FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone!

Im here to post some experiments about forced dormancy of recently bought flytraps during winter season. I was told that the flytraps i got, are currently having a summer season but I decided that I can’t risk about believing such and decided to force them to sleep. During this experiment I have 20 plants. And all where put to fridge brutally without slowly changing the temperature. They have been there for 2 months and counting.

I will be providing photos of my plants as they go out from dormancy to see if they will be affected or grow as any normal plant who was gradually introduced to cooler temperatures.

2 months of brutal dormancy: How do you think they look like? Dying? Shocked? Brutalized?

I took 10 plants out from fridge after brutally throwing them inside my fridge. All 10 are growing fast now and I noticed today that a flower stalk is going out from one. That’s a clear sign that plant is happy and had/has proper care. So after all nothing has died or been damaged. I still have 10 more for a 3 months dormancy experiment.

Bulb going out:

Matt wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 7:50 pm

idwaneo wrote:I noticed today that a flower stalk is going out from one. That’s a clear sign that plant is happy and had/has proper care.

This is a common misconception. Adult Flytraps flower every spring regardless of their health status. Even a flytrap that is near death will attempt to flower.

So how to know if my flytrap is healthy? Just by checking if there is new growth and that the new leaves will not turn black before opening?

Matt wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 8:09 pm The overall appearance of a flytrap can generally tell you if it is healthy or not. Some tell-tale signs of poor health are long, thin leaves with small traps, which indicates a lack of light.

When flytraps are struggling with poor growing conditions, the new growth usually won't look good. It will either blacken before it matures or will be stunted. Of course, new growth slows and gets smaller in the fall naturally as flytraps enter dormancy. But it's usually pretty easy to tell the difference between a flytrap going dormant and one that is having health issues just based on the color and other visual cues of the new leaves and traps.

What about this trap with no teeth? It means its gonna die? Sick? Thx

That trap grew after i took it out from fridge and put to my cold windowsill with barely light but warmer than fridge from 5C to 16-20C

Very strange since all were in the same conditions and only one developed that trap.

Will this shock kill the plant? Or it is just a temporary condition?

Some update of how my plants are after waking up