FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm located in the 7b area in NJ and pretty new to carnivorous plants. I've been interested in vft and was given a growing kit for Christmas one year and tried to grow it in the Spring and had no success. This year I decided to spontaneously pick up a dionaea muscipula at Home Depot and have done a lot of reading.

My fiance and I have since turned this into a couples hobby and our first project was creating a terrarium for our fvt. While picking up supplies we also picked up another 3 vft (1 4" and 2 2") and a sarracenia purpurea. We added the 2 2" and our first vft in a terrarium and so far they've adapted well. We have yet to do anything with the 4" dionaea muscipula and sarracenia purpurea but we're working on it.

I'm hoping to get advice and tips from experienced growers as our goal is to keep these carnivorous plants as long as possible and maybe one day learn to harvest seeds and grow our own, unsure how that works now but we're willing to learn!

Welcome to the forums! I am also in NJ but I am in zone 6b. Growing vfts from seeds takes a very long time, it can take up to 5 years to get a mature plant. Does the terrarium have drainage holes? If it does not I would highly recommend putting one in.

I agree about the drainage holes. Even if you are able to successfully maintain a good water level, you run the potential of minerals building up in the soil with no way to flush them out. In your pictures you use a lot of different types of rocks. While very pretty, you need to be careful that they won't leach minerals into the soil. VFTs don't handle that very well. I would even be leery of the rocks in the water tray. If you don't know for a fact that they are safe, then it is best not to use them. Glass marbles should be safe and give you the appearance you are going for.

No holes in the terrarium but we have a siphon pump to change the water monthly or when needed.
As for the rocks we used white river rocks and rinsed them several times before. The bottom are rocks, the layer ontop of rocks is rinsed sand, on top of the sand is 1:1 sand and perlite, top of that layer is 1:1:1 sand, perlite and peat moss then the top layer is 2:1:1 peat, perlite and sand.

We basically mimicked this tutorial https://youtu.be/QgmYa-SJ3IA

Think about buying a glass-drill bit and popping some holes in. Excellent couples project too, as you will need one person to man the drill and another to continually flush the cutting surface with water.

Careful. If you consider this give it a quick google. I've done glass/masonry drilling before and it's not too bad.

That said, I've run into a couple mistakes, especially with safety. Please wear eyewear and a mask while drilling through glass. Also, a water flush is not optional, as many websites say. It's mandatory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_NtTBTGp20 is a good video to watch.