FlyTrapCare Forums

And quess what? -----------They SURVIVED THE ENTIRE WINTER IN THE HOUSE; in the window with full sun, and now that we are into summer here in New Jersey, they are doing great outside! I know I read that your "supposed" to let them go into a sleep mode during the winter and I tried that--------putting one pot in the refrigerater for the winter-------and know what/? it did not come back growing in the spring even though I had it in full sun in rainwater. So, that "thery" that they are supposed to allowed to "sleep" was not the case here....As I said, all my pots are doing fine, I even have one that has a double trap growing!! I saw this posted once, now that I have one growing is awesome! They say it's rare when this happens...And where I live, their are plenty of flies here in Southern NJ. I wish I had a thousand Venus Fly Traps; because of all the biting flies that come out here in the summer....I was able to get a lot of rain water due to it being a wet season so far, ...And I have 2 coolers full of rain water. My pots are in about 2 to 3 inches of rain water ...I'm just happy they suvived in the house the whole winter without any problems....Has anyone else tryed keeping them over the winter indoors?
--Mike.

Hello Mike and welcome to flytrapcare!

Congrats on your VFT surviving the winter. I've actually read posts similar to yours in other forums. The general consensus is that VFTs can survive for a year or two without a dormancy, but after that they'll begin to decline.

Now, it's possible that your VFTs received enough of a decline in photoperiod that they were triggered into dormancy. You did say that you had them in a windowsill, so they were receiving natural sunlight and a shorter photoperiod in the winter. Perhaps that was enough for them to enter dormancy. Did they actively grow all winter?

I too keep my plants indoors over the winter, but I do let the temperature drop into the 50s°F and 60s°F and they get good sunlight all winter, so they experience a decreased photoperiod.

I've heard of people keeping them in terrariums for up to 2 years on a 16 hour photoperiod and they did fine for that long, so I don't know how long for sure you could keep a VFT growing without dormancy.

Hi Matt!
Yes, they did activley grow all winter indoors, so it was really neat to watch them grow the way they did! Also, on warm days in the winter, if there were any flies outside, I would catch them to feed to the traps, so this helped as well.....
The reason there were flies outside is because when the sun would shine on the side of the house I would notice that they were their getting warm, so that's when I caught them.....
Yes, I'll have to see if they can survive future winters inside the house .....What surprised me the most was how well they did and grew! Even flower stalks grew! But traps declined because I was not sure at that time to cut away the stalks, later when I did find out, more traps grew.., and are growing now even better., I even have a 2 headed trap starting to grow, which I will try and post on here as soon as I can.
Mike.

Ehhh. . . just beware on keeping it in the house for more winters. I mean, if it lives through this winter as well, then man, congrats. haha Just dormancy for older plants is necessary from everything i read. If this makes sense, its like a reason trees lose their leaves, daffadils lose the entire plant and retain a bulb for the winter. Those are just some examples to help explain

I kept mine indoors too. They did fine. I kept them on the cool side as there was a bit of a draft near the window. I think the photo period allowed them to slow the growth. I'm sure yours are growing a lot faster now then they did during the winter.