FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

What would be the best conditions to grow small flytraps in? Could they possibly suffer from extreme weather outside? Would growing indoors make them mature faster than if grown outdoors? I'm thinking of possibly moving some of my small flytraps that are outside indoors.

I place a small plexiglass sheet directly over my seedlings, until they get rooted well. I don't want the hard rain to wash them around or out of the pot. In there natural growing range the weather is very harsh hurricanes, tornado's, flooding, fires and worst of all the Carolina Lizard man!

My small flytraps are cultivars, so they aren't seedlings, but would extra humidity help them too? What I'm really wondering is if they'd mature faster if they were grown indoors under my lights instead of outside. Here's what they look like:

How small are they? Size of a quarter? 2 inches?

The DCXL is about 1.5 inches across, and the B52s are 0.5 inches across.

I got DCXL this spring, bare root from FTS. I just potted it up and placed it in full sun. It is a fast grower, the only thing i have that is keeping pace with it is King Henry.

In order of importance according to me and me alone ...

1. Put them in a pot at least 5 inches deep using 1 sphagnum moss : 1 fine perlite. The larger the pot, the better. Seriously, you can't go too big here.
2. Give them at least 5 hours of direct sunlight (or the artificial lighting equivalent), preferably more.
3. Keep the soil moist but not sodden. Do not let them get bone dry.
4. Keep them between 48-78 F.
5. Feed them so that at least one trap is digesting at all times.
6. Repot into fresh growing media every 6-12 months.
7. Water from below by flooding the pot (for no longer than 15 minutes) and then allowing it to drain. This pulls in fresh air into the growing media and helps prevent it from going anaerobic. This also helps prevent the root zone from overheating.
8. Water with rainwater or distilled water.
9. Keep the humidity between 30-60%.
10. Keep the root zone cool. Probably between 48-60F although I've never tested this.
11. Provide moderate air movement to reduce the risk of fungus and diseases.

Hope that helps!

The temperatures drop to the lower 40's at night, it can get pretty hot in the summer, and the humidity is pretty low. Would it then be better to keep them indoors until they mature? Also, I'm a bit confused about the watering. How exactly do you flood the pot from below?

His water instructions are for peat sitting in treys of water, top water your LFSM pots.

If it was me i would leave your plant outside and if starts freezing when the sun is out, move them to a more protected location.

> The temperatures drop to the lower 40's at night, it can get pretty hot in the summer, and the humidity is pretty low. Would it then be better to keep them indoors until they mature?

Yes, if you can still supply the cultural conditions. Indoor culture is usually better because you have more control the all the variables (temp, humidity, air movement, lighting, etc.) but it's more expensive and takes more maintenance ... hence why most growers prefer to grow outdoors where nature takes care of almost all of that for free.

Bear in mind that you'll need to ensure they get a dormancy period if you're growing them indoors. Usually this can be easily done by putting them outside in the fall. In zone 6b, you can probably just leave them outside all winter honestly. I do.

Don't worry about the humidity. As long as you're not in a desert, you're fine.

> Also, I'm a bit confused about the watering. How exactly do you flood the pot from below?

Just lower the whole pot up to the rim into a bucket or something.

Or rig up an automated flood and drain system like I have which takes care of all the watering for you!

Also, please bear in mind that you're asking for the best growing conditions.

You can get by with a lot less and your plants will do just fine.

Btw, if you're looking to put on maximum growth then feeding them is very important assuming they have adequate temp, light, and moisture.

I've noticed my baby flytraps practically double their growth rate when fed regularly compared to leaner times. Make sure what you feed them has chitin in it (rehydrated blood worms ground into a thick paste or something like that) otherwise the trap may reject the meal i.e. open back up again without sealing shut.

Hope that helps!

davinstewart wrote: ↑Sun May 01, 2022 4:10 am Don't worry about the humidity. As long as you're not in a desert, you're fine.

*Ahem* I may not be in a real desert, but here is what our area looks like:

Another thing, is it fine if my plants are growing in 100% sphagnum moss?

TrapsAndDews wrote:Another thing, is it fine if my plants are growing in 100% sphagnum moss?

Yep. Plants in LFS will grow faster than those in peat. There are some downsides, like being harder to repot and being more finnicky about watering (at least in theory, I've never had problems with mine), but they like LFS.

Perlite probably doesn't make a huge difference for flytraps one way or the other, besides maybe giving you a little more leeway on overwatering before root rot starts to set in. But unless your moss is milled pretty fine under the surface I don't think that it'd change too much.