FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi I recently went from having my VFT inside for about 3 months and now the leaves a very wide and thick so I moved them outside a couple days ago and its been sunny for some days but other days its just cloudy and raining the whole day very heavy rain will they be alright or should I be worried?

You don't need to worry. I leave my flytraps outside in the rain, and have never had a problem. VFT's experience lots of rain in the wild as well. Assuming you are using the tray method, if the water level in the tray surpasses the half of the pot, drain some water, but other than that, just leave the flytraps be. If you need to, collect some rainwater to store for later. Follow these requirements and your flytraps will look better with time.
Sunlight:
At least four hours of direct sunlight a day (i.e. full sun)
Water: rain, distilled, or reverse osmosis water only
Soil: Nutrient poor soil such as peat moss or sphagnum moss and a pot with good drainage
Dormancy: A yearly dormancy period in the winter months

Na i dont do the tray method i spray mine with distilled 6 times at once 3 times a day outside so 18 sprays a day my last one died from the trey method and i dont want to risk it again

lucid wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2024 12:06 am Na i dont do the tray method i spray mine with distilled 6 times at once 3 times a day outside so 18 sprays a day my last one died from the trey method and i dont want to risk it again

When people talk about the tray method they’re always mentioning that VFTs like to have “wet feet”. So the tray method works so the roots don’t dry out which is a very fast way to kill your plant.

I mean no offense when I say this, but I would guess from your other posts that the plants died due to inexperience and lack of knowledge on your part. No blame or anything. We were all new once, but you’re doing that thing again where you ask for advice and discount people who have many years of experience because you assume that you’re correct about what killed your former plants.

Either way the tray method would be a lot less likely to kill your VFTs than simply misting them and hoping that any water, let alone enough water, reaches the roots.

ETA - I’m still newer too, so definitely take the advice of the knowledgeable folks who have been around for years. They know what they’re talking about for sure. Also follow the care instructions on the stickied threads here. It’s basic care 101.

lucid wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2024 12:06 am Na i dont do the tray method i spray mine with distilled 6 times at once 3 times a day outside so 18 sprays a day my last one died from the trey method and i dont want to risk it again

Tray watering is the way to go. Over top watering can sometimes result in root rot, so too prevent your plants from dying, follow the directions in my previous post.

I just reread what I wrote, and I realized it sounds judgmental even though I didn’t mean for it to sound that way. My apologies.

I’m still new enough that I remember how I felt when I got answers to questions that seemed counterintuitive. I didn’t want to argue with or disagree with forum members who were trying to help me, and I didn’t want them to get frustrated or feel disrespected. BUT I couldn’t wrap my brain around the things they were telling me at first.

My VFT was very green and still had new traps. It had survived from October to February and limped along for a bit after if I recall. I thought it looked healthy. By normal plant standards that would most likely be true in most cases. It was hard to understand how it could be light starved. A lot of typicals sold in stores can have pics on the packaging that show very green plants as well, and the instructions they give can be far different than the advice you get here.

So it felt like I was fighting the people who answered all my questions, and it wasn’t just to be a pain or rude. I’d ask the same questions in different ways because I thought for sure I was just saying something wrong and people were misunderstanding what I was asking. But I really wanted to do the best for my VFT (which I indeed named lol and have a bunch that I thought of names for now as well), and ir had stayed alive for longer than any plant I had ever had, so it was important to me to keep it alive if I could. I wasn’t able to with that one because it was so light starved with semi erratic care because I kept changing watering schedules to see if that helped, and it had a huge flower stalk that I had missed for some time, so now I very well might be able to save a plant in those conditions, but then I was just confused. I moved it around a lot too trying to get the “best” indoor conditions thinking I was the reason it hadn’t yet died when it was really just using all the energy it had stored from the sun it got the previous year, and it was slowly but steadily wearing down as that pool of energy ran down.

So I think it’s a pretty common occurrence that a lot of us have similar experiences and due to preconceived notions about “normal” plants and advice from people we know who have a ridiculous amount of experience with plants in general and further from the misinformation that is on the internet and sometimes the instructions that came with the plant, it’s fairly normal for us to go through this process.

BUT the faster you get passed it and follow the care advice from the threads on it and from the people here, the faster your plants will get better. I have a decent amount of plants now, but I stuck with just typical VFTs from Lowe’s and a ping for awhile. I just got my first cultivars about a month ago, and I got a couple plants that weren’t VFTs. I still end up with a decent amount of questions about things, but the difference is that I know to listen to folks on here and incorporate their advice as soon as I can. My plants are doing great, but it’s not because of me, it’s because I started trusting people here on advice.

As a quick last thing (I am deeply sorry for the length of this ) sometimes the forums can move a little slower like the weekends, but most of the people who actively post are experienced and if someone like me gives advice that may leave out something important or is just flat wrong, I will be corrected fairly quickly. I was worried about getting bad advice and no one noticing, but if you give it a bit someone will notice and speak up. And you will get used to seeing the same names pop up that you will find are the experienced people. I lurk a lot for information too.

Again sorry for the length of this, but I figured sharing might help you understand a bit better that a lot of us have been where you are, but the faster you can get yourself to the point where you are following advice from experienced growers, the faster your plants will get better.

(And don’t miss the post above mine because Cpgrower did give great advice as usual)

cpgrower126 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2024 3:52 am Tray watering is the way to go. Over top watering can sometimes result in root rot, so too prevent your plants from dying, follow the directions in my previous post.

My flytraps (I have a few hundred of them) get top watered all the time, either by Mother Nature or by me when rainfall is lacking. I've never had rot problems due to this. I water them until it drains into the saucer/tray; the water is gone by the next day, and I water them again the day after. My plants rarely sit in water for more than 12 hours. This past week is an exception due to all the rain from Tropical Storm Debby. They have sat in shallow water for the past 5 days, and they're doing fine. The key word here is "shallow"; the water is never more than 1 inch / 2.5 centimeters deep, usually a lot less than that.

If I’m not mistaken top watering at least sometimes is good because it can flush out potential buildup of stuff you don’t want in the soil. Mine get watered a lot with rain for that.

I am a tray “water as needed” person myself because I go outside to smoke frequently, and I always check my plants when I’m outside. If it’s a particularly hot day I sometimes have them standing in water. Never more than their tray height which is like 1 and a quarter inches to 1 and a half. I think some of this is dependent on our weather conditions, and some of it is arbitrary differences in little things from one person to the next.

I just didn’t necessarily think spraying the top would be enough. In a more shallow pot it would probably run through to the tray, but at least in the current media and pots mine are in spraying them wouldn’t do much.

Oh yeah I do mist some of my indoor plants too in addition to watering. The humidity in my house isn’t great, but a lot of my plants are fine with that.

My VFT all opened while being outside for the past week now

Ya i mist it just to keep it moist and humid but not waterlogged i sometimes bottom water but i only leave it in for 5 min bc the whole soil is soaked even tho i have perlite and peat moss mix so i take it out and let it dry out a bit but moist

Too much rain and insufficient sunlight during the day can dampen spirits and disrupt daily routines. It can affect mood, productivity, and outdoor activities, making it challenging to stay motivated. Finding indoor hobbies and maintaining a bright, cheerful indoor environment can help counteract the gloom.