FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Sbrown72 wrote:I live in Indiana, should l bring it in? And if so can I put it in a east facing window until the temperature outside reaches around 40 degrees?

What do you mean? Bring it in when?

What temperature should I bring it in for the winter? Again I live in Indiana. And will putting it in an East facing window be ok?

I would bring it in right before it frosts. They can survive frosts, but it's better to lean on the side of caution.

I'm in Northeast Ohio and my fly traps survived frozen pots. They didn't like it at all though. I was removing death for about a month and a half after the freeze.

I hope this helps!

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Quick question! With shorter days and cooler weather (hopefully) approaching, I've got dormancy on my mind (zone 7 here, in the Ohio river valley!).

It's been a very long time since I've grown temperate plants, so I'm not totally confident in my gut.I'm thinking I'll move my flytrap to a sheltered corner by my back door, where it's shielded from the wind but can still get some morning sun. I'm hoping that being bounded by two brick walls of a heated apartment building will help buffer colder temperatures a bit.

Do you this is sufficient for everyday protection? When the forecast calls for temps lower than 20F or for freezing winds I can move it to an unheated basement. I'm just wondering how this will fare for our average mid-winter weather, with daytime temps in the 30s-40s, and nighttime temps in the mid-upper 20s to lower 30s.

Thanks for the help y'all. And happy growing!

lavandulum wrote:Quick question! With shorter days and cooler weather (hopefully) approaching, I've got dormancy on my mind (zone 7 here, in the Ohio river valley!).

It's been a very long time since I've grown temperate plants, so I'm not totally confident in my gut.I'm thinking I'll move my flytrap to a sheltered corner by my back door, where it's shielded from the wind but can still get some morning sun. I'm hoping that being bounded by two brick walls of a heated apartment building will help buffer colder temperatures a bit.

Do you this is sufficient for everyday protection? When the forecast calls for temps lower than 20F or for freezing winds I can move it to an unheated basement. I'm just wondering how this will fare for our average mid-winter weather, with daytime temps in the 30s-40s, and nighttime temps in the mid-upper 20s to lower 30s.

Thanks for the help y'all. And happy growing!

If the temperature in the area where it will be doesn't drop below 35 it will be just fine.

Hello
Thanks for the post as it will help me a lot. I have a Sarracenia, a Darlingtonia, A Venus fly trap, a Nepenthes, and a Pinguicula, but don't know how to provide dormancy for them. I live in the uk but don't know if it will drop below 0 Celsius. Can i grow any of them outside?
Also, regarding lighting, if I grow them on my window sill and it is naturally getting colder, but does anyone know if the plants count light from my bedroom light as sunlight?
Thanks very much

Tomm02 wrote:Hello
Thanks for the post as it will help me a lot. I have a Sarracenia, a Darlingtonia, A Venus fly trap, a Nepenthes, and a Pinguicula, but don't know how to provide dormancy for them. I live in the uk but don't know if it will drop below 0 Celsius. Can i grow any of them outside?
Also, regarding lighting, if I grow them on my window sill and it is naturally getting colder, but does anyone know if the plants count light from my bedroom light as sunlight?
Thanks very much

i live in the netherlands and the temperature in the winter can get up to -12C, plants such as sarracenia, darlingtonia and venus fly traps should be able to survive those freezes, but its still best to place them somewhere out of wind and rain(snow). plants such as pinguicula (depending on the species) and nepenthes dont need dormancy and need to be grown indoors at temperatures of around 20-25'C.

but if this is the first winter for you plants i suggest that you do it the same as i do (this will also be my first winter). keep them indoors at a temperature between 0-10'C, and when spring comes and they are close to getting out of dormancy, put them in a big pot outside so that they have at least 6 months to grow big and strong for the next winter in which you should be able to leave them outside.

and a window sill which gets sunlight if good, but during dormancy they dont need a lot of light.

Hello Venus fly trap enthusiasts. This is my first dormancy and I feel fairly confident I am doing it correctly but thought I would show you my set up and ask for any thoughts or suggestions.
I live in northern Connecticut near the Massachusetts border and it gets very cold during the winter. I have had my plants outside from the spring until October and they've been growing great.
I have set up my plants under a grow light in my garage that still gets very cold but most of the time not freezing. I have my grow lights on a timer that I've been adjusting to meet the sunrise and sunset times every week. I will continue to adjust it down timewise through December and then the other way up until May when I will bring them back outside.
Please take a look at my pics and let me know your thoughts. Thank you so much for any help.

Looks fine, light isn't critical during dormancy. Mine spend the winter in my fridge!

Been on this forum for a while and love the great information, but this will be my first post. I am new to CPs and bought this young adult B52 and young Wally a few months ago from the FTS (they arrived healthy and gorgeous and Matt and Leah are awesome). I was hoping they'd go dormant indoors as it's too cold to leave them outside in pots here in CO and I don't have a window in the garage.

My plants get full sun through the double-paned clear glass (high altitude sun is STRONG), and I believe the shorter days have triggered dormancy. All the largest, tallest traps have died, the plants are about a third the size they were when I got them, but there is still a lot of new growth, so I know they're not dying.

I wanted to compare with the pictures on the first post, but unfortunately, i can't see them. Can anyone tell me if mine look dormant? I have already cut off most of the black, dead traps. Thanks so much for the help.

And yes, Wally has an intruder. I originally thought it was a new vft until it started looking suspiciously like a strawberry plant (and it was kept next to strawberry plants when it was outside). I will remove and repot the offender soon.

Orit wrote:Can anyone tell me if mine look dormant?

Yes, those are very healthy looking dormant flytraps. They should come back in the spring very large and robust.

is it possible for fly traps to go dormant when the only time during the day the temperature drops below 12C is at night? i keep mine in a cold windowsill, but during the day the temperature can go up to 20C, while during the night it can get close to freezing but is usually around 5-6C.

i keep the fly trap in the same pot as some of my sarracenia, which have stopped growing, so they should be fully dormant by now. but the flytrap is still producing quite some new leaves.

Yaaay, thanks, Matt! Glad I'm doing something right.

Aozora, as I have just learned firsthand, the answer is yes. I have read that the amount of daylight is considered to be a stronger driver of dormancy than temperatures, and now Matt has confirmed that mine are dormant, and they are kept almost entirely indoors over the winter (where it's well above 12 c, even in that old, drafty window). I do put them outside in the sun if it's above freezing and I'm home, but that is rare.

i just noticed a teeny tiny flower stalk growing from my flytrap, which is weird as its only getting like 8 hours of light a day and according to te reply i got above it should be in full dormancy mode.

would it harm the plant if i just let the flower stalk stay? i mean, its so tiny i cant even reach it with a pair of sciccors and i dont even know if it will grow considering it should be dormant.

There seems to be some argument about when to bring VFTs in when it gets too cold. From my observations and personal experience, VFTs, Sarrs, Darlingtonia, and other temperate CPs can easily survive freezes into the low 20s as long as there are no freezing winds to dry them out. The fear of pots freezing in a tray of water also seems to be overstated. My 'King Henry' VFTs still have carnivorous leaves on them and we just had a freeze down to 22 last week. Snow is also your friend, as it will insulate the plants and not let them get as cold as the actual air temperature around them.