FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, My name is Wendy, and I recently ordered a single Vigorous VFT as a pet plant from flytrapstore.com http://www.flytrapcare.com/store/venus- ... p-vigorous because I was looking for a hardy strain for a beginner since I have no previous experience taking care of VFT. Hopefully, this is indeed a good beginner VFT?

Supplies and care:
I did spend several hours researching about VFT care prior to ordering the plant and bought some supplies: Premier sphagnum peat moss , a light almost-white colored (to help reflect the hot rays of sun) plastic pot http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-13. ... r/17011306 with diameter 11.5in x 9in Height/depth (is this good diameter/depth?)... and 6 x http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-D ... l/10315382 (total 6 gallons for starters, 2 jugs/gallons of this will be used to clean the peat moss and the remaining 4 gallons for watering over time as needed) as I saw that people had said the Walmart Great Value distilled water was acceptable with tds ranging from 0-38 ppm (can anyone confirm this for me please? has anyone used this successfully? I know the best way to know for sure is to get a tds meter but I have reached my budget limit for now so I will need the word of others about using distilled water from walmart for the time being). I am planning to use only peat moss because I can't currently afford to buy a huge bag of perlite to mix in. Nonetheless, do these supplies seem appropriate/adequate?

Cleaning the peat moss:
I plan to use tap water to do a primary rinse of the peat moss then squeeze the tap water out and transfer the pre-rinsed peat moss to another bucket, and then soak it with 2 gallons of the distilled water until my plant arrives (about 3-5 days I'm guessing), which should be enough to have it ready for my bareroot Vigorous VFT (can anyone confirm if this might be sufficient?). Any tips on where I can store the bucket of peat moss such that it won't grow anything funky while its soaking in the distilled water? should I cover the top and place it in a dark, undisturbed area? (I tried to find info on this but didn't really find specific information). I also know I will need to soak the bareroot VFT in distilled water for about 30 mins prior to potting it.

If anyone can give me some more pointers, and/or confirm that I have adequate supplies for my soon to be new pet, it would be much appreciated!

I am looking forward to my Vigorous VFT and really hope I can take good care of it! What do you think?

Sounds like you are on the right track, the peat, pot, and water you are using will all be good!

DD7990 wrote:I plan to use tap water to do a primary rinse of the peat moss then squeeze the tap water out and transfer the pre-rinsed peat moss to another bucket, and then soak it with 2 gallons of the distilled water until my plant arrives (about 3-5 days I'm guessing), which should be enough to have it ready for my bareroot Vigorous VFT (can anyone confirm if this might be sufficient?). Any tips on where I can store the bucket of peat moss such that it won't grow anything funky while its soaking in the distilled water? should I cover the top and place it in a dark, undisturbed area? (I tried to find info on this but didn't really find specific information). I also know I will need to soak the bareroot VFT in distilled water for about 30 mins prior to potting it.

Honestly, that peat moss is very good, and you can be fine just soaking once in distilled water. Doing tap water first might just add more dissolved solids to the soil.

As for soaking, I don't think anything will grow. To avoid that, you can stir up the water/soil soaking and it will keep stuff from developing on the surface.

I don't think you really need to soak the bareroot VFT in distilled water before potting, but it won't hurt. I just don't think it will help.

Can't wait to see pictures when it comes! Best of luck!

You sound like an old pro on everything except using pure peat. In a pot that large, it will stay very wet for a long time and when it comes time for dormancy, it will be nearly impossible to get it dry out at all (which can cause fungus & rot). There are smaller bags of Perlite available and pool filter sand is actually really cheap. I wouldn't attempt to grow it without one of these two in your soil mix. Perlite can be a little expensive in smaller quantities, but better than having a dead fly trap, a pot, and a huge bale of peat moss gone to waste. At this point I think you are pot committed

Everything else has you set up for great success! That is good moss. You don't need to soak it long enough for anything to grow in it. 30-60 minutes with a couple stirs will balance it out. You'll also want to kneed it a little bit with your hands when you first add the water to make sure it absorbs the water. Then, as I learned from member Veronis, you can scoop out and keep the peat moss that floats (which will be almost all of it) to get the moss with the best drainage.

When I bought Great Value distilled water it's TDS was 0. I used it to flush minerals out of a pot with too high of TDS. So it should work great!

My only other advice (assuming you decide to use a 50/50 mix of peat and perlite or sand, because I don't know how I would manage pure peat) would be pack your pot full of dry peat moss *before* you rinse it. Then weigh the pot, by hand or with a scale, to see how heavy it is when the soil is dry. You'll never want it to be this light again. After you've rinsed and mixed your soil and planted your VFT, the soil will be very wet (assuming you just finished rinsing your peat). For reference, this would be too wet if kept this way all the time. Weigh it again. Now you know how heavy it is when it's wet and when it's too dry. When it starts to get light again, you know it's time to water. I use this method for larger pots because the top layers of soil can be very dry but that doesn't mean it needs water. As long as the roots grow down into moist soil your VFT will be happy. You can keep it more damp than normal during the first few weeks as your fly trap gets adjusted and I would recommend watering from the top during this period. After that, you should try to keep it just damp all the time and you can water from the bottom through the watering hole if you prefer. During very hot months, it will need lots of water (if growing outdoors). Probably daily to every other day if you get up in the 90s. However, during winter dormancy, you'll probably get down to watering once every 2-3 weeks. So again, keeping track using the weight can be handy.

Good luck! Feel free to share some pictures once you get it in its new home!

