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Ask questions about how to grow and care for Venus Flytraps

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By Soy Sauce
Posts:  33
Joined:  Sat Sep 08, 2018 4:39 pm
#328984
I put my Venus in dormancy around December and I don't know when I should take it out of dormancy. I thought that dormancy should be about 3 months for Venus flytraps but I want to be sure.
By SundewWolf
Posts:  2219
Joined:  Fri Mar 08, 2013 2:38 pm
#328990
3 months sounds good. Mine grow outdoors so they experience almost the same temperatures as it is outside and therefore they won't be awake and growing until April. If you want to set up grow lights indoors you could easily take them out of dormancy now with no problems.
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By Cross
Posts:  1849
Joined:  Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:25 pm
#329047
I've already started to take mine out of dormancy. I use led lights and just changed the time in which they wake up.

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By bananaman
Posts:  2059
Joined:  Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:54 am
#329220
If you don’t have growlights, I agree that you should let it stay dormant until the spring. Because of my climate, my flytraps naturally begin to wake up around this time of year, but we also have an earlier spring than most parts of the US (average temperatures this time of year are like 65 day/45 night).

The actual waking up process is quite gradual — it takes a few weeks for them to really get going. They start resuming growth now, but fairly slowly. By mid March, they’re usually growing quite fast and putting out good sized traps.

Once your area starts to warm up for the spring is when you should take them out. Glancing at your average temps, I’d guess late April would be an OK time to bring them out.
By Big-Jack
Posts:  357
Joined:  Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:46 pm
#329277
I just let mine awaken naturally on the windowsill behind a closed shade so they stay cool. No grow lights to mess with their internal clock. Spring growth is my favorite. I love that fresh waxy green look when the new traps start unfurling.
By Photo Synthesis
Posts:  10
Joined:  Mon Feb 04, 2019 6:52 am
#329328
As long as your flytraps stay on the cool side, they would most certainly benefit from receiving light. Because even though flytraps are "dormant" and not actively growing, they can still photosynthesize energy from either sunlight or a grow light (that doesnt emit heat). Then, when spring rolls around and the weather warms up, they will use all of that stored energy to burst forth with even more traps.

Now, they will still do fine being shaded, but when you think about flytraps in their natural habitat, they still get lots of sunlight during the winter months, even though it's cold out and they're not actively growing. I keep mine on a windowsill in my unheated garage during the winter.

Another benefit of giving the some sunlight throughout the winter is that when spring finally rolls around and you move them back outdoors, the transition will be much easier on them since they already been exposed to the winter sun.
By Soy Sauce
Posts:  33
Joined:  Sat Sep 08, 2018 4:39 pm
#329718
By the sounds of it, the best action seems to keep my plant in a sunny but cold window till temps rise, around April or May. Is their any problems with that?
By SundewWolf
Posts:  2219
Joined:  Fri Mar 08, 2013 2:38 pm
#329719
Soy Sauce wrote:By the sounds of it, the best action seems to keep my plant in a sunny but cold window till temps rise, around April or May. Is their any problems with that?
Only problem would be making sure the amount of light by the window is enough. Even the most sunny windowsills usually aren't quite good enough.

I also have taken mine out of dormancy early this last week of feburary (completely on accident since I forgot to shut off my heating cables with the temp now being around 35F on average...plus I had all the fluffy insulation in there from the polar vortex, so they began sprouting).

But I also have three fluorescent tube fixtures over my flytraps, 3000 lumens each.
By Big-Jack
Posts:  357
Joined:  Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:46 pm
#330218
Soy Sauce wrote:By the sounds of it, the best action seems to keep my plant in a sunny but cold window till temps rise, around April or May. Is their any problems with that?
This is what I do but when you put them outside after the danger of frost is over you'll want to acclimate them to the outdoor sunlight to prevent sunburn. Keep them on the north side of the house or partly shaded if on the south side for a few weeks so they can adapt and not get toasted.

Modern windows especially the energy efficient double pane windows filter out over 80% of the UV rays so while afternoon sunlight through a south facing is nice and bright and will get your plants off to a good spring jump start it is still not near the intensity of natural outdoor sunlight.
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