FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

[Bob]

Right now it’s starting to get chilly, I’m in hardiness zone 6a, but I am worried about bringing it indoors, since it is warm and there is a lot of light.

[ChefDean]

Do you have a garage? Maybe it will stay a touch warmer than outside so your plant doesn't freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw.
I just put my temperate cp's to bed in my garage over the weekend. It has no window, unheated, but insulated, and they won't come out until March-ish +/-.
If you don't have a garage, maybe a shed with a space heater on low to keep it just above freezing. Or you might want to read up on refrigerator dormancy.
Good luck.

[Panman]

Perfect timing. I was going ask you about light. This is my first year wintering my pots in a shed. It is uninsulated with minimal light but it is in the sun so that will keep it a tad warmer. Past years, everything has been in bogs so I just buried them under leaves. I could have tried that with the pots, but I'm not ready to risk losing some.

[Bob]

I’m worried about the plant going into shock though. Is it fine if it hasn’t gone into dormancy yet?

[Bob]

I think that a Venus flytrap in dormancy can survive without light as long as it’s cold but not freezing, but I’m not sure.

[Bixtor36]

I'm in 6B and have brought flytraps in to my garage (pretty much no light) and a storage room off the side of my garage by a southeast window. Both ways they stay above freezing and both have provided successful dormancies. This year, I am doing the storage room again. So far so good I have actually kept some VFT seedlings in the window year round for 2 years without issue, other than they don't get enough light so they're still pretty small.

[Bob]

But my vft hasn’t gone into dormancy yet, so wouldn’t bringing it into the garage without light put it in shock?

[Bob]

The Venus flytrap had been outdoors and gets roughly 9 and and a half hours of sun a day. Should I move it directly into my garage with no sun or slowly cut off the daylight hours?

[tommyr]

Right now it’s starting to get chilly, I’m in hardiness zone 6a, but I am worried about bringing it indoors, since it is warm and there is a lot of light.

For VFTs, in mid – October once the plants are well into the start of dormancy I drain off excess water from the pots, hit them with a SULFUR based fungicide and place in zip lock bags and pop them in the fridge for 3 - 3 1/2 months. I occasionally check them (once a month) for fungus and hit with the fungicide if needed. Late winter around February 1st I take them out and clean them up, repot any that need it, hit them with SULFUR based fungicide again and place in a south and west window and some under florescent and white 'daylight' LED lights until night time temps. regularly stay above freezing then slowly acclimate them to full outdoor Sun. I've been using this method for 13 years with no losses.