FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I got a vft recently and so far it's doing good.

I know these plants like sunlight. I'm just wondering though if it may fry under the hot tropical sun where it's very humid and temperatures reach 33C on a daily basis.



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It should do fine, but I would restrict how much direct sunlight it gets, since they can burn if temps are hot continuously along with full sun!

Since they are subtropical plants that need to go dormant during winter I would also start thinking of ways to get it threw dormancy periods once a year since after to long without one they just grow week and weaker and eventually die.


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Regarding the heat you’re worried about, 33°C isn’t awful for flytraps. Mine only start get stressed from the heat after 2-3 weeks of temperatures in the 35-40°C range. Heck, mine have lived through air temperatures of ~45°C, and soil temperatures in the 50-55+°C range. It’s not good for them, but they live.

Flytraps grow best for me when it’s ~30-35°C in the day and ~25°C or so at night.

If you give it some shade in the hottest part of the day, it’ll be fine. In the past, when my flytraps had more shade in the afternoon, they didn’t get much heat stress in the summers. Now that they’re in a location with more overall sun, but also significant amounts of sun in the hottest part of the day, they get pretty stressed in the summers.

Depending on dormancy, it may or may not matter where you are. There are introduced flytraps in Jamaica, which may get a slight dormancy from the photoperiod variation at that latitude and the fact that they’re at elevation. If you’re closer to the equator, that will be too insignificant to do anything.

that dormancy phase is also one of the things i've been wondering about. when does this cycle usually start? during the winter season in the northern or southern hemisphere? my country , the philippines, is just above the equator, would dormancy be a major part of it's life cycle? i mean we've only got 2 seasons here : the rainy season and the sunny beach season.

and since it's the wet season where i'm at, is it ok to expose the plant to rain? will the rain water be bad when it mixes w/ the distilled water i use?

thanks a bunch!

Dormancy is during local winter — it varies a in timing and length based on where you are. For me, it’s late November to late February (ish).

It’s triggered by a mix of a change in day length and cooler weather — though I believe the day length change is a more significant factor.

Unfortunately, being more or less right at the equator means you don’t get much of that at all. I believe there are some other members here from other tropical places that might have better advice about growing them long-term in the tropics.

Rain is fine. My flytraps have been through massive deluges before — and they are subjected to the same in the wild (just look at the rainfall totals Hurricane Florence is bringing to their native habitat!). You don’t need to worry about it damaging them.

a lot of folks growing in warmer regions - opt for a fridge dormancy period for a few months, we haven't explored that option here as we are close to where they natively grow (well a few hours away) -- but generally speaking if you can provide them a couple months of shorter photoperiod and reducing how wet you keep them (just dont let them f ully dry out) it can help simulate dormancy -- but for more of a proper dormancy fridge is a great option. if you look around the forums or search there are some decent guides for it and I THINK one on the top links on the page for guides

https://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-t ... y-tutorial

as for the heat, ours take 35-40C during dead of summer, just make sure the media they are planted in stays moist and isn't allowed to fully dry out, we keep ours in trays with water pretty much 24/7 during the hottest spells of summer. otherwise we keep an eye on the medium once the pots dry out about 1" deep we fill the trays back up (most of our pots are 8" tall or bigger for reference)

the plant sure seems to like direct sunlight i've been exposing to it recently for a few hours a day because i've just seen 2 budding new leaflets this morning. i guess i'm doing something right.

the problem is we're currently experiencing a super typhoon so real sunlight will be scarce for the next few days. i hope that won't hinder the vft's growth development.

btw, thanks for the tips peeps!

Be careful. I’m nearly tropical in south Florida. The intensity of full sun can fry VFT. They do better in part shade. I’ve even grown them in bright shade without direct sunlight and they do ok.

I don’t do anything special for dormancy. The changing day length seems to trigger it just fine.

Florida differs from the Philippines in that there is a fairly significant change of photoperiod throughout the year — the Philippines is so close to the equator that there’s very little change in day length. Manila, for instance, only varies by 1 hour and 43 minutes of daylight over the year, while Miami varies by 3 hours and 13 minutes (about double the variance in Manila). For reference, where I am varies by 3 hours and 43 minutes, and their native habitat varies by about 5 hours and 40 minutes. That’s why I don’t know if the photoperiod change will be enough to trigger dormancy in the Philippines.

I do agree that you’ll need shade, especially in the hottest part of the day.

I'm in Hawaii where it is generally got all year round, but it is a bit north of the equator so winter days do get shorter, but it does not by any means get cold. It may average in the mid 60s during night time of winter, and sometimes even drop below 60F since I'm in the hot part of the island.

I still plan to put them in a refrigerator, and perhaps keep one out to see if they can go through a dormancy period without any interference.

Here's how my DCXLs and SD Kronos are doing so far.

Are those sarracenia seedlings in the first pot?

Yes they are definitely sarracenias. I moved them out into their own pot shortly after taking this picture, and divided out some of the clusters of fly traps. I know there's not much time left in this season so I'll leave them all in the same pot until they go dormant since they should start decreasing in size if the shorter days put them to sleep.

So far so good. As of now my vft seems to be growing healthy. Leaves/ Traps have multiplied almost 2 fold. It's looking quite the looke.
a large fly tried to escape from its clutches though. It failed and died right on the spot. Should i pry it out or just let it be?

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Which is better to use : clay pots or plastic pots?

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I finally saw my vft catching its own prey. Pretty ruthless! [FACE SCREAMING IN FEAR]

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