FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

After years of just doing flytraps I finally bought a pitcher plant. It is a sarracenia leucophylla x oreophilla. I just wanted to say I'm glad I bought one this year because it's growing fast I just wonder at this rate when should I repot it. I went ahead and bought some bigger pots for when the time comes but I've only had this plant for 11 days so was curious just how fast it's going to grow.

Another question I have because I've seen so many opinions on its just how wet to keep it. I've keep the soil damp but this North Carolina weather is getting hot now with being 82 f last 2 days. In my early years of growing flytraps I tended to over water my first flytraps and they rotted out.

Thank you for taking time to answer any of my questions. I have a friend who has never grown any flytraps or pitcher plants who who like to know too. He bought 2 pitcher and 3 flytraps this year from FTS after seeing all my posts of my plants on Facebook.

slip-pot that thing into a 8 inch pot and use a short water trey.

I saw one suggestion to leave it in water all the time but that seems to go against what I do with my flytraps.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I grow mine standing in water. (Not me, the pots. )

Your fly traps are in LFSM, i would not put that in water unless I am going out of town. The peat/perlite will do just fine in shallow water.

My main sarr's i grow to sell i keep in 3gallon pots of peat/perlite in 1-2 inches of water. Deep root runs means large plants.

-edit-
this is a 3g pot of mine

What I do is I top water at spring when the plants are waking up from dormancy and then let the top 1 - 2 cm to dry out before watering them again. In the summer I top water every day and let them sit in 1 inch trays with water until the shade comes. In autumn I do the same as spring until the go dormant. In winter I put water in the tray and let the plants soak it and after 15 - 30 min I throw the excess water. After that I let the top inch of the media to dry. All of my plants are in pure sphagnum moss. When it rains I don’t water them and I don’t let the rain water them because of 2 personal reasons. First one of my old VFTs rotted while it was summer when I top watered it and then it rained. But now when I think it the rhizome was probably damaged because I wasn’t cutting off the leaves but instead I was pulling them and they had rhizome parts. Then probably pathogens from the rain rotted the plant. The other reason is that for some reason the rain here looks gross. It is very cloudy sticky and it measures around 30 ppm. Also the air becomes a lot more clear after it rains so I think it’s air pollution in the water. Also I know that sarracenias can handle being wet for longer than VFTs (especially psittacina).

Here's and update on my pitcher plant. My flytraps are doing incredible to. I came home from work early today to see a wasp trying to climb out of the big pitcher, it slipped down the pitcher and is stuck down there!Success! I'm loving my pitcher plant.

Colonel_Kwalski wrote: ↑Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:12 pm Another question I have because I've seen so many opinions on its just how wet to keep it. I've keep the soil damp but this North Carolina weather is getting hot now with being 82 f last 2 days. In my early years of growing flytraps I tended to over water my first flytraps and they rotted out.

82°F (28°C) is hot? Bah, that's nothing! Wait until July and August when we're hitting 95°F (35°C) for days on end. Sarracenia love the heat, but watering becomes a chore when you have a bunch of them. I keep my plants in deep saucers. I top-water each plant until it fills the saucer, let it sit like that until the saucer runs dry, then repeat. This usually means watering every other day in the summer. The damp day in between allows more oxygen to get to the roots. This method has worked well for me over the years (check out repotting The Beast from a few months ago).

In the UK mine are out all year in bogs and stand in water all year with little or no problems, they are bog plants after all. When growing in pots, stand in water when they are growing and keep damp in winter.
Cheers
Steve