FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Ah, that explains what is going on with mine here in Florida where it's been 95-100 F lately. End of last season traps were a lot redder, now they are barely pink.

oval wrote:Ah, that explains what is going on with mine here in Florida where it's been 95-100 F lately. End of last season traps were a lot redder, now they are barely pink.

Same temps here and same scenario.


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Wow, thanks bananaman! Mine look exactly like the ones you have under no shade thanks for that, but ones that mean I’d have to give it shade for color?

Adrien wrote:Wow, thanks bananaman! Mine look exactly like the ones you have under no shade thanks for that, but ones that mean I’d have to give it shade for color?

It honestly depends on your conditions and it’s hard to say for sure. It might certainly be worth experimenting with, though. There’s lots of different things that are worth trying. For instance, I didn’t really need to shade them until I had to move them into a spot that got primarily afternoon sun instead of morning sun. It might be worth trying to find a spot with morning sun.

Given where it’s feasible for me to keep my plants now and the heat here, light shade works for me. But you should keep in mind that 30% shade cloth like I use still lets through a lot of light. The biggest thing it does is cut way down on soil temperature and I think that’s what the difference is from. Even though today is quite cool for this time of year (it’s only 87° right now — the normal high for today is 94° — although it’ll still be an hour or two before we hit the high today, it’ll only be a few degrees warmer than now), there’s still a difference: a sarr pot in full sun measured 97.4°F in the middle of the pot, while a VFT pot the same size under shade cloth only measured 90.2°F in the middle. In the past in full sun, I’ve measured soil temperatures over 110° in the center of the pot and over 135° in the upper inch!

Light shade obviously isn’t a good solution for everyone’s conditions and flytraps. But it works for me.