

I did noticed a retard in growth in the hot summer days but not in coloration.

Once again thanks for the good info. I'm sure this will help a lot of newbies out.

I never said it was impossible. They still color up but not as fast as they would somewhere else. As stated in the first post, your plant is in thriving conditions, but not in the best conditions. Also, red Plants are going to be red, wherever. In low light they still show their anthocyanin.
I have been growing for around 6+ years. Flytraps should be growing in acidic media, but a, lower acidic pH is better than a higher acidic pH. Like 6'5 and 6'7 are both tall, but 6'7 is taller. Flytraps often get stressed with low humidity but still grow. But flytraps can look AMAZING in less than "perfect" growing conditions.

Chas wrote: Flytraps should be growing in acidic media, but a, lower acidic pH is better than a higher acidic pH. Like 6'5 and 6'7 are both tall, but 6'7 is taller.

Jason probably thought that you meant to say 'a more alkaline pH' rather than 'a higher acidic pH'.

Well, at least I thought you meant this at first when I read this. As you said 'higher pH', I thought that you meant a higher pH (right at the high end) in the pH scale.

Chas wrote: Flytraps should be growing in acidic media, but a, lower acidic pH is better than a higher acidic pH. Like 6'5 and 6'7 are both tall, but 6'7 is taller.

Sorry I read that wrong I see what you meant.

Chas wrote:red Plants are going to be red, wherever.

I have several red leaf flytraps that their first spring growth is almost completely green but are starting to become more red. I wasn't trying to argue any points with you. I was just creating a discussion. This is a well written guide.

Great information you wrote, as you I can confirm the redness factor of feeding the plant. Because my traps only turn red when I do not feed my plants, but as I need growth, the plants are always green because of the regular feeding.

This is a good giude , thanks for sharing.

Now if my red vft like the red piranha is already red, feeding it shouldn't be any problem as it won't turn green right?

Fingered from my Google Nexus S

Well, the extra nitrogen turns green any tissue that its alive as it lets the plant make more proteins, which then are turned into chloroplasts, so, the traps would become green, only a little.

coline wrote:Well, the extra nitrogen turns green any tissue that its alive as it lets the plant make more proteins, which then are turned into chloroplasts, so, the traps would become green, only a little.

Ahh I c. Thanks for the info coline!

Fingered from my Google Nexus S

if you live in KS, there's more than 20% humidity on a 100deg day. i'm only an hour away from you and its rare we have humidity lower than 65% all summer, with most of the time it being closer to 90-100%

This is a very informative post.

My only sticking point is this section:

Chas wrote:If you live in Florida as opposed to California, your plants probably won't look as nice as the other guys.Reason being CA has more intense and stronger sunlight than FL, and also Florida rains all year as opposed to CA which usually only rains in the winter, where the plants don't mind it too much. So in a place like Florida, you can still get red traps, but it will take longer and the coloration will probably not be as intense.

You're taking 2 states that cover a large range of latitude and generalizing the climate. From what I've seen coastal CA is comparable to FL regarding the amount of light. And the average for a lot of CA is driven up because of the light intensity during the summer months. During the winter FL, being at a lower latitude, receives as much or more sunlight that most of CA except for the Death Valley/desert region.

Have you seen a significant difference between plants grown in FL and those grown in CA? I'm just wondering if the difference in light intensity creates a significant difference in color. There is no doubt that increased light equals increased color, but it's not a linear relationship. At some point increasing light will not have a significant effect on color.

FWIW, I'm not at all a biased Florida grower.

parker679 wrote:This is a very informative post.

My only sticking point is this section:

Chas wrote:If you live in Florida as opposed to California, your plants probably won't look as nice as the other guys.Reason being CA has more intense and stronger sunlight than FL, and also Florida rains all year as opposed to CA which usually only rains in the winter, where the plants don't mind it too much. So in a place like Florida, you can still get red traps, but it will take longer and the coloration will probably not be as intense.

You're taking 2 states that cover a large range of latitude and generalizing the climate. From what I've seen coastal CA is comparable to FL regarding the amount of light. And the average for a lot of CA is driven up because of the light intensity during the summer months. During the winter FL, being at a lower latitude, receives as much or more sunlight that most of CA except for the Death Valley/desert region.

Have you seen a significant difference between plants grown in FL and those grown in CA? I'm just wondering if the difference in light intensity creates a significant difference in color. There is no doubt that increased light equals increased color, but it's not a linear relationship. At some point increasing light will not have a significant effect on color.

FWIW, I'm not at all a biased Florida grower.

Sun wise, Florida is a runner-up to California. But Florida rains more than CA and it rains in the summer and it gets pretty cloudy when it does. That has an effect on growth. I do notice a slight difference between FL and CA plants. It seems that the ones in FL don't color as well and they don't grow as big as fast. The biggest advantage to Southern CA is the plants really never stop growing. They still send out traps in the winter.

I'm probably moving somewhere in CA or CO, but I'd rather have Florida's animals. I go herping occasionally and it is definitely more fun in Florida. My setup for next summer is going to be in a greenhouse but at night run some T5's for extra light.

Chas wrote:

parker679 wrote:
My only sticking point is this section:

Chas wrote:If you live in Florida as opposed to California, your plants probably won't look as nice as the other guys.Reason being CA has more intense and stronger sunlight than FL, and also Florida rains all year as opposed to CA which usually only rains in the winter, where the plants don't mind it too much. So in a place like Florida, you can still get red traps, but it will take longer and the coloration will probably not be as intense.

You're taking 2 states that cover a large range of latitude and generalizing the climate. From what I've seen coastal CA is comparable to FL regarding the amount of light. And the average for a lot of CA is driven up because of the light intensity during the summer months. During the winter FL, being at a lower latitude, receives as much or more sunlight that most of CA except for the Death Valley/desert region.

Have you seen a significant difference between plants grown in FL and those grown in CA? I'm just wondering if the difference in light intensity creates a significant difference in color. There is no doubt that increased light equals increased color, but it's not a linear relationship. At some point increasing light will not have a significant effect on color.

FWIW, I'm not at all a biased Florida grower.

Sun wise, Florida is a runner-up to California. But Florida rains more than CA and it rains in the summer and it gets pretty cloudy when it does. That has an effect on growth. I do notice a slight difference between FL and CA plants. It seems that the ones in FL don't color as well and they don't grow as big as fast. The biggest advantage to Southern CA is the plants really never stop growing. They still send out traps in the winter.

I'm probably moving somewhere in CA or CO, but I'd rather have Florida's animals. I go herping occasionally and it is definitely more fun in Florida. My setup for next summer is going to be in a greenhouse but at night run some T5's for extra light.

I live in San Diego CA, From my experience during the winter the plants did stop growing and went probably into what I'de call a normal Dormancy, i wouldn't quite say Deep. Right as March comes they start throwing out there fat wide waking up from Dormancy leaves.
Southern CA is a pretty good place to grow Carnivorous plants in my opinion.[/quote]
except for the mountains, really all of california is a good place to grow cps. The only thing though is that where i liver, there is almost no rain, so my plants do not get as much water as opposed to flordia.