FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Okay so I'm new at this whole growing carnivorous plants thing, and I've read up on how to grow VFT's from seed. I know I could have just bought an older one, but I will most likely do that a little later. I ordered live sphagnum and have also bought some poor nutrient soil and dried sphagnum for a growing medium. I put the soil and dried sphagnum on the bottom, and moistened it extremely well, and chopped 2mm size pieces of live sphagnum on the top. I then placed my seeds on top of the living sphagnum and sprinkled just a tiny bit of dried sphagnum on the top. I sprayed it just a tiny bit, careful not to wash away the seeds. They're in humidity of around 80% and temperature ranges from 80-85 degrees. I have a fluorescent lamp above my terrarium, but I put a thin cloth over the top, because I read that they're not to have direct sunlight. Am I doing this right? Any suggestions? Thanks!

Make sure you keep the sphagnum moss moist at all times. Usually you are supposed to scatter them on top of the moss without putting anything else on top of the seeds. Instead of that cloth over the top I recommend saran rap with some holes in it to allow some airflow without losing a lot of the humidity. I think you should place it the container with seeds underneath your fluorescent where it can get light without the high heat. Direct sunlight can really raise the temperature around the seeds especially with little airflow, which may disrupt seed germination. Besides some minor things that mentioned above I think you are good to go! Just know to make sure the seeds are always in a moist media. The top of the container dries out the fastest which is the part you actually want to make moist all the time. The seedlings will have very small root systems that barely grow into the deeper moss.

Good luck with your growing! VFT's do take a while to germinate so have some patience as well!

skylahaily wrote:Okay so I'm new at this whole growing carnivorous plants thing...

Welcome! You've come to the right place. I've learned so much from this friendly forum and its knowledgeable members since I first joined last year. And all of my flytraps are happy and healthy, with a ravenous appetite for bugs.

skylahaily wrote:...I've read up on how to grow VFT's from seed. I know I could have just bought an older one, but I will most likely do that a little later.

As fun as it is to have a fully grown flytrap, growing them from seed is very rewarding. I started growing some from seed this year. Now they're already five weeks old, and they are just so darn cute!

skylahaily wrote:I ordered live sphagnum and have also bought some poor nutrient soil and dried sphagnum for a growing medium.

I'm just curious as to what kind of nutrient poor soil it is that you bought?

skylahaily wrote:I have a fluorescent lamp above my terrarium, but I put a thin cloth over the top, because I read that they're not to have direct sunlight. Am I doing this right? Any suggestions? Thanks!

When using artificial lighting, I doubt you'd even need a shade cloth of any kind. For mine, I had them in a location that received hardly any light at all. But that location kept them at a constant 80°F, and I kept them covered so that they stayed relatively humid. After two weeks, when I noticed the first seed begin to germinate, I moved them under my florescent grow light and kept them covered up until the majority of the seeds germinated. I took the plastic covering off daily, so that they could get fresh air and water when needed. And I gave them roughly 14hr days/10hr nights. I recommend using (I forget the exact name of them...) one of those clear plastic food covers that has a rubber band attached to the edges of it, so that it shrinks to fit whatever it is you put them on. Using one of them makes things a lot easier for when you're having to take it on and off of the container over and over again.

Here's an example picture of what I am talking about (kitty not included, lol)...

Kittens with shower caps by Amber Grundy, on Flickr

Oh wait a second, I just remembered that yours are in a terrarium, so I don't think that my plastic food covering idea would work. Oh well, I'll still leave the pic up just to show what I was talking about anyways. For me, it worked great, but mine wasn't tinted any colors like the one that the kitty is wearing, HaHa. Mine was clear and had no coloring of any kind. Anyways, I've rambled on long enough and it's getting late, so I'll go ahead and wrap this up. Happy growing!

Hi Skylahaily, welcome!

skylahaily wrote:Okay so I'm new at this whole growing carnivorous plants thing...

Me too!

Welcome! You've come to the right place. I've learned so much from this friendly forum and its knowledgeable members since I first joined last year. And all of my flytraps are happy and healthy, with a ravenous appetite for bugs.

So right Tom_e_boy! I've have bin on the forum for a couple of months only and learned tons! People here are so nice and helpfull! There is lots of basic care info here to grow from seed and more if you use the research tool in the top right corner.

I also started to grow VFT seeds before I was tempted a couple weeks later to rescue one plant in a hardware store! True it's so rewarding to grow from seed and still captivating even if the growth is relatively slow. Here are pics of my 2 month old seedlings and rescued typical VFT the kids call Rex!

Good luck with your project. Keep us posted!

tom_e_boi wrote: I doubt you'd even need a shade cloth of any kind

Okay I'll definitely take that into consideration! Haha!

tom_e_boi wrote: Here's an example picture of what I am talking about (kitty not included, lol)...

This is hilarious, and I seriously love cats! So thank you for making my day!

I hope that mine start to germinate, all of my fingers are crossed!

Thanks so much for all of these posts! They are educating and make me want to grow more of these little guys!