FlyTrapCare Forums

On Jun 21 I received a shipment of multiple Maroon Monster venus fly traps. Some nearly 8 months old and some much more.

Anyways, there was a lot of plants is the point. And some were so small, you could blow on it too hard and miss it.

I received probably around 40 divisions so I had to manually sort through them picking through the sphagnum.

I went through everything two times just to make sure I wasn't leaving any precious flytraps behind.

I figured I'd keep the sphagnum just because it looked relatively new and ripe for reuse. I placed it in a dark corner in my house.

Fast forward to today Aug 7, and while I was looking at my supplies, I saw the sphagnum. But I saw something green. I opened the bag to reveal there was a scraggly light deprived dehydrated flytrap growing in the completely sealed bag. That's nearly 7 weeks it was in a bag!

I'm absolutely mind boggled by this. I feel like the internet makes flytraps out to be such sensitive plants. And yet this thing sat completely neglected without any water source and the very low level lightning of standard house light bulbs (possibly with indirect window light).

I had such a happy grin on my face to see this plant fight through that whole period of time and somehow manage to grow with basically nothing.

I promptly potted the plant and will acclimate it to the outdoors soon. You can see that despite this being a "Maroon Monster" it's completely green from the light deprivation.

jetfire245 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:02 amI feel like the internet makes flytraps out to be such sensitive plants.

Well, they are very sensitive plants in the regards of needs. Zero nutrient media, slightly acidic media, low mineral water, high light requirements, etc. Possibly one of the more sensitive of the carnivorous plants. However, as long as their basic needs are met, they're very easy plants to keep.
The misconception comes from the billions of people who did enough research to read that the other billions of first time VFT owners cried about their first VFT dying. "But I kept it on the windowsill/fertilized it every week/watered it from the tap daily/fed it hamburger/eggs/little Santa beards/jelly beans (yes, there's a YouTube video of some idiot feeding a VFT a jelly bean), I followed every instruction in the package, and it still died!"
If they researched further, they would have found the correct way to keep one, and would likely have tons more by now.
Seven weeks in a sealed bag though, that plant is a fighter. That shows they're tough. There's another thread somewhere about an order of VFT's from overseas that got held up for at least four weeks, possibly more. All this time in a sealed bag, in a sealed box; no light, no more water. Thank goodness the shipper sealed the bag very well. That thread has pics just after unboxing, after potting, then a couple months later showing them taking off.
I think Matt (maybe, not 100% sure) said somewhere in one of his marketing spiels that these are challenging plants to grow, but simple to keep if you do what they want, not what you want to do with them.

ChefDean wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 11:56 am Seven weeks in a sealed bag though, that plant is a fighter. That shows they're tough. There's another thread somewhere about an order of VFT's from overseas that got held up for at least four weeks, possibly more. All this time in a sealed bag, in a sealed box; no light, no more water. Thank goodness the shipper sealed the bag very well. That thread has pics just after unboxing, after potting, then a couple months later showing them taking off.

That was one of my purchases from two years ago. Here is the thread.

MikeB wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:22 am

ChefDean wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 11:56 am Seven weeks in a sealed bag though, that plant is a fighter. That shows they're tough. There's another thread somewhere about an order of VFT's from overseas that got held up for at least four weeks, possibly more. All this time in a sealed bag, in a sealed box; no light, no more water. Thank goodness the shipper sealed the bag very well. That thread has pics just after unboxing, after potting, then a couple months later showing them taking off.

That was one of my purchases from two years ago. Here is the thread.

WOW. It's amazing really.

Give flytraps something they don't like. Dead in a couple weeks.

Take everything away from them they need to grow, and they're over here turning into bean sprouts. But really, it's so impressive.

I sure as hell couldn't handle being in a dark box for a month with no food or water.

Maybe it was a piece of rhizome and you have a small little sprout from the cutting!

Carnies wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 2:17 am Maybe it was a piece of rhizome and you have a small little sprout from the cutting!

Judging by the size. It must've been a tiny established plant.

I think this may just have to be the one that goes into my personal collection.

jetfire245 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:02 am I feel like the internet makes flytraps out to be such sensitive plants.

ikr, all my vft received minimum care, only repot, the rest is just full sun outdoor and let rain pour onto it, 100% tough love, im kinda surprised they survived and actually multiply to fill the pot, so i guess they deserved a repot onto a bigger pot soon