This should work fine just mix it with some perlite or silica sand so it can help with aeration

Hi! my new pet Vigorous VFT just arrived today! I have named her Zyra... Hopefully she will make it into a big beautiful VFT, and I will be trying my utmost best to see her through.
Here is her biggest trap as compared to a quarter:
this was before I took her out of the baggie. she looks a bit yellow, is that due to her 3 days in the transport box with no light, and will she eventually be a bit more green or is this just how her color is supposed to be?

here are some other pictures of Zyra, and her pot setup:



these pictures were taken this afternoon and there was some slight cloud coverage out, so the sunlight wasn't coming in too strong, but on a sunny day this particular window would get plenty of bright sunlight.

The pot is all full of Premier sphagnum peat moss (pre-soaked in distilled water) and seems to have no problems draining (I had to dump the tray's water about 5 times total, including while I was putting the wet peat moss in) and while I didn't fill the pot to the brim with the peat moss, I did bury her in a slightly raised mound in the center of the pot, so I believe she will be fine like this & that there should be sufficient space for both her/her root system to grow in this big pot?

I also gave her and the surrounding soil a light treatment of (I diluted the concentrated mix into distilled water as per the instructions on the bottle, then put this mix into a spray bottle specifically labeled for the pest/fungus control liquid.)
which is supposed to help prevent or treat any pests/fungus.

her pot looks like this (but in a cream off-white color):
[these pictures provided by another forum member]


Zyra is sitting happily just at the level of the windowsill of a sunny window. Currently there is about a half inch of water left that drained into the tray; I'm not sure whether i'll need to dump this (it was partially the run-off from after I sprayed her with the diluted distilled water & pest/fungus preventative treatment) or can I leave this half inch of water in the tray for her to absorb? How often do you guys estimate I would need to water her with this setup (especially while she's just newly potted)? her soil seems to be decently moist, not sopping wet, for the time being...

Do you think I'm doing ok so far?

Everything looks good. In fact, those are the same exact pots I used for my first flytraps!

If you're growing indoors, I wouldn't leave any water sitting in the tray. Indoor plants are at very little risk drying out, especially in a large pot such as that one. Just add water to the tray when you notice the top of the soil drying out. If it is all soaked all up (those trays are quit small) add more until the soil won't take up any more. Then dump or save the rest. You should only have to do this about once every 10 to 15 days while the plant is indoors unless you live in a very arid climate.

The only thing about your setup that is going to be a problem is the lack of light. A sunny windowsill will work, but for a plant to be at its healthiest, it really needs multiple hours of intense light. Even in a sunny windowsill, they usually don't get enough to look their best, but they can do quite well anyway.

Good luck!

Matt wrote:Everything looks good. In fact, those are the same exact pots I used for my first flytraps!

If you're growing indoors, I wouldn't leave any water sitting in the tray. Indoor plants are at very little risk drying out, especially in a large pot such as that one. Just add water to the tray when you notice the top of the soil drying out. If it is all soaked all up (those trays are quit small) add more until the soil won't take up any more. Then dump or save the rest. You should only have to do this about once every 10 to 15 days while the plant is indoors unless you live in a very arid climate.

The only thing about your setup that is going to be a problem is the lack of light. A sunny windowsill will work, but for a plant to be at its healthiest, it really needs multiple hours of intense light. Even in a sunny windowsill, they usually don't get enough to look their best, but they can do quite well anyway.

Good luck!

Ok! thanks, and yea I guess it might be a bit too much water so I'll go pour out the tray water and as of now I'm not sure about putting the VFT outdoors, I thought it was required to gently acclimate them for the first few weeks indoors, before fully putting a VFT outdoors to handle the elements. I will be monitoring Zyra's progress and go from there... that window is seriously the sunniest window in the house (other house plants gonna be so jealous, lol) so I will see how things go. I'm just a lil bit unsure for now about putting her outside while she is still so little even though I know they don't get "pampered" like this in the wild, lmao. Anyways, thanks again for all the pointers, and for the awesome VFT young one, and I will keep you updated on her progress.

If i were you, i would just put the plant outside. You only live a litttle bit away from where the flyytraps naturally grow. Also, the plant is coming out of dormancy so it could go outside. Lastly, i know that matt grows all his plants either outside, or in a greenhouse.

DD7990 wrote: I'm just a lil bit unsure for now about putting her outside while she is still so little even though I know they don't get "pampered" like this in the wild, lmao.

Acclimating in a window is a good idea. I believe Matt was warning against the window as a permanent home. Putting it right outside can cause sunburn. The plant would survive but it would just stunt its growth temporarily. You can gradually introduce it to direct sunlight outdoors to avoid this.

Here's some Big Mouths I received in Februrary. 2 have been indoors the whole time (under a grow light) and 2 outdoors. The outdoor ones dealt with slight sunburn at first, and then a couple freezes, but should be recovering now.

They do great outdoors for us Wendy. Mine have been outside since late March, and their growth has exploded!

Jersey rocks the spot!

Hey everyone, Just putting an update on Zyra's current condition, 1month later from purchase arrival:



I cut some off her old dead winter leaves that had turned brown, and also cut off the flower stalk (before it got past 1 inch), and now she has all these growths from the side of the flower stalk and under some of her other leaves (I circled them in red).

Does she appear to be healthy so far and are these multiple plantlet growths normal/a good sign?
Also a lot of her upright trap-leaves seem to droop closer to the ground, is this because the weight of the traps, or is because not enough water or some other issue? I water from the bottom tray about once a week and she seems to be doing ok with it. I don't think she looks wilted at all, just some of the leaves are drooping closer to the ground.

Looks fine. My VFT did this too. I am not a expert on this so wait for other people to comment first.

DD7990 wrote:Does she appear to be healthy so far and are these multiple plantlet growths normal/a good sign?

She appears to be fairly healthy, but she is stressed from introduction to sunlight and from not being planted deeply enough. Not being planted deeply enough is the reason she has all of those growth points and why the leaves are drooping closer to the ground.