FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone! It seems winter has come early here in zone 5, and it has been 17 degrees these last couple of nights. I have my flytraps in the garage, but it only stays about 10 degrees warmer in there. Yesterday morning all my carnivorous plants were frozen solid. So, I put some blankets around them last night hoping that it would protect them from some of the surrounding air, but they were froze again this morning. I do have a root cellar that stays around 50-60 degrees right now. My only concern is that they might go out of dormancy with the higher temperature. If anyone has any suggestions on what to do, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Blankets aren't much good unless they're wrapped around a source of heat; the fabric traps pockets of warmed air.

Just brain-storming here: what about a plastic tote and a heating pad on a low setting? Put the tote only part-way on the pad (the side away from the plants) and leave the top partially open so it won't overheat (add an outdoor thermometer to the list). The goal is to keep the temperature between 30 and 50 F.

Put them in the coldest, darkest part of your root cellar and keep them damp. They should stay dormant with the combination of low temp and lack of light.

It's weird. I'm not sure how they'd react to warmer temperatures from cooler like that (if they'd break dormancy) but mine go dormant in much warmer temperatures. Our weather rarely gets into the 50s, most of the time it's 65+ with some odd cold fronts. They started growing low and dying back when the temperatures were in the low 70s back in early-mid October. It makes me wonder if the photoperiod is the most important aspect to VFT dormancy. That said though, I think both of those are good ideas. The cellar sounds like it'd work if you keep it away from a heat source (just in case). Heat mats will usually up your temperature by 10+ degrees in the root zone so in theory that should work too.

My vote would be for the heat mat as well. I operate mine with a WiFi plug so I can control via app and put timers on it. This has worked really well for me with seed germination, but should be useful for keeping dormant plants warmer as well!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I have found that the bottom step of the stairs to the root cellar stays around 40 degrees, even when the temperature outside is 19 degrees. I have a small grow light that I will put down there to (hopefully) keep the plants healthy during the winter. Temperatures start to stay above freezing in mid-to-late March, so there is only about 2.5 months that I have to keep them down there.

You probably don't need to worry about the light. If they stay around 40 degrees, they won't be actively growing so they won't need the light. The root cellar will probably help to keep them from drying out as well. That is my biggest concern during dormancy.