FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey guys, here's a topic id like your opinions on. I had a search and was not able to pull up any info, other than mulching blogs for winter protection.

Here in southern Spain, our summers can be brutally hot. its hot now but next month and august will be killers. I'm thinking, has anyone tried mulching their vft potted plants? to help reduce heat penetration from the surface and reduce water loss, if so what mulch did you try? I'm also thinking to maybe to just put a shade cloth overhead that would shade then during hottest parts of the day might be a simpler solution.

How hot are we talking about? I have my VFT Pink outside all year round, and I'm in texas. Summers are blistering hot here as well, but the plant did just fine, while my capensis and Utricularia burned to hell.

Granted, I have them all in a big so the roots were kept relatively cool during summer

Also, what color are your pots? Dark colors heat up quite fast. The container for my bog is beige/white and I have it standing on styrofoam so it stays cool

@chomato, our summer months can reach high 40s. I try and have them in hard white plastic pots, but the divisions I made this year I put in square black plastic and I think i cooked the roots. I just wrapped tinfoil around them yesterday to give them some insulation and I think i can see they are looking happier. But it's going to get much hotter next month.

chomato wrote:The container for my bog is beige/white and I have it standing on styrofoam so it stays cool

nice idea! I was thinking to buy a styrofoam cooler and plant some in there. They are a little unsightly though but would make a great deep grow bin.

Dr GreenThumb wrote:@chomato, our summer months can reach high 40s. I try and have them in hard white plastic pots, but the divisions I made this year I put in square black plastic and I think i cooked the roots. I just wrapped tinfoil around them yesterday to give them some insulation and I think i can see they are looking happier. But it's going to get much hotter next month.

I've only been living in Texas for over a year now, but my VFT seemed unbothered when the temperatures reached the mid 40s last year. It even showed better growth during that time. I think providing insulation for the roots of your divisions could be pretty useful since they might already be a bit stressed from the move

Dr GreenThumb wrote:

chomato wrote:The container for my bog is beige/white and I have it standing on styrofoam so it stays cool

nice idea! I was thinking to buy a styrofoam cooler and plant some in there. They are a little unsightly though but would make a great deep grow bin.

I actually have my bog sitting on top of a metal plate, so the styrofoam wasn't much of a choice for me, haha. Would making a bog be a doable option for you?

chomato wrote: Would making a bog be a doable option for you?

No not really, it would require too much media. Its always been the trouble here getting media. Its one of the reasons why I switched to coco quire as I can find it in most shops and its cheap.

chomato wrote: my VFT seemed unbothered when the temperatures reached the mid 40s last year.

yes, that's true, I've been keeping my vfts outside the last 5-6 years here and they do well. The key is deep pots and white ones. I wish i could find some large styrofoam cups here, that would be ideal.

Maybe you could chop some dried pine needles into smaller pieces and use that as a mulch. Wild flytraps get some pine needles dropped on them just because of the sheer number of pine trees in the vicinity. That would keep the sun from beating down on the soil and provide a bit of insulation from the heat.

@MikeB, We have pine trees all over here. I may just try this in a pot or two as an experiment.