FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

[Panamera]

Hey,

my fly trap is sittin on on the window sill atm. had it for 3 days. going well now. on a lil tray of rain water. just worried about the sun,
ive read everywhere it needs DIRECT sunlight. as in the yellow light. but as awesome as my house is the windows are on the sides of the walls where there is no direct ray of sunshine zoomin in.
so it just gets normal daylight. especialy now that its been rainy for a week.

will this be ok? i mean just normal daylight. or is it gonna die?

oh yeah heres a pic of mine. will replant in a bigger pot at some stage. when its stronger


thanks

[Matt]

ive read everywhere it needs DIRECT sunlight. as in the yellow light. but as awesome as my house is the windows are on the sides of the walls where there is no direct ray of sunshine zoomin in.

Why not put it outside?

[manzano167]

there are Q's i have 1st is which state and city your in 2nd is its going to HAVE to go through dormany i leave my plants outside where its not raining but its outside i think thats all

[Panamera]

I dunno, that never occured to me. trust me, as green as this country is. its full of nasty things that wana gobble up my plant. not to mention the constant floods of rain.

is it a problem with the current lighting keeping it inside?

Oh and im in auckland New zealand so we're just going into spring atm. winter has finished. not sure about the dormacy being still with US times or not

[Matt]

I dunno, that never occured to me. trust me, as green as this country is. its full of nasty things that wana gobble up my plant. not to mention the constant floods of rain.

is it a problem with the current lighting keeping it inside?

Yes, typically plants grown indoors don't do well without supplemental lighting. I'd highly recommend putting it outside, but a south facing window could work too. If you're worried about animals messing with it, you can build some sort of cage or put it somewhere that it's a little protected. I built a cage with chicken wire and small boards to place over the top of my plants before I had a greenhouse.

Oh and im in auckland New zealand so we're just going into spring atm. winter has finished. not sure about the dormacy being still with US times or not

Yeah, you've got an entire growing season to go before you need to worry about dormancy. You got your plant at a good time! It will start looking really awesome in a month or so if given good care.

[Panamera]

Awesome =). should i be thinking about repotting it in something bigger? or would it be fine for now ?

[kevinqwe]

welcome to flytrapcare!

no you dont need to, that pot is perfect

[Matt]

Awesome =). should i be thinking about repotting it in something bigger? or would it be fine for now ?

That's a pretty good sized pot for a VFT. But the deeper the pot, the better. Given enough room, flytraps can get roots 12 inches long (30cm) or longer. And the longer the roots, the healthier the plant will be and the faster it will grow and divide.

[Panamera]

Great, maybe i can look at something deeper in the future, should be ok with what it has now. what about the redness inside the traps? is that good? would you say? well adequate

[Matt]

what about the redness inside the traps? is that good? would you say? well adequate

In the spring, traps usually don't color up much. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the type of light emitted by the sun that time of year. Or it could just be the way the plant is programmed to grow. But yes, your plant is showing good color for spring traps.

[Panamera]

Mine's doing pretty well id say, growing fine. but its not getting direct sunlight, just light from outside. moving it upstairs i noticed how direct and strong the sunlight is.

so is going from no direct sunlight to ALOT of direct strong sunlight 12 hours a day ok?

[Matt]

so is going from no direct sunlight to ALOT of direct strong sunlight 12 hours a day ok?

It might burn a bit from the sun, but this time of year the sun isn't as intense, so it might not.

[Panamera]

lol im in the southern hamisphere, summer is just starting, spring is here now. the sun burns!!!!! it gave me a headache sitting by the window looking at the trap for 5 mins. so i took it down to my room again lol.

so i guess its either a burnt plant or lots of fungus gnat flies in my room....hmm

[Matt]

lol im in the southern hamisphere, summer is just starting, spring is here now.

Ah, that's right. Well, if your plant does burn a bit, it will send out new growth that will be hardened off, so there isn't much to worry about. I'd vote for getting it as much sun as you can as soon as possible.

[Veronis]

I agree with Matt's advice of putting it outside year-round. It'll be a lot healthier that way.

Granted, if you get strong fluorescent lights you can keep it indoors, but VFT's *require* dormancy every year, so if grown under fluorescents, helping them go dormant every year (especially being in a zone 10, as I *think* you are) can be a real hassle.

As far as repotting, if you are going to - mid-growing-season is not the time to do it; you want to repot just as winter is giving way to spring. Repotting puts VFT's into shock because you disturb the roots and they stop growing for a time. You don't have to repot at all - it looks like it's already in a 50/50 mix of peat and perlite, which is exactly what I use. You'll want to change the soil it's in once a year (or every two years at the longest).

Pot size is fine for that VFT right now, but whenever you do repot it, I'd get a pot that's about 5" diameter and 6" deep, with drainage holes, and put it in a 1" deep tray (you can water at the tray, you rarely need to top-water).

Most importantly, read these when you have time:
VFT Water: http://www.flytrapcare.com/the-importan ... traps.html
VFT Soil: http://www.flytrapcare.com/media-soil-f ... traps.html
VFT Light needs: http://www.flytrapcare.com/the-importan ... traps.html

Good luck! Keep us updated with pics and all that.