FlyTrapCare Forums

Hi everyone, I’m thinking about growing my Purpurea Venosa and Psittacina giant on an east facing windowsill. However, I have some questions of concern:

1.) In Australia, winters are nowhere near as cold as the winters in America. And on top of that, if the plants are growing on a windowsill indoors, will they receive enough of a temperature drop to go dormant?
2.) if carnivorous plants are required to be sitting in trays of stagnant water, won’t that attract mosquitoes? The last thing I’d want is for mosquitoes to infest my room, especially with its future generations. So is there anyway to avoid the possibilities of a mosquito invasion?

Your advice and answers are appreciated

You could just put your sarracenia in the fridge or in another cold, dark place when they need to go dormant. You can always top water carnivorous plants instead of using the tray method. The tray method is better when you have a lot of plants and not enough time to top water them all.

I had a S. Bugbat on an east facing windowsill for years, and it did just fine. It even flowered multiple times each year. I had it in a container of water constantly and never had a mosquito issue, just an issue of the occasional smell of stagnant water. That was easily remedied by changing the water and cleaning the container, which helps alleviate the possibility of mosquitoes using it as their nursery.

sanguinearocks101 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 1:36 pm You could just put your sarracenia in the fridge or in another cold, dark place when they need to go dormant. You can always top water carnivorous plants instead of using the tray method. The tray method is better when you have a lot of plants and not enough time to top water them all.

I’m thinking of keeping them indoors year round though, not just for dormancy

ChefDean wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 2:22 pm I had a S. Bugbat on an east facing windowsill for years, and it did just fine. It even flowered multiple times each year. I had it in a container of water constantly and never had a mosquito issue, just an issue of the occasional smell of stagnant water. That was easily remedied by changing the water and cleaning the container, which helps alleviate the possibility of mosquitoes using it as their nursery.

Wow that’s amazing, and it was still able to pick up on natures cues to go dormant? Also, how frequently did you change the water? Roughly speaking

Did you use anything special for the pots water saucer? Or just a regular garden saucer from local shop will do?

EGROEG wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 3:31 amWow that’s amazing, and it was still able to pick up on natures cues to go dormant? Also, how frequently did you change the water? Roughly speaking

Did you use anything special for the pots water saucer? Or just a regular garden saucer from local shop will do?

It never went dormant, and, before we moved, I gave it to my wife's aunt. She also put it on an east facing windowsill, did everything I did, and (from what she tells me) it's still going strong. The only thing I thought was weird, the pitchers, although robust, never formed their own digestive juice. I would put a few drops of distilled water down if I noticed a bug that had become trapped, but only enough to cover the bug, and the plant would do the rest.
As for the water container, I used an old plastic food container that was about 1 inch in diameter larger than the pot, and kept the water level about halfway up the pot.