FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone, I'm new here obviously if you didn't see my introduction post it is "nice to meet you" I've been reading the site off and on over the last 2 days and I'm now ready to ask some questions for clarity.

The situation -
I live in central FL and I attempted and outside setup about 8 years ago and I now want to make a small indoor setup to learn and work out all the kinks before moving to something larger and more permanent.

Supplies -
This stuff I already had from previous projects or was given to me:
A couple clean 10 gallon tanks, lexan, mesh tops, computer fans and adapters, 2 timers with 15 minute intervals, rocks, tubing and plastic for drainage also a small digital weather station that tracks trends of humidity and temp.
I bought sphagnum moss, peat moss, distilled water I couldn't find perlite without plant food. I have 2 VFTs and I plan on putting in 2 sundews.

My idea -
Soil:
Individual containers for each plant W4"xH5"xL8" sizes were determined by tank size
A layer of dime sized rocks at the bottom of the container with a layer of plastic for drainage
Soil mix 2 parts peat moss to 1 part sphagnum moss about 4" deep
?? Do you foresee any problems here?? or have any suggestions to make it better??

Lights:
I haven't bought these yet, but after reading on this site I am trying to find some 18" soft white t5's 6500k or soft white t8's at highest temp.
?? How many t8s will I need if I can't find the t5's in 18"?? Also what rating for t8's?? Is the distance the same from the plants with all lights??I have been to lowes, home depot, Wal-Mart, and I am going to Ace hardware next. As for the tank I was thinking about placing it upside down over the plants with the lights on top so as to keep the heat outside. The advantages I see would be that I can always raise or lower the tank and/or the containers to properly control the distance to the lights. Also, I can control the size gap (if any) around the bottom to let air in to control the humidity. Plus I have a PC fan and timer if needed.
?? Any thoughts or ideas about this setup would be great??

Water:
Distilled only

I'm trying to make some flexibility in this small setup so I can see what works best for me before forking over the money on a larger setup. Ideas? suggestions encouraged!

Why use a terrarium? Although it's possible to grow Venus Flytraps and sundews just fine in a terrarium, there are some characteristic problems associated with enclosed growing, such as overheating (in sunlight) and lack of air movement, which concentrates fungus and other pathogens, as well as typically no drainage to flush the accumulated salts and solubles from the medium (although people have used siphons to accomplish fresh water changes periodically).

You might want to collect some of Florida's ample rain water (it is ample in Florida, isn't it? At least compared to where I live in New Mexico, yet I use collected rain water for all my plants) instead of distilled water. Just a suggestion.

If it were me, and speaking only about Venus Flytraps, I wouldn't use rocks at the bottom of the containers because the Flytrap roots will come into contact with them (unless you prevent that somehow) and they may shed plenty of soluble minerals that could burn the Flytrap root tips and roots.

Soil-- 2 parts peat moss to 1 part sphagnum? What type of peat moss? Most people use sphagnum peat moss. By "sphagnum," do you mean dried long-fiber sphagnum moss (the moss before it has naturally decomposed into sphagnum peat moss)? I would add some pure silica sand or perlite or both to that mix myself. I personally prefer 1 part by volume of sphagnum peat moss to 1 part silica sand and/or perlite. I usually use 50% sphagnum peat moss, 30% silica sand and 20% perlite (or just 50% silica sand and 50% sphagnum peat moss).

Lights-- I have no idea and very little experience growing under artificial light; I prefer to grow my Venus Flytraps in as much direct sunlight as I can reasonably provide them.

Good luck and best wishes. I'm sure others will chime in with suggestions and helpful comments of their own. We all have different techniques.

Steve

A flytrap won't do very well long-term in a terrarium - sorry to open with a negative comment. It should be grown outdoors year round, especially where you live. It needs dormancy every year, without which it'll die. In a terrarium there's no easy way to acclimate it to dormancy. If the sundew are temperate, you can grow them outdoors year-round as well. If they're tropical, you most likely don't need a terrarium anyway. I'm not saying you shouldn't make a terrarium, I'm just saying you don't have to, in case you're making one because you think it's necessary. My sundews have 35% humidity year-round and still dew up like crazy because it's good light that makes them dew, not humidity.

What kind of sundews do you have? Where did you get your flytrap and sundew, and when?

