FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello!
I've been trying for the past 3 months to grow some flytraps from seeds. I succeeded last year but went skiing for a week and my "automated" watering system failed and so all my seedlings dried out. I have been buying the seeds from ebay and continuing to do so because the first seeds I bought germinated within 2 weeks. However, all the seeds I have bought since the first seedlings died, have failed to germinate.

I currently grow the seeds in a container that I got from a starter set, with the soil that came with it. I also have an incandescent light bulb in order to keep the seeds nice and warm, around 30 degrees celcius. Since all the seeds I bought have failed to germinate so far, I finally decided to buy a batch of seeds from the flytrap store.

Finally to my question: Will the same soil I bought roughly 6 months ago still be a good medium for the new seeds I have bought? The soil has constantly been watered and heated for the past 3 months and I fear that something other than flytraps may be growing there. The only thing that is visible is some kind of green algae growing on the perlite. Maybe it's fungi, and I heard that is really bad for flytraps.

Any help or suggestions are very much appreciated!

It wouldn't hurt to use new medium. Pure unadulterated sphagnum moss would be OK, although many people (myself included) prefer to add a substantial amount of silica sand (no other kind of sand) or perlite, to keep it from being so dense and soggy.

The extra heat is a good idea, and the seeds will germinate much faster with it. A covered germination container (with holes for ventilation) will help prevent rapid drying of the surface of the medium, which could kill the emerging roots of germinating Venus Flytraps before they can dig into the medium.

The article about growing Venus Flytraps from seed at FlytrapCare.com is a fairly good one, if you haven't already read it. And there are many posts here at the FlytrapCare Forum about growing Venus Flytraps from seed, if you care to do a search.

Good luck.