FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Ever since I got it from California, now keeping it here in Saskatchewan, my Venus flytrap goes dormant in May and wakes up in September. I thought it would naturally figure things out over the two years I’ve had it, but no luck. How do I fix its sleep schedule without shortening its lifespan like crazy?

(Also my poor Pitcher doesn’t get enough sunlight but if I buy a heat lamp that should help. )

Thank you for any suggestions!!

That dormancy cycle sounds about right for as far north as you are. If you wanted to artificially extend the growing season, you could move it under lights on a 16-hour photoperiod in early March.

I don't know about using heat lamps for pitcher plants. They mostly need strong lighting. Others might be able to share their experiences in this area.

Hey Matt!
If you’re thinking that dormancy cycle sounds healthy for it, then I won’t change it.

It sounds weird to me. I was worried that it’s missing out on all the nice sunshine and bugs that are everywhere during summer by sleeping until winter, and then being awake when it’s freezing and there’s nothing to eat.

But if this is a healthy cycle, then I’m happy to leave it be. Thanks so much!

Do you keep it indoors? That may explain the weird dormancy cycle as it would be lacking temperature cues. You could do a few things assuming that this is the case:

1. Toss it in the fridge until April to force it into dormancy and out of dormancy when you want it to.
2. Buy very good quality grow lights. There was a recent guide published on ICPS about growing VFTs where a grower has had success keeping flytraps indoors with no dormancy due to the increase in light. They used 15-25K lumens of light, 14 hours per day and claim they don't need dormancy in those conditions.
3. A combo of both options. Provide it with a high amount of light all the time so that it grows well, then move it outside next September so that it experiences shortened days and dropping night time temperatures. You should be safe until late October before you want to give it some protection for the winter.

Again I'm assuming your vft is kept indoors, but I believe I'm correct since it's hard for me to imagine it's pushing out new growth outdoors in Saskatchewan in January.

I just re-read your original post and I see you say it GOES dormant in May. When I first read it, I thought you wrote it comes out of dormancy in May and enters it in September.

It would be truly odd to have a flytrap growing outdoors to go dormant in May.

Where are you growing the plant?

Growing it indoors at all times, right by the bathroom window, on the sill. It’s too cold to grow outside in winter, and squirrels would eat it in summer. Yes it does GO dormant in May. Little weirdo. XD

For your pitcher plants, I would say just give it bright light, not heat. I have 3 nepenthes growing and they produce pitchers well but before I had them under bright light they never produced pitchers. I use LED for the as they are indoors.

Squirrels don't eat my flytraps. They loved to dig around the pot for LFS moss to build their nests with though. Since I stopped using the stuff they've left it alone.

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Artchic528 wrote:Squirrels don't eat my flytraps. They loved to dig around the pot for LFS moss to build their nests with though. Since I stopped using the stuff they've left it alone.

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But the baby squirrels!

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As far as I'm aware, it's only the length of dormancy that's important for flytraps, not the timing. If they're indoors away from the weather, it doesn't matter when it happens.

Cross wrote:

Artchic528 wrote:Squirrels don't eat my flytraps. They loved to dig around the pot for LFS moss to build their nests with though. Since I stopped using the stuff they've left it alone.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

But the baby squirrels!

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

It's war, some casualties are inevitable.

Okay! So good news! In June, my flytrap kind of woke up, and sprouted lots of new traps at once. I gave it more water and light. It’s July and it’s wide awake! If it can hang in there until roughly September or October, then the jet lag is fixed! Thanks for the help, you guys!