FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I bought 'Growing Carnivorous Plants' by Barry A. Rice the other day and was reading through it, and was somewhat alarmed by what I read about windowsills:

"Growing carnivorous plants on the windowsill is a nice solution for the person who has bought a single carnivorous plant on a whim, and wants to give it a try. The plant will probably die, but at least this way the person will not waste too much effort."

I've been keeping a variety of CPs on my windowsill for around 2 years now, and they've thrived. The windowsill doesn't even ever get direct sunlight. And it's in Scotland.

Anyway, it got me thinking, and I dug out my old aquarium, feeling that it'd be really easy to convert it into a terrarium for 8 venus flytraps (the aquarium is 24" x 12" x 12"). However, I'm unsure as to a couple of points:

1) Do I just fill it with soil and place the VFTs in it? Eight of them won't fit in if I just place them in in their pots. I give them large pots.
2) 'Growing Carnivorous Plants' says that I need 4-6 flourescent lamps and a built-in computer fan. Uhuh. How about one flourescent 30 watt aquarium lamp and no computer fan? Even a 30 watt aquarium lamp is very bright, especially if I install reflective stuff around the walls of the tank.
3) What would I do about the water? I was imagining having something like a 2" layer of gravel at the bottom, on top of which the soil layer would rest, which would allow the water to pool without drowning the plants.



Is this even feasible?

Barry Rice wrote:The plant will probably die, but at least this way the person will not waste too much effort.

That's just Barry's great sense of sarcastic humor, laced throughout his Carnivorous Plant FAQ
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Thought I'd update you all on the situation. This is with an 18 watt bulb:

I hope you've thought of Dormany for them?
It looks very good, but I personally think that the windowsill is one of the best places ever!

I reccomend getting stronger lights and reflection too

I recommend the fan. I had a small terrarium with about 50W of light which ran great for a couple of months, plants grew well, but then a mold started in and no matter what I tried (I never did break down and buy a fan, mainly because my temperature/moisture regulation wasn't strong enough to keep up with aeration) the mold kept coming back. I eventually just broke down the terrarium rather than risk losing my plants to mold. I was doing it because I had plants that probably wouldn't survive outside where I live. It's clearly a little late now, but I would recommend not putting any expensive plants in there until it's been running a few months and you think you're past that danger.