FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello peoples!

I'll try not to waffle

Up until a couple of weeks ago I've been keeping my VFT inside on the window sill, it's the sunniest window sill in the house and gets approx 4 hours of direct sunlight a day (through the window of course). A couple of weeks ago though my (overly?) simplistic brain figured the more sunlight the better and on most mornings have been walking my VFT to the deck outside where it can get 12+ hours of sunlight and bringing it back in sometime before sunset. If it's been very overcast or raining I've just left Charlie on the windowsill.

It occurs to me now though that maybe I'm doing more harm than good shifting Charlie around so much? Should I just leave him in one location? I thought other than the amount of sun the conditions were fairly similar but then again I'm not a VFT so maybe I'm underestimating the differences. The reason I ask is that I'm 99% sure Charlie is looking a lot more pale than what he used to, I tried looking back at some old photos but it seems the lighting in the pictures is always slightly different and affecting the colour a bit. He's also lost most of the red inside his traps, in a few the red-ish colour has even gone somewhat patchy but with new traps coming up for some reason they're very red in colour... new shoots have always been green as far as I remember.

Other than that he seems OK... I'm just worried I'm stressing him unnecessarily? Am I being paranoid?



In unrelated stuff I was trying to get four flower stalks to strike but I was out of town for six days and I think the top layer of medium dried out quite a bit and three of them look to have perished, I've left them undisturbed in the off chance there is something going on underneath but I'm not holding my breath Here's the only one that looks like it still has life in it:


When I returned from my trip I was pleasantly surprised though that Charlie had shot up another flower stalk so I left it a few more days to grow a bit and just planted it today.


Thanks,
Scuzzles

Scuzzles wrote:It occurs to me now though that maybe I'm doing more harm than good shifting Charlie around so much? Should I just leave him in one location?

I think you should move him around if you please, how cold does it get at night, because you could leave him out 24/ now that spring is approaching (I think, at least in the S/H). I move my VFt's around occasionally due to weather conditions, and I don't notice any affect on my plants.

Scuzzles wrote:I'm just worried I'm stressing him unnecessarily? Am I being paranoid?

I don't think it should be stressing him out. I think it is probably losing some of the red because when you got it they probably made it super red for looks. You are being way too paranoid Just kidding, don't worry we all have concerns and it was good to ask on here.

dantt99 wrote: I think you should move him around if you please, how cold does it get at night, because you could leave him out 24/ now that spring is approaching (I think, at least in the S/H). I move my VFt's around occasionally due to weather conditions, and I don't notice any affect on my plants.

Ok cool Hmm... they're expecting a low of 14C tonight which is about 57F apparently. On a cold night I think it could drop into the high single digits though.

Matt wrote: It won't likely hurt Charlie to be moved out to get better lighting assuming he doesn't get sunburned. Steve and I regularly move plants in and out of the greenhouse to give them direct sunlight, just like you are doing with Charlie.

Ok awesome Thanks guys!

Scuzzles wrote:Ok cool Hmm... they're expecting a low of 14C tonight which is about 57F apparently. On a cold night I think it could drop into the high single digits though.

57 sounds good for the time of year, but definetely bring him in if it gets below 50 or so