FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

FluffyChinchilla wrote:Capensis for dummies: just literally a windowsill and distilled water. If something eats it, digests it for two days, then craps it out, the crapped out leaf cuttings will regenerate into a new plant. This has been tested on chickens, squirrels, and pidgeons. Don’t ask why I know this.

Our one window that gets sun doesn't get great sun and also barely has a window sill. Would the 6500 Kelvin compact fluorescent bulb I had for Wonky be enough for the capensis? We don't have any pets right now so I don't have to worry about any plants I have getting nibbled on. I won't ask how you know but I am curious now. lol!

I live in a small apartment during the week and my actual house with chickens on the weekends.

FluffyChinchilla wrote:I live in a small apartment during the week and my actual house with chickens on the weekends.

Do you have plants in both places or just at home with the chickens?

Do you compact fluorescent bulbs for your plants?

Do you know how many watts your CFL light consumes?

mcgrumpers wrote:Do you know how many watts your CFL light consumes?

Hi! I honestly had to check what the Watts are. I was so focused on making sure to get 6500 Kelvins that I didn't look at the Watts. The bulb is listed as 13 Watts. It also fits into a standard socket.

Did I get the wrong bulb? I hope I didn't accidentally hurt Wonky with this bulb. I'll feel terrible if something I bought to help him caused him to die.

No, you certainly didn't hurt wonks with that light. It's not a very strong light so it most likely didn't have a major effect on it.

One option would be to keep a capensis on your windowsill and optionally give it some extra light as a supplement. Do you know how many hours of sunlight your windowsill gets?

mcgrumpers wrote:No, you certainly didn't hurt wonks with that light. It's not a very strong light so it most likely didn't have a major effect on it.

One option would be to keep a capensis on your windowsill and optionally give it some extra light as a supplement. Do you know how many hours of sunlight your windowsill gets?

Thank you for replying! I'm so very relieved to hear I didn't hurt Wonky with this light.

The window we have gets light from about 10 am to about 4 pm. The problem is that it doesn't have much of a window sill. I originally had one bulb LED grow lights for Wonky but they kept breaking. In a little over a year I had 5 of them break on me. After the last one broke I had my son try putting Wonky on the window sill but he always looked like he was on the verge of falling off. When I read about using a 6500K CF bulb I thought that might be a good option so we tried it. We would have Wonky under there for at least 5 hours a day.

The amount of light in that windowsill sounds really good! It's enough for a capensis without any need for any supplemental grow lighting.

Windowsill would be best but if it's too thin to make it work, a grow light could be a plan B. Just keep in mind that it's typical to keep a grow light on for 12-16 hours each day. A good LED bulb is better than a CFL bulb since it runs cooler and more efficiently (often outputting more light), but it's hard to find a good LED bulb as many readily available ones are of poor quality as you've experienced.

mcgrumpers wrote:The amount of light in that windowsill sounds really good! It's enough for a capensis without any need for any supplemental grow lighting.

Windowsill would be best but if it's too thin to make it work, a grow light could be a plan B. Just keep in mind that it's typical to keep a grow light on for 12-16 hours each day. A good LED bulb is better than a CFL bulb since it runs cooler and more efficiently (often outputting more light), but it's hard to find a good LED bulb as many readily available ones are of poor quality as you've experienced.

Thank you for your help! I'm actually going to take a break from CPs. Today my friend sent me a collection of succulents as a surprise birthday gift so I'm going to focus on taking proper care of them. I still love VFTs and I hope to have another one some day but for now I'm not ready to try to handle caring for succulents & CPs at the same time. Thank you again!

My new succulents...

Belated happy birthday! Those are some really nice succulents! I hope they grow well for you. If by any chance you decide to try and grow flytraps again, let me know. I have some extra Jaws with your name on it. Just let me know

Coco wrote:Belated happy birthday! Those are some really nice succulents! I hope they grow well for you. If by any chance you decide to try and grow flytraps again, let me know. I have some extra Jaws with your name on it. Just let me know

My birthday is actually tomorrow so thank you very much for the early birthday wishes!! I really like my little succulents. I still love CPs more (Let's not tell my new plant friends that. It's our secret. ) but I'm going to do my best to take care of my new plants & give them the same love I gave Wonky. Hopefully, I have better luck with them. *crosses fingers* I definitely would like to try growing CPs again but I don't feel I'm experienced enough to handle the succulents & a CP.

You have JAWS plants?! Aahhh, the temptation!!!

No worries! And secret kept! Yeah, not until you’re comfortable yet with CP’s.

With flytraps, just keep the media moist and not wet with a 50 or below reading of PPM (distilled water is even better cuz it’s 0 PPM), during dormancy period (October-February) keep it moist to almost dry but not completely dry, and just as much sunlight as possible. At least 6 hours of direct, unfiltered full sunlight (protect it from extreme weathers like a storm or extreme heat waves). Or, a very bright window of direct sunlight for at least 6+ hours. I’ve seen grow lights that work but some set ups looks like a lot of electricity is consumed. Other than that, that’s pretty much it

I have one coming in which is this one and it appears to have multiple growth points so I can easily separate one for you. Just send me a PM in the future whenever you’re ready/comfortable (:

Good growing!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Coco wrote:No worries! And secret kept! Yeah, not until you’re comfortable yet with CP’s.

With flytraps, just keep the media moist and not wet with a 50 or below reading of PPM (distilled water is even better cuz it’s 0 PPM), during dormancy period (October-February) keep it moist to almost dry but not completely dry, and just as much sunlight as possible. At least 6 hours of direct, unfiltered full sunlight (protect it from extreme weathers like a storm or extreme heat waves). Or, a very bright window of direct sunlight for at least 6+ hours. I’ve seen grow lights that work but some set ups looks like a lot of electricity is consumed. Other than that, that’s pretty much it

I have one coming in which is this one and it appears to have multiple growth points so I can easily separate one for you. Just send me a PM in the future whenever you’re ready/comfortable (:

Good growing!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for keeping my secret! For right now I'll focus on my new succulents because they'll need to be transplanted to individual planters in a couple of months. Maybe once I get them repotted & see if they're thriving I'll get a new CP and try to see if I can handle taking care of everyone.

Woo hoo! I was using distilled water on Wonky so at least I was doing one thing right. I'm worried any CP I may have not get enough sunlight. Mcgrumpers thinks my window gets good light but the window sill doesn't have much room. Maybe I can rearrange things to make more room somehow. I do have the compact fluorescent bulb so if I can't make the window work hopefully that will help. It is listed as a "daylight" bulb.

That JAWS plant is heckin' awesome! I love those traps! I'll probably get a capensis or another B52 if I get another CP. I'll start out with something less rare. And definitely nothing in a little glass bottle.

Thank you again for everything!