FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi guys, I bought two pots of VFT two days ago. I live in a condo so I plan to grow them indoors.

So what I plan to do is give them direct sunlight around 7am to 12pm everyday outside and then would transfer them inside for the rest of the day for indirect sunlight - the location of the window gets enough sunlight. I have to transfer them indoors as I have to leave for work in the afternoon. Is this enough for my VFT or not?

Also I perform the tray method of watering during the direct sunlight sched.

Any suggestions, please?

Hi, welcome to the forum!


5 hours of daily Sunlight might be enough. Where are you located? How sunny is your area? Looks like you've done your homework. It sounds like a good plan. Keep an eye on the plants, themselves. With adequate light, they'll develop nice color and tight structure. With less light, they'll grow but not develop color. With marginal light, you'll see etiolation, long and stringy growth habit and traps not developing fully.

If you see anything like these symptoms, consider getting an auxilliary plant light for its inside times.

I should categorically state I'm not a Flytrap expert. I have a few Flytrap varieties but my knowledge is mostly Drosera related. But basic Temperate CP care is pretty similar from one genus to another, within limits.

If I'm wrong, someone will jump in reasonably shortly and correct my mistake.

Good growing,
Mike

I'm by no means an expert, and this is just my thoughts on your situation. I personally don't think moving it in and out of the house everyday will allow your plant to adjust properly. It may grow, but I doubt it will ever thrive. I think you should just pick where you want it to grow, and leave it there so it can completely settle in and adjust to its conditions.

Best of luck!

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I think Shadowtski hit the nail on the head. Your plants will probably want more light than that, but it might be enough for themto do just ok. Moving it back and forth might have some kind of effect like boarderlib suggested. I would say try it out and see how it does. If it starts getting smaller traps or fewer traps then consider a grow light (6500K cfl or fluorescent tube, or an LED grow light).

Thanks for the help guys, if I choose to settle my vft indoors instead of moving it in and out, do you think this is a good set-up? It's partly cloudy today, but on normal days, it gets bright and shiny in that area.

Also, I have another two different seedlings/young vfts, how much sunlight do you suggest they get? Is it okay if I place them in the same area? However it gets too bright in there, will they burn?

The photos that I attached are zoomed as they are still too small

VFTs generally like as much sun as you can give them, so your seedlings shouldn't get burned in the window. The intensity of the sun is reduced by the glass.
If you have the option of taking them outside and you are not going to give them dormancy, keep them in till spring temperatures rise and then put them outside, they will get better colours and be more robust if you do.

Cheers
Steve

The more light your VFT gets, the healthier it will be

Which direction does that window face and how many hours of direct sun will they receive there? Nice view!

I'm so jealous the little one looks like an alien!


Happy Growing,

Dillon

xr280xr wrote:Which direction does that window face and how many hours of direct sun will they receive there? Nice view!

I'm not sure as I don't have a sense of direction (haha). But normally the sun hits the window at 10am onwards. I'm on the 23rd floor so I get much sunlight

MichaelGuardian wrote:The more light your VFT gets, the healthier it will be

Is it okay to put them under the sun the whole day? It gets too sunny from my place cause I'm at the 23rd floor of our bldg. I'm afraid they might burn since they're still so little.

I'll attach some photos I took just now.

The answer to how much sunlight VFTs need is "all of it". As long as they've been acclimated from lower light conditions and are being kept wet enough, you cannot give them too much light.

Thanks for the help guys. I am giving them as much sun light as my weather permits and they're growing more traps than before!

However, I have another problem, two of my pots with the young VFTs have moss that are turning green/dark in color. I don't know what kind of moss is this as I bought them with it - but the color of the moss did change for the past few days after I bought the plants.

How do I prevent this from happenin and why is this happening?

My windows arr always open to allow adequate air circularion, they get as much sunlight and I'm doing the water tray method.

Any ideas?

It's normal to see some algae grow on your sphagnum moss. Your moss is very wet which will accelerate that. Seedlings seem to handle wet sphagnum better than adults, but I would start to reduce how wet you are keeping it now that they are growing because it looks dangerously wet (especially the 1st one) to me. With sphagnum moss, you don't need to keep water in the tray all the time unless its so hot that the moss is drying out.