FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

What are the best conditions for dormancy? By "best" I mean for the most amount of growth long term. Most of what I have read describes a range of temps and amounts of time, but if the dormancy is controlled, what would be the ideal scenario? They can survive most of the time outside where I live, but it gets cold enough to kill them for sure. I have a small greenhouse where they will receive light on the south side of my house, but I would like to control the lows. I also read on this site that the requirement for low temps is not as important as the change in the light period. Nature will take care of the light for me, but if I can give them the best temperatures possible, what would that be? Again, I don't just want them to survive, but grow the most!

People might argue, but In my opinion, the ideal dormancy temp for VFTs is between 35 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

I'm very new here, but come from the Cannabis sector of growing indoor plants

I'm very new here, but come from the Cannabis sector of growing indoor plants for over half my life.. Almost 20 years now. And it seems to me that cool temperatures are definitely needed but the photoperiod Is going to be the main thing that is going to induce dormancy. Haven't seen too many articles/notions about the Venus flytrap being a photoperiod plant besides from the flytrap store people... but it makes complete sense being a temperate plant.

Since I just received my plants, I'm going to give them around 15 hours of artificial lighting until the end of October and then I am going to put the plants I want to go dormant in my extended east facing window under some artificial lights and will only have the lights go on during the times that the sun is out, most likely a little less.

I think as long as you let the plants get a little cool and follow the sun patterns in your area, you should be fine. How'd I do fellas?

Optimal temps in my mind are 35*F-45*F. In that range cold hardy plants won't freeze and have damage, but also it won't be warm enough to risk them growing. You could honestly probably also get away with keeping them around a constant 50*F if you can, as I had a friend who had a greenhouse do that and it seemed to work for him. My range is a bit colder because I don't own a greenhouse so things can get pretty chilly on extremely cold days in my makeshift set ups but I never let them freeze.

Huntsmanhorn and Sundewolf, you both agree on similar temps. Why are these ideal?

SundewWolf covers most of it when he writes "In that range cold hardy plants won't freeze and have damage, but also it won't be warm enough to risk them growing." No chance of them waking up and no chance of them taking cold damage and they will be about as dormant as possible, that all sounds pretty good to me.

Yeah pretty much as it has been summed up already: lower than that I get cold damage on my plants, and warmer than that I risk waking them up.

Gotcha, thank you for the responses. I'm assuming that this will keep as much tissue as healthy as possible without waking them up. I just wanted to clarify that it is not ideal if all the leaves die off but just the rhizome survives. The best scenario is to get as much green leaf through in good condition. From reading on this site, the plants do continue to grow through dormancy although slowly.

Natedawg wrote:Gotcha, thank you for the responses. I'm assuming that this will keep as much tissue as healthy as possible without waking them up. I just wanted to clarify that it is not ideal if all the leaves die off but just the rhizome survives. The best scenario is to get as much green leaf through in good condition. From reading on this site, the plants do continue to grow through dormancy although slowly.

I think it is helpful for the plant to still have some green in the spring, esp. if it had a poor summer, but it doesn't seem to really matter much overall if the plant had a healthy and productive growing season. As to the plants growing slowly through dormancy, mine do not grow at all, but then mine are often below the theoretical "best temperatures possible".

Mine don't really grow through the winter time, but they retain green foliage for sure. I have never had die back to the rhizome level during my dormancies, and in that temp range there shouldn't be any reason for it to happen.