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Ask questions about how to grow and care for Venus Flytraps

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By Matt
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Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#365792
Bob wrote:I thought that a vft needs light in dormancy, am I mistaken?
That is true if the temperatures are warm enough. They'll try to grow and exhaust themselves pretty quickly if they don't have any light. But if the temperatures are constantly around 40F or cooler (but above freezing), flytraps can do fine without much or any light during dormancy.

Bob wrote:Also when in the year should I stop using the tray method to water the trap, I am worried about root rot.
We recommend never leaving water in trays for more than a half-day unless it is a super hot climate. Excactly when you cut back on watering isn't on a schedule but a factor of how you are growing your plant (indoors, outdoors, kind of soil, etc.) how warm and dry the weather is, etc. Basically it is the same general guidelines all year:
Keep the plant's soil moist at all times, never dry, but not wet for too long. Outside of that no one is going to be able to give you exact advice unless you post here daily with photos and a description of the moisture level of the soil.

Bob wrote:Also, my flytrap isn’t growing new traps as fast, it’s growth has basically stopped. Does this mean it’s in dormancy?
It's a little early for full-on dormancy, but yes, flytraps are heading that direction in most areas of North America. They'll start shedding their summer traps soon and slow down in grow dramatically. Exactly how much depends on your latitude and growing environment.
By Bob
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Joined:  Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:05 pm
#365796
Thanks for all the help! Just one last question, there at recurrently two bugs on the traps of the vft, one for about a week and the other two days. Will this hurt the vft since it is starting to go into dormancy?
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By Matt
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#365809
Bob wrote:Will this hurt the vft since it is starting to go into dormancy?
Nope, not at all. It is important to think of the traps as "disposable" and not indicative of the overall health of the plant. It might shed one or both of the traps due to the cooler weather and not being able to digest the bugs quickly enough before they rot, but it will certainly get some nutrition from them. And it will store that in the rhizome for next spring when it can burst into growth again. Always let your plant feed if it catches things, particularly if it happens naturally!
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By MikeB
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#365838
optique wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:57 amjust remember in its natural habitat in North Carolina it freezes all the time.
Actually, it doesn't. I live just 40 miles / 65 kilometers west of the Venus flytrap's native range, so I experience the same weather. The winter temperature here drops below freezing maybe 10-15% of the time, and then usually for a few hours before dawn. During the day, the temperature range is 35-50 F / 2-10 C.

Here is what Google shows for "climate Wilmington NC":
Wilmington, NC weather averages.jpg
Wilmington, NC weather averages.jpg (54.82 KiB) Viewed 2189 times
If you want to see what the weather is like there right now, here is the forecast from a local TV station.
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By optique
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#365843
MikeB wrote:Actually, it doesn't. I live just 40 miles / 65 kilometers west of the Venus flytrap's native range, so I experience the same weather. The winter temperature here drops below freezing maybe 10-15% of the time, and then usually for a few hours before dawn. During the day, the temperature range is 35-50 F / 2-10 C.
here is the record lows from 1875 - 2019, January nights get pretty cold in zone 8a
https://www.currentresults.com/Yearly-W ... rature.php
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By MikeB
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#366106
optique wrote: Wed Sep 23, 2020 4:30 amhere is the record lows from 1875 - 2019, January nights get pretty cold in zone 8a
https://www.currentresults.com/Yearly-W ... rature.php
Note that the tables don't say how long those temperatures lasted. It's one night, maybe 2 or 3, and then it warms up again. Also, the tables don't say how warm it got the following day.

Those temps are the exception, not the norm.
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By optique
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#366120
@MikeB,
I am just replying to your highlights of my statement, "just remember in its natural habitat in North Carolina it freezes all the time." After winter solstice it can freeze almost nightly. that's what i mean by "all the time", Not that it never gets above freezing.
My following sentence was "its frost burn caused by sustained deep cold and wind that hurts the plant not the actual temperature." i was trying to point out VFT's are from the US east coast and not from a tropical area, and freezing weather will not turn them to mush like it would a tropical house plant.
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By MikeB
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#366205
@optique: Sorry, I interpreted "it freezes all the time" to mean "it's below freezing most of the time". Only about 10-15% of the winter nights actually drop below freezing, and usually for just a couple hours before dawn.

The big exception to this was January 2018, when we had 158 consecutive hours at or below freezing. That was just plain crazy (for this location, anyway). My plants spent an entire week in my not-quite-so-cold garage.
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