FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

hi i am a sorta new grower i used to grow in my younger days when i was about 14 but now i just turned 17 and started growing again. i like to grow my venus flytraps indoors because my cats will eat up my venus flytraps if i leave them outside. i use a 60 watt light bulb and a round glass container to grow them in they seem to be doing very well alot of new traps are growing. i got a slightly dying venus fly trap from lowes but it seems to be coming back to life with a lot of new traps and a flower starting to grow im pretty sure its a dente and i got a czech giant from the flytrap store and that one is doing really good to with tons of new traps coming in too iv have them both for about a month now, and i was wondering if the 60 watt light could turn the traps of the czech giant red or do they only turn red when there outside in real light or turn red when there more mature

Hello and welcome to our community!

Venus fly traps can turn red through artificial lighting, yes, however using a regular lightbulb may burn the plant as it emits a lot of heat. With the plant being in a fishbowl it'll increase the heat and will slowly burn the plant; you may also get mould and root rot issues courtesy of the higher humidity and lack of drainage holes by planting the plant directly into the bowl.

Fluroescent lighting is your best bet, with a colour temperature of about 6500k (which emits little to no heat) and a 60W bulb is good.

Venus fly traps need at least 4 inches of soil (for a young plant) as they have very long roots but many members appear to plant them in 6 inch plastic pots (to optimize growth). I say this because I can't see how much soil you have your plant in, but I am simply making reccomendations =]. If you do swap to a plastic pot, I'd suggest removing the flower stalk as it drains vital energy that could be put into recovering from repotting. Repotting will set the plant back for a short while, but the growth once the plant is established in a new pot is worth it!

Best of luck and if you have any more questions, feel free to post!

Hello and welcome to flytrapcare!

Your plants in the glass bowl appear to be struggling for a few reasons including lack of light, not enough soil and no drainage. They're going to do much better potted in deeper pots with a drainage hole and placed somewhere that they can get natural light. If you put them outside, I'd doubt that your cats would mess with them. I have two cats and there are perhaps a half dozen more neighborhood cats that frequent our backyard. None of them pay any attention to the flytraps. And surely you can find a place to put them that's out of reach for the cats.

Growing indoors under lights is an option, but the plants will be much healthier with natural light. I grow a ton of plants indoors, in greenhouses and outdoors. Plants receiving natural light (greenhouse and outdoors) are much, much healthier.

thanks for the help matt and grey i will most definitely switch my plants to a deeper pot that can drain water as soon as possible. and ill find a place that my curious cats cannot get too out side in some natural sun light:) and thanks again for the help!:)

That looks much better! I'm sure you'll start to see more vibrant growth soon. Well done! I'd also like to add that I believe some plants are fully green and may or may not turn red at all, regardless of light. You'll see soon enough though; it may take a couple of weeks but once your plant has settled and soaks up some natural sun you'll be amazed at some of the colours (both shades of green and red) that can come through.

Hi connor. Nice VFT! You might not want to leave it sitting in water. VFTs like their roots moist but not wet. Good luck!

As Grey already mentioned, coloration is plant specific and somewhat controlled by genetics. Your plant may never get much color, but if it does, it will happen to traps that have been opened for quite a while and have received good light. Cooler night time temperatures and shortening days also seem to increase coloration. That's why plants tend to be the most colorful in the fall.

Matt wrote:Hello and welcome to flytrapcare!

Your plants in the glass bowl appear to be struggling for a few reasons including lack of light, not enough soil and no drainage. They're going to do much better potted in deeper pots with a drainage hole and placed somewhere that they can get natural light. If you put them outside, I'd doubt that your cats would mess with them. I have two cats and there are perhaps a half dozen more neighborhood cats that frequent our backyard. None of them pay any attention to the flytraps. And surely you can find a place to put them that's out of reach for the cats.

*Growing indoors under lights is an option, but the plants will be much healthier with natural light. I grow a ton of plants indoors, in greenhouses and outdoors. Plants receiving natural light (greenhouse and outdoors) are much, much healthier.

*Yep my plants came through dormancy very well after all the messing around i did last year, however i have been growing with artificial lights and the growth is ok (from other threads ive read/pics seen),
but not to the extent of ones ive seen in peoples greenhouse pics.

Ive only a small sloped bit of garden, but the past three weeks ive made a level area for a pvc greenhouse.
Moving plants into it, in next 2 or 3 days.
(thread/pics soon)
The dormancy issue will be easy too if grown under natural light, was a right fiasco moving them onto an outside balcony last year and back in etc, not enough light
for permanently growing them out on the balcony (walled)

Sorry for the partial hijack of thread, but my comments were in relation to the last bit of Matts post.

If at all possible go for sunlight

thanks guys for all the tips its been very helpful, and hopefully my venus fly traps will do a lot better now:)

I agree, with matt. Here is what one of my VFT's look like when u have a 105 watt 6500k cfl

Hi guys , thank u for awesome tips , am new grower of flytrap it's really interesting plant , really like it , but there is a problem with my flytrap , I got it around 2 months ago , and it didn't have any heads since then , only thing is just spikes r still coming up but the head part is getting really dark for some reason , am trying to figure out what's wrong with it maybe not enough sunlight especially direct , coz my flat doesn't have place that iu could keep it on really sunny spot , I keep it in washroom window , it seems to be prety sunny tho especially am keeping light on its on 24/7 so recently there is one spike that gave one flytrap and am counting on it haha ! Check the picture , still it's kinda weird what am I doing wrong , and also am living in pretty humid country And sometimes I leave window open so it has little spa for itself haha

connor123 wrote: wondering if the 60 watt light could turn the traps of the czech giant red or do they only turn red when there outside in real light or turn red when there more mature

FYI, in my experience, Czech Giant doesn't ever turn very red. It gets more of a blushed pink color.