FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

It was February 15th 2017 when my first potted typical young FTS flytrap arrived in the mail. This is what it looked liked. The instructions said it was dormant and to keep it in a nice cool spot until spring. I put it in a nice sunny south facing window sill. I wanted it to start growing. February is close enough to spring right? Eight days later on February 23rd it had already caught 3 winter attic flys. I'm thinking to myself these things are easy to grow. What's with all these people posting questions about dying flytraps on the forums? March 20th. So easy. Just move it to the East window sill for morning sun and the South window sill at noon for the afternoon sun. Keep it moist with distilled water and cut the flower stalk when it's 2" tall. Sometimes I put it under a 6500k T5 bulb for extra light since the sun still goes down pretty early in March. April 1st. For no apparent reason the flytrap started taking a dive. All the traps started turning black. Even the newest traps. Give it time I thought. It'll bounce back. June 23rd. Almost three months later in that South facing window sill it continued to die back. The tiny new traps were turning black as soon as they emerged. What the heck? Time to read the forums again. Put it outside they said. So I did. July 14th. I read over and over to keep them moist not wet and use LFS or peat and perlite. Now we're making some progress. Today is July 31st. This is what it looks like today. Too bad I wasted 2 months in that South facing window. Put them outside if you can and leave them there.

So very true! This first pic is my first flytrap. I've had it since mid June. The second picture is today. Same plant. Lol. It's in full sun and finally coming back.

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I'm very glad to be in NC got all our new to us plantbabies outside in April and they've been soaking up all the sun since and behaving well!

Wow, at least you kept it alive, We all learn from our mistakes. Should have moved her outside back in March to avoid the set back

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Great post, new growers don't want to believe it when everyone says GET IT OUTSIDE!!!! But it's one of the most important points to growing these plants.

Thought I’d update this post showing my flytrap entering dormancy which is pretty early in SD. Supposed to get down to 22F on Thursday at which point it’s going into the shed few awhile. Today, October 23rd.

that thing looks to have really exploded with growth once going outdoors that is for sure!! great looking plant!

Nine months later and I now have 6 healthy flytraps. I split them in April, put them outside in full sun, and make sure they never get too dry. That’s it. There must have been different flytraps with different traits in that original cup. Gotta like the up right growth.

Thank you for posting all this.

It's exactly what I tell people, but they just want to argue and get hurt feelings because I tell them they need to be outside.

Your growing exactly the way I do too.

My experience is similar. A lack of light destroys them, but not rapidly. They probably bounced back faster than they died. It's slow enough to mess with your appreciation for cause and effect, so you start looking for other reasons why your plants are dying, taking drastic measures that aren't even the right ones.