FlyTrapCare Forums

So just wanted to see if anyone had experience or knowledge on this. Recently got back into CPs and was reading quite a few people mentioning that you shouldn't leave flytraps in sitting water because their roots will rot. Now this came as a surprise to me because I had always grown flytraps in sitting water and it never seemed to cause any issues for them. So I did a bit of searching and found a post by I believe Matt, where if I remember correctly he experimented with growing flytraps in very shallow sitting water and letting the tray dry before adding more water. His theory was that by doing this it promotes more root growth because the plant needs more roots to get to the water, versus if you have it in deep sitting water they don't need as many roots because the water is already there.

So this brings me to yesterday, I was looking at some old photos I took when I was repotting, and noticed all my sarracenia had very short bushy roots. Now this was kinda surprising to me becuase I always had this mental image of sarracenia having tons of roots that filled up the pot. Despite the short roots, the rhizome were filling up the entire pot which was why I was repotting them. So this got me thinking, maybe sarracenia are the exact same as flytraps in the root growing respect, because personally I always grew my sarracenia in deep sitting water, sometimes halfway up the pot if not more.

So my question is, has anyone ever had any experience with this type of thing? Is it better to have longer roots or does it matter?

I've attached photos of my short rooted sarracenia (doreen's colossus and purpurea), both grown in 6 inch pots

I read somewhere on here that letting them get close to dying out before completely saturating the pot promotes best root growth because of the airation. So that is what I have done with my flytraps. I'll see if that is true when I do a re-pot.

Longer roots allow the plant to grow taller above ground. It also just contributes to the plant's overall health.

sss wrote:Recently got back into CPs and was reading quite a few people mentioning that you shouldn't leave flytraps in sitting water because their roots will rot. Now this came as a surprise to me because I had always grown flytraps in sitting water and it never seemed to cause any issues for them.

While flytraps can sit in water all the time in some warmer climates and rarely have problems, it is much better for them to keep the soil moist rather than soaking wet all the time. As you wrote above, it stimulates root growth, which allows the plant to grow to a larger size. Also, the risk of disease is much higher when flytraps are sitting in water all the time. Here in Oregon where our nights are rarely above 50°F, even in the summer months, many of our flytraps will succumb to mold and crown rot if kept too wet all the time.

Other growers around the US and world, typically in warmer climates, find great success leaving their plants sitting in water all the time. But the biggest flytraps I've ever seen were growing in a warmer climate and were expertly watered to keep the soil "just moist" most of the time. They were exceptionally healthy and developed very substantial roots systems and the biggest rhizomes and large leaves and traps I've ever seen.

sss wrote:So this got me thinking, maybe sarracenia are the exact same as flytraps in the root growing respect, because personally I always grew my sarracenia in deep sitting water, sometimes halfway up the pot if not more.

So my question is, has anyone ever had any experience with this type of thing? Is it better to have longer roots or does it matter?

Sarracenia seem to be less concerned with the moisture level of the soil and will usually fill a pot entirely with roots even if left sitting in water all the time. It seems to me that the size of the pot determines the root length rather than the moisture level.

Though Sarracenia can develop very elaborate root systems too, which can lead to larger and healthier plants, they seem to be able to grow very large and vigorously regardless of how wet they are kept. They differ from flytraps drastically in this way. Though, that same grower that grew the largest flytraps I've ever seen grew his Sarracenia the same way and they were large and gorgeous too. However, I've always grown ours by putting them in 5 inch pots and keeping them in 2-3 inches of water and they rarely have any health issues, other than in winter (mold), and grow very elaborate root systems even in the water they sit in. I've never seen a Sarracenia stunted or unhealthy from too much water, but I have seen them not grow as vigorously when not receiving as much water as they want. I'd err on the side of more water for Sarracenia and less water (though always moist soil!!) for Flytraps.

Here in Orlando florida, I used to find it necessary to keep my flytraps and sarracenia sitting in water at all times due to the intense heat. Now that I have a constant source of pure water (reverse osmosis system) I am able to properly moderate the moisture of the soil without fear of running out of pure water and just sticking them in trays. I find that my sarracenia didn't really care and, like Matt said, they grew extensive root systems anyway. My flytraps however seemed less vigorous when I had them sitting in trays compared to just keeping the soil appropriately moist.

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I came across this discussion and I know its an older one but still wanted to reply since I thought it was interesting. Watering flytraps correctly can be tricky, especially when you are dealing with extreme temperatures like the ones out here in Phoenix, Arizona. For quite awhile throughout the summer I would keep my flytraps constantly in water because I figured since it was so hot (110+ F) that they would benefit most from this. However I started to notice that some of the traps on my flytraps would close very slowly, or not at all. I started asking around on the forum and found out that one of the reasons that this was happening was because I was keeping the plants too wet. (Other reasons included not enough sunlight and the extreme temperatures)

It honestly kind of amazed me that even with how extreme the temperatures were, I could still be over watering the flytraps, but in time I realized that this was definitely one of the problems I was having. The way I corrected this problem is in the summer time I will now water either everyday or every other day depending on how hot it is going to be, and I will let the flytraps soak in a bowl of water for 30 minutes to an hour. My flytraps seem to do very well watering them like this. This is how I watered them this whole summer (2021) and it has worked out great!

For Sarracenia I don't have a lot of experience with them but I do have 3 plants. I always have them sitting in water especially during the summer and will usually have to fill their bowls up everyday because they get dried up so fast. The Sarracenia really don't seem to mind always sitting in water.

What type are they? Some like it soggy. Others, like leucos like it on the drier side. Oreos like it wet in the summer and drier in the fall.