FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

My grandfather brought an idea to my attention from his porch. He has a misting system, to water a few plants, and cool people down in who are at the deck, when it is very hot in Utah's summer. What about using a misting system, with purified or distilled water, to cool the carnivorous plants, and probably attract more insects, does a CP like being watered slowly over long period of time? Or it could not neccesarily water them directly, but cool the air around them and their pots. What do you guys think?

I would guess that you would have to be concerned about rotting if the plants are constantly wet, so I would advise a soil mix with good drainage and aeration (plenty of perlite/sand). Would it be on a timer, like once every hour or two?

Humidity doesn't seem to matter very much for VFTs as long as the soil is kept moist, so I wouldn't worry about it for that reason unless it's extremely dry where you are. Heat also doesn't seem to be a problem for them (within reason) as long as they're kept moist and the pots are foam or light colors that don't overheat in the sun. It gets pretty hot in Eastern NC.

Of course if the object is automatic watering, that might be a great way to do it. Just make sure they don't dry out between misting cycles, and your pots drain well so they don't stay too wet.

Also, you'll lose a lot more to evaporation with a misting system than if you were putting the water directly into the soil, so if you're buying distilled water, it might get a little pricey.

heathenpriest wrote:Humidity doesn't seem to matter very much for VFTs as long as the soil is kept moist, so I wouldn't worry about it for that reason unless it's extremely dry where you are. Heat also doesn't seem to be a problem for them (within reason) as long as they're kept moist and the pots are foam or light colors that don't overheat in the sun. It gets pretty hot in Eastern NC.

So 110 is ok for flytraps? I mean I know it also depends on the humidity and amount of direct light that they get, but I've wondered about the upper limits as well.

By the way David I think people also use shade cloth to keep plants cooler

Thanks for the input you guys, so heres the concern, in Utah, the heat that comes in the summer, is an incredibly Dry Heat, up to 110 for many hours of the day it kills most plants. If I choose to shade the plants, would it be the equivalent of taking direct sunlight hours out of the plants day? I would water whenever I wanted it too, in intervals, right darn now, or constantly, I want to put a misting system in there so the air around the venus fly traps is significantly cooler, it wouldn't be enough to bring the state of their medias to "wet" I would experiment and find out what cools them enough to the point where they soil isn't always hot and dry. My question is they don't mind being misted all the time, because they are a semi-foliar sensitive plant.

David,
I live in an area almost the exact same conditions as you do.\ Unfortunately, even though you put them in the shade. One it wont work due to VFTs needing full direct sun. Two with it being sooo dry in semi to arid deserts like ours, its going to be pretty hard to grow anything like VFT's, I tried several different methods where I live, and they failed and I almost lost both plants, simply because of the windy dry air :/ Im sorry for the tip of bad news, but I have more success growing them inside then outside. Might I suggest growing them in a sunny south or east window?

This is an unfortunate responce, how do you feel the misting system would work? If not would a south facing window be better, or could the afternoon be to hot as well?

Thanks for the input, even though it is slightly heartbreaking, the winds don't come up to often in the summer so that might be slighly different.

I hope that maybe ideas shared on this post, will allow you to grow outside, best wishes.

David Flocken

Even if you grow VFT's inside, they don't require humidity and they adapt very well. We have almost 0% relative humidity here, just water it every few days and ull be golden

The Key is making them Adapt or Acclimate to your climate.

I'm not sure this was made clear before, but the reason the humidity is made, isn't for the sake of humidity itself, merely to cool the air around the plants, since it stays at VERY high temperatures for long periods of time. I am aware humidity may be acclimated, but temperatures this high need to be delt with accordingly, plus it would be epic, and probably attract insects, I might get a shade cloth 20% that sounds reasonable.

Yes it does keep them cool a bit. But VFT's can adapt to a humidity level of 20-30% and temps up to 100+F. As long as they get plenty of water and it cools down at night the will be fine.

Im not saying the misting idea is bad. Im trying to save David money and time by keeping it simple and easy. He will more likely have more success growing them by a sunny window!! Also, David keep in mind you don't want your VFTs to be in constant wet conditions doing this will cause root rot. Also, Have you tested the water for the PPM content to make sure it was going to be low enough, if you plan on running it consistently?

Alright guys, depending on how many I get, I will try to grow them by the window, and I will try to grow at least one outside in standing water with the hot weather, and if I really get into CPs I will get a misting system, and let you know, and it is very likely, there not as expensive as you might think.

I think that the misting idea is a good one. If I still lived in a desert climate with temperatures of 100°F or more regularly in the summer and with hot, dry air, I too would probably use a shade cloth and a misting system.

While flytraps can stand temperatures over 100°F and very low humidity levels, if you put those two things together (very hot and low humidity), they'll likely not grow as well as they would with cooler temperatures and higher humidity levels. The misting system and shade cloth will provide that for them.

Yes indeed!!!