FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey y'all! So as the title says, I'm planning on putting my newly acquired, indoor darlingtonia, through an artificial dormancy this year. The problem is... I have no idea on how I'm going to go about doing that. I heard that the refrigerator method is a good way to do this, but what would I need to do following pre dormancy, considering the photoperiod and temperature? I was originally going to grow it outdoors, but I live in Florida, where it is always around the low eighties to low/mid nineties, so in fear of roasting it, I decided to grow it indoors.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, because this is kinda stressing me out, lol.

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Plants go dormant based on two main factors: photoperiod and temperature. In the autumn season it starts getting colder as well as darker and I believe both should be present for temperate plants. Some people say only photoperiod matters but I like to give mine cold temps anyways as I've seen them thrive better with cold dormancy.
One thing you could start doing is cutting down the number of hours of light exposure it gets. Do you grow it under lights or just by a window? With lights it will be easier to just set up a timer to something like 8am-5:30 or 6pm. If you can move it to a colder room/basement/...closer to an air conditioning vent or something and adjust it to colder temps before chucking it into the fridge that may be easier on the plant, but likely it's not necessary and you can just do a fridge dormancy like you would for a venus flytrap and stick it in with no acclimation. It won't get could enough in there to do any kind of frost damage anyways.

SundewWolf wrote:Plants go dormant based on two main factors: photoperiod and temperature. In the autumn season it starts getting colder as well as darker and I believe both should be present for temperate plants. Some people say only photoperiod matters but I like to give mine cold temps anyways as I've seen them thrive better with cold dormancy.
One thing you could start doing is cutting down the number of hours of light exposure it gets. Do you grow it under lights or just by a window? With lights it will be easier to just set up a timer to something like 8am-5:30 or 6pm. If you can move it to a colder room/basement/...closer to an air conditioning vent or something and adjust it to colder temps before chucking it into the fridge that may be easier on the plant, but likely it's not necessary and you can just do a fridge dormancy like you would for a venus flytrap and stick it in with no acclimation. It won't get could enough in there to do any kind of frost damage anyways.

Ok, that sounds pretty simple. I don't have a room in my that gets cold enough though. The last couple of days, I've been basically rapping it in ice packs at night. Would that be of much help? Also when should I put in in the refrigerator?

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What do you mean "basically wrapping it in ice packs"? Are they directly on the plant? That's probably going to just damage it since its a sudden change to freezing temps. It would be much better to place it in a terrarium with ice packs instead if you are going that route.

SundewWolf wrote:What do you mean "basically wrapping it in ice packs"? Are they directly on the plant? That's probably going to just damage it since its a sudden change to freezing temps. It would be much better to place it in a terrarium with ice packs instead if you are going that route.

The ice packs aren't directly on the plant, but they are wrapped around the pot.

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SundewWolf wrote:What do you mean "basically wrapping it in ice packs"? Are they directly on the plant? That's probably going to just damage it since its a sudden change to freezing temps. It would be much better to place it in a terrarium with ice packs instead if you are going that route.

Would it be a good idea to start sticking it in the refrigerator at night?

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Oh ok, that's a bit better. If the pot is large enough there shouldn't be any frost burn on the roots.
Night time refrigeration sounds like a better idea than just sticking it in for the entire winter right away, but take my advice with a grain of salt because I've never done refrigerator dormancy, all my temperate stuff stays outside year round. BUT if people are sticking VFT's straight into the fridge I don't see why a Darlingtonia wouldn't be able to handle the nighttime drops. Mine stay out for a few frosts which is probably colder than a fridge would get.

SundewWolf wrote:Oh ok, that's a bit better. If the pot is large enough there shouldn't be any frost burn on the roots.
Night time refrigeration sounds like a better idea than just sticking it in for the entire winter right away, but take my advice with a grain of salt because I've never done refrigerator dormancy, all my temperate stuff stays outside year round. BUT if people are sticking VFT's straight into the fridge I don't see why a Darlingtonia wouldn't be able to handle the nighttime drops. Mine stay out for a few frosts which is probably colder than a fridge would get.

Also, how wet should I keep it? I keep it sitting I a tray of water at all times (except when I put it in the fridge) because it's usually pretty darn hot under my grow lights, however, I'm worried that all of that moisture may cause it to rot, especially when I put it in the fridge. Sorry for asking so many questions, but I'm new to growing darlingtonia's and I would really like to not kill it, lol.

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I don't keep mine sitting in water over the water, and I just keep the sphagnum moist. Not really that different than the "standard" moisture of other carnivorous plant soil mixes, just never standing water once it gets colder outside.

Oh, ok. Thanks!

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