Okay, on to the light/soil stuff -

Soil-
I'd definitely get some perlite; even order it online if you have to. This is the stuff I use: http://www.amazon.com/Hoffman-16502-8QT ... 000VBC6U0/
The mix you're suggesting isn't airy enough and will get waterlogged easily and promote root rot in the flytrap; the sundews might not mind so much, but I think they'd grow better with better drainage/aeration. People have used similar peat/sphagnum mixes in pots and were just more careful with watering and said the plants did okay (I wouldn't personally do it) - but if you're doing a terrarium, you definitely need better drainage than that mix will allow. 1:1 peat/perlite is a good CP mix for sundew and flytraps.

If you're going to use the terrarium, watch what kind of rocks you add. I don't know enough to say for certain, but I think pumice *might* be safe. Most other types of rocks could deposit minerals into the soil, which could eventually kill the plants.

Lights-
In either case, try to get 6500K, or if you can, mix in a 2700K. Not necessary, but 6500K is more blue spectrum with some decent red spectrum, mainly for leaf growth. 2700K is almost all red spectrum which promotes flowering. I have all 6500K and mine flower fine, but I'm sure more would be flowering if I had more red spectrum. Choice is yours.

T8 vs. T5 - T8's will do fine, T5's get a lot hotter than T8's. 2-3 should be fine in either case; for a terrarium that size, 2 should be plenty as long as you get a good one. If you can't fine anything locally, you can order something like this online:
T8: http://www.1000bulbs.com/F15T8/38070/
T5: I don't know that T5's actually come in 18 inch sizes, do they?

Keep the plants about 6-8" from the lights if you can; I've seen people do 10" and their plants seemed to do just fine - the further away though, the more light you lose, exponentially.

Distilled water would be fine.

If your flytraps are new and especially if they came out of tissue culture recently (e.g. if you bought them recently from a place like Lowe's and they were in plastic clear cubes), you can over-winter them under your lights, in the terrarium or out of it, then acclimate them and put them outside in pots in Spring.

Thank you for the informative replies. As I am trying to make sure I have a good understanding your suggestions are helping, Thank you.

I suppose I should have given more info about the climate where I live. In the summer it’s typically 90+ degrees and 75+ humidity. In the winter, if you can call it that, the norms are closer to 65% humidity and temps in the low 70s. Even when it gets cold here it never last more than a few days and the humidity rarely goes below 50% with the temps rarely below 60 degrees during the day, and 50 at night. Also, I live right on the beach with lots of salt air. The salt air and thus salty water run off has killed my hearty hedges after large storms, which is another reason I don't want them outside. Plus it doesn't get cold enough, long enough for a dormancy cycle of 3 months. I would assume the summer would fry them, mild winters and salt air would just cause serious problems. Anyways, for these reasons and the challenge involved I would like to grow inside.

SOIL
Perlite, can you use vermiculite in place of this or is it not recommended? Silica sand is an option I hadn’t considered thank you for the tip. All the perlite at every store here is miracle grow with the plant food added. If there isn't a substitute I will order some online, and thank you for the link BTW.
Yes I am have the fiberess sphagnum moss, and peat moss, I wanted to mix this with perlite I'm just having a hard time finding it locally.
The drainage I can handle. I'm thinking trays at a very slight angle, with small holes at the bottom on the end. Plus, rocks ( rinsed clean) on the bottom with a plastic layer over the rocks to keep the soil separate.

Plants.
ATM I only have 2 VFTs and I want to add 2 sundews that have compatible temp/humid requirements as VFTs. Suggestions?

Lights.
As I mentioned above heat shouldn't be an issue because the lights will be outside of the glass. I can adjust the plant height from the lights as needed. I'm considering CFLs because I haven't seen 18" T5s and for the money INCLUDING the fixture, the CFLs are cheaper because I already have reflective shrouds. I found some at Ace that are $7 for 1150 lumens and 6500k.

Air temp and Humidity.
What are the ideal parameters for VFTs during regular growing season? I have a small refrigerator with nothing in it that I have tested. I can get it up to 45 degrees stable and thought that would be a good place for dormancy for 3 months a year. I thought I read under 50 degrees is desired, plus I can run 1 of my light inside the fridge at a shorter interval so they aren't in complete darkness.

Keep the tips and suggestions coming please. I am weighing them all out and considering it all closely before I set it up or by anything else.