FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I don't want to clog up the forum by asking so many questions, so i try to condense them down into one post.

I was thinking of acquiring a king henry vft (I think that's what they are called) soon. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial or harmful to buy a bigger pot, and combine the king henry vft and the vft i already have (I don't know its exact name), into one bigger pot? For me, it would be easier to keep my lamp on one bigger pot, instead of having to buy another lamp, and having to transport 3 pots from my college dorm, to my house (which isn't more than 30 minutes away).

I already know i would have to purchase more sphagnum moss, along with a larger pot (i'm estimating 5-7 inches), but i wanted to know if this was a good idea or a bad one.

Another thing: So, i read that honey is good for attracting insects and i wanted to use honey to help catch insects to feed my carniverous plants. What i did was i took a plastic water bottle, cut the top off, so i have a funnel, put honey in the bottle, so that the bottom of the bottle is just barely covered in it, and put the funnel in the bottle, with the point facing down. I read if bugs fly in through the funnel, they wont be able to get out. The only thing I'm curious about is if the honey on the insects could damage my venus flytrap or my pitcher plant?

Sorry guys, last thing: So i have a lamp for each of my two plants, and both of the fluorescent bulbs in them are the recommended wattage (13 watts for a fluorescent light is recommended, I think). Unfortunately, my unobservant self picked up a pack of soft white lights, instead of the daylight bulbs that I have used before, so now one plant is getting its light from a daylight lightbulb, and the other is getting its light from a soft white bulb. Which one is better for the plants? I tried to rotate the plants around, so they each get around the same ammount of each light.

As usual, thanks again for any support. You have made my growing experience alot easier, and more fun for me

Its fine to have multiple plants in a single pot, especially if its larger (more importantly deeper) than the pot you have now.

Your bug traps sounds much like a trap i used to use to catch swimming things, they go in and cant get out. I dont think honey will harm your VFT, well unless you covered it in it and then roasted it with a touch of chilli and served it with some salad leaves!!

The soft white bulb will not be providing the right spectrum of light, so if you could get all the plants together under the correct lighting it will also be beneficial

Hey trooperkris. I have some photos that may help you with your questions.

1.) Yes, you can have more than one plant in a pot given it is large enough.


2.) Sorry the picture is rather dark, but I recommend getting this pot or the slightly large one for your plants. They are self watering pots sold at Lowe's and they are the proper depth. Theres a King Henry growing in this pot.


3.) You definitely will want to replace the soft white bulb. You will want to get another daylight bulb or something within that spectrum, like cookie0117 mentioned.

thanks for all the help.
I wasnt sure about combining the two flytraps, because the king henry, as i read, can get quite large, and i didn't want it to block out my other flytrap from getting light, and kill it.

trooperkris wrote:I was thinking of acquiring a king henry vft (I think that's what they are called) soon. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial or harmful to buy a bigger pot, and combine the king henry vft and the vft I already have (I don't know its exact name), into one bigger pot?

I'm fairly certain that a bigger pots are better for flytraps. Plus their roots basically grow straight down, rather than branching out like other plants' roots do, so having them share a single pot should be fine. I've seen pics on here of pots crammed full of flytraps. I don't have any named cultivars, but I recently just repotted my five typicals all into one community pot.

trooperkris wrote:I already know I would have to purchase more sphagnum moss, along with a larger pot (i'm estimating 5-7 inches), but I wanted to know if this was a good idea or a bad one.

I've read on here that pots with at least six inches of depth are best. Because their roots grow straight down, and benefit from having at least that much room to grow. Mine are in a pot that's about seven inches deep. I may go up another pot size next year, if they get bigger and need a little more room.

trooperkris wrote:Another thing: So, I read that honey is good for attracting insects and I wanted to use honey to help catch insects to feed my carnivorous plants. What I did was I took a plastic water bottle, cut the top off, so I have a funnel, put honey in the bottle, so that the bottom of the bottle is just barely covered in it, and put the funnel in the bottle, with the point facing down. I read if bugs fly in through the funnel, they wont be able to get out. The only thing I'm curious about is if the honey on the insects could damage my Venus flytrap or my pitcher plant?

The makeshift water bottle trap sounds like a good idea. I'm going to have to give that a try this year. But what I did last year to lure flies, was to use a little bit of leftover hamburger meat, rather than honey. It seemed to work very good at attracting them. Then, I would just throw the scraps away before they would go bad, after I caught enough flies.

trooperkris wrote:Sorry guys, last thing: So I have a lamp for each of my two plants, and both of the fluorescent bulbs in them are the recommended wattage (13 watts for a fluorescent light is recommended, I think). Unfortunately, my unobservant self picked up a pack of soft white lights, instead of the daylight bulbs that I have used before, so now one plant is getting its light from a daylight light bulb, and the other is getting its light from a soft white bulb. Which one is better for the plants? I tried to rotate the plants around, so they each get around the same amount of each light.

I'm still new to this as well, so I can't be of much help here. But I have bought a 26-watt (100-watt equivalent) 6,500K Daylight fluorescent light bulb for my plants and they absolutely love it. As for the soft white bulbs, your guess is as good as mine. I would like to hear what others have to say about them as well.

Hey trooperkris, I also want to catch some insects and I found some videos on YouTube when searching 'how to make a fly trap'. It is the same method you use, but some videos use meat or banana peel instead of honey. Personally, I think honey is better as it is sticky like sundews

A mix of yeast, sugar and water is also really good for attracting insects.