FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Ok, first of all I know what most everyone says: Grow them outdoors.

Well, I started out giving them some sunlight every day, then bringing them in and setting them under an Aerogarden. I've read that this can confuse the plants (as to the time of year), and I can understand that...it doesnt' seem like a good idea, especially with our highly erratic weather. Keeping them outside isn't an option where I live, for reasons including wildlife, pests, and recent storms that have managed to rip a pine tree out of the ground in our front yard.

Well, for my situation, I've decided going 100% indoors is the only reasonable option. Now I know people have had success doing this, and I've been reading up and think I know what I need...but I'd like to hear some input from the pros before I buy/build anything.

I have a nice computer desk with a flat top that would give me plenty of room to grow all manner of CP's. My idea is to build a rack of sorts from which I can hang two or three 4' T5 light fixtures right over it (and lower it to be just a few inches over the plants). I'll set them on an aquarium timer, to give the plants a steady light cycle (I have read that about 16 hours is good for artificial lighting, not sure if that's accurate). When it comes time for dormancy, I can adjust the timer to give a shorter light cycle, and maybe add a small fan to decrease the overall temperature up there.

I'm not an expert, but this sounds like a much better setup than my current Aerogarden solution (which I always intended to be temporary). I'm not looking to get ultra-rapid growth, but I think my plants would do a lot better with some degree of consistancy. I know they probably won't grow to the side of Audrey II and turn blood red overnight or anything fancy like that, but if it will keep them alive and healthy, it's good enough for me. Besides, I'd like to have my plants where I can appreciate them.

-Jonathan

JonathanT wrote:Well, for my situation, I've decided going 100% indoors is the only reasonable option.

Could you elaborate as to why you decided this?

JonathanT wrote:Now I know people have had success doing this

Temporary success is rather easy to achieve, but long term success is quite difficult.

JonathanT wrote:I have a nice computer desk with a flat top that would give me plenty of room to grow all manner of CP's. My idea is to build a rack of sorts from which I can hang two or three 4' T5 light fixtures right over it (and lower it to be just a few inches over the plants). I'll set them on an aquarium timer, to give the plants a steady light cycle (I have read that about 16 hours is good for artificial lighting, not sure if that's accurate). When it comes time for dormancy, I can adjust the timer to give a shorter light cycle, and maybe add a small fan to decrease the overall temperature up there.

That could certainly work. It won't be easy and it's a much bigger hassle than just growing them with natural lighting, but if done correctly, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Matt wrote:Could you elaborate as to why you decided this?

I kinda thought I did, but it's a mix of practicality and preference. When I was taking them outside everyday, I ended up with lots of bad stuff happening (rampant grass growth, pests, scorched traps on the VFT's, fungus that killed one of my plants and badly damaged another). Since I've had them under the Aerogarden lights, they've really perked up...growth is a bit slower, but nothing is setting them back. I would guess that where I live, the artificial conditions are better than those outside. Sure the lighting isn't as good, but I think there are other factors 'out there' that were really messing with them. Factors I really wasn't able to deal with effectively.

-Jonathan

JonathanT wrote:I would guess that where I live, the artificial conditions are better than those outside.

That's rare. Where do you live?

North-east Oklahoma.

JonathanT wrote:North-east Oklahoma.

Oh, that should be really good growing there during the summer months with all of the warmth, humidity and bugs. There are a lot of severe thunderstorms with hail and such, but if one of those is coming, just move your plant to a protected area until it passes. Your plant should do exceptionally well outside there in the summer time.

Strictly speaking, I don't grow any drosera outside. With peoples "success" growing Dionaea outside, I have compared what my plants look like outside and have been able to grow them (barely) because Dionaea happen to be so hardy. Drosera however, I don't think they could take it very well, I so I grow them under Flor.

I assume however your talking about Dionaea, and I must say it is very hard to supplement enough light for them to grow and get nice colors and such. More importantly though, is Dionaea require dormancy, and as far as I'm concerened a large flor. setup doesn't really allow you to make a situation the flytraps will go into dormancy, and even if they do, it seems a waste all that lighting when they are not really growing.

I only keep a few Dionaea under my flor. lights, and only ones that are sick, tiny, babies, or there might be ones I plan to acclimate out of it. I think that outdoors is the way to go. Its much easier to make a setup outdoors that can be stable not blow away, and be covered from the occasional evil weather, so popular in utah. Than it would be to do a full scale flor. fixture which would take up a large part of your home.

I'm lucky, and my dogs room, which no one uses stays at 60 degrees always, so the temperatures I can recreate are quite easy from the 60s (most plants with color temperature requirements are in the 60-70 range) But I can also heat up enough to aproach near 80s. So a flor. fixture for plants is a great option for me, but even then I grow most of my dionaea outside.

Ok, I'm willing to move my plants outside, but I need to know how to deal with a few issues. First is my substrate, I heard birds love to drag off the sphagnum moss I use. I'm also concerned about watering...I use tray type watering with net pots, and I'm not sure how well that will work outside.

I'm growing both flytraps and pitcher plants...would like to add sundews to the lineup eventually.

-Jonathan

JonathanT wrote:First is my substrate, I heard birds love to drag off the sphagnum moss I use.

That's a pretty easy fix...get some peat

JonathanT wrote:I'm also concerned about watering...I use tray type watering with net pots, and I'm not sure how well that will work outside.

Why not? For outside growing, tray watering works very well. That's how I grew my plants for a couple of years. Just use a nice deep pot and you can put the plants in a tray. You can fill the tray whenever the soil appears to be going dry, let the peat soak up as much water as it can and then dump out the tray. Repeat when the soil looks dry again. If it's really hot and dry, you may need to leave the pots sitting in water to keep the plants hydrated. Sarracenia seem to prefer sitting in water (or at least being much wetter than flytraps).

And these are all just suggestions based on what I've learned from growing these plants in various conditions. You may have your own way of doing things that will work well too. But I've learned that carnivorous plants are much, much healthier when grown in natural sunlight. I still grow thousands of them under lights, but I try not to leave them under lights for more than a few months; just long enough to get them started (out of tissue culture) and ready for real sunlight.

I wish I could grow plants outside. Although, I am growing my plants very successfully and achieved vft dormancy, it would be awesome to grow them outside if I didnt live in an apartment that only got 3 hours of direct sunlight and the winds weren't so drying (as we had not had rain since november)