i have just purchased a Venus fly trap and i have no idea how to take care of it does any1 have any advice plz

Question

his name is bob

Answer 1

If you go to this website http://www.cobraplant.com Bob will be guaranteed a long healthy life. The fellows at Sarracenia Northwest have care sheets on their webpage as well as a blog. There is an Ask the Experts option there also. I was a frustrated Venus Flytrap grower for many years until I ran up on Jeff and Jacob's site. Now I have about 30 growing outside in a tub that have been there happily for three years.

Answer 2

Do you have an all electric home? Venus Fly Traps can withstand NO natural gas, propane, butane, etc.. they will die from a very tiny amount.

I once lived in an apartment above a water heater that used natural gas.. and it was killed by the gas even though I could never smell anything or detect it with a detector.

OK.. a cool way to feed them... catch flies and put one into a baggie/bottle that you put over the plant (try the gallon size baggie or a very large restaurant size pickle jar) and eventually the fly will land on the plant and you can watch it get eaten.

Answer 3

When Venus fly trap plants grow in the wild, they grow in swampy/boggy areas, so that's the kind of situation you should try to reproduce. Make sure the soil is wet most of the time; feed with a balanced fertilizer at 1/4 strength. Give it plenty of light, but do NOT put it in direct sunlight - fluorescent light is better. Be sure it has plenty of warmth; assuming it's indoors, then that shouldn't be a problem, of course.

Tell Bob that my rubber plant Roscoe Ficus says hello! ;-)

Answer 4

Water when dry, and depending on size you can feed very small baby crickets bought at the pet shop, or tiny chunks of hamburger meat raw... just drop the cricket into the "mouth" and it will close on it have fun!

Answer 5

Ok..time to dispell the myths! :)

" feed with a balanced fertilizer at 1/4 strength"

WRONG! never feed carnivorous plants ANY fertilizer..it will kill them.

"Give it plenty of light, but do NOT put it in direct sunlight - fluorescent light is better."

Wrong! Venus Fly traps THRIVE in direct sunlight..they need and require as much direct sunlight as they can get..
this "no direct sunlight" myth comes from the fact that store-bought VFT's are not used to direct sun..and when they are placed in direct sun the leaves will burn! but thats ok, because when new leaves come out they will be adapted to the sun and will *not* burn..eventually you will have lots of new leaves/traps and the original burned leaves can be cut off.
You can also try to slowly acclimate a new plant to direct sun, which might lessen the burning, but im my experience this isnt necessary.

Lets see..all plants grow naturally outdoors right?
in full sunlight right?
been doing it that way for millions of years right?
so how could flourescent light be "better"?? ;)

"or tiny chunks of hamburger meat raw"

Wrong! never feed hamburger to a VFT..
they cant handle animal fat..hamburger will kill the individual trap, (but probably not the whole plant)

"Do you have an all electric home? Venus Fly Traps can withstand NO natural gas, propane, butane, etc.. they will die from a very tiny amount."

never heard that one before! its not true..
if the VFT died, it was because it was grown indoors, not because of natural gas fumes.

I have been growing Venus Fly Traps and sarracenia (american pitcher plants) for 12 years now..
there are four simple rules that MUST be followed, and one suggestion that is a very good idea, but not essential:

Essential Rule #1:
VFTs must have very pure water..distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water ONLY..no tap water! ever.. because tap water contains minerals that build up in the soil over time and will eventually kill the plant. VFT's should be kept watered using the "tray method", which means the pot is kept sitting in a deep saucer that always has 1 to 3 inches of water in it.

Essential Rule #2:
VFTs must be grown in pure peat moss (with no fertilizer added) or pure long fibre spagnum moss, or a mix of peat moss and clean sand..no other soil mixes..and definately not any kind of "houseplant" or "potting" soil.
I prefer pure peat with a top dressing of spagnum moss.
some people like sand, but I dont use sand because its hard to know if the sand contains dangerous minerals or not.

Essential Rule #3:
Lots of bright direct sunlight! put them out in that blazing hot direct sun! yes, some leaves might burn if its a recently bought VFT..thats ok, the plant will recover. it NEEDS the bright light!

Essential rule #4:
VFT's MUST have a winter dormancy, every winter, without fail..if you give them a winter dormancy, your plants will live and thrive for decades..if you try to keep them growing indoors all winter, like in a terrarium, they will quickly weaken and die. VFT's are native to North Carolina, where they get a cool, but not frigid, winter dormancy..
Ideally VFT's would like a temperature between 35 and 45 degrees F for 3 months every winter.
If you live in an area where winters are cool, but not too cold, you can probably leave them outdoors all winter.
I live in Rochester, NY, and our winters are FAR too cold..so I put my plants in the refrigirator every winter!

Suggestion #1:
VFTs do SOOOO much better if you grow them outdoors, not indoors. they dont do well as indoor houseplants.
outdoors is SOOO much better because:
you can easily give them the bright direct sunlight they need.
they can easily catch their own food!
they naturally get the "dormancy cues" that tells them that winter is approaching..if your plant is outdoors all summer, then into fall, then into winter, its gets the slowly gradually decreasing photoperiod and temperatures that tells it "winter is coming, time to prepare for another dormancy"..this process takes MONTHS..just like any other plant outside.

If you grow the plant indoors, like in a terrarium, it has problems..because the light and temp is always the same! the plant is not "aware" that autumn and winter are coming, and it cant "get ready" for dormancy..
if you take a plant that was in a terrarium all summer and autumn, and try to put it in the fridge in November for its winter dormancy, it will die..because it wasnt prepared..

If you follow these rules, your VFT will do great!
its really not hard to grow them, they just need specific requirements met.

pure water.
correct "soil" (peat/spagnum moss)
no fertilizer!
bright light
winter dormancy.

when a VFT dies, its almost always because one of those things wasnt done right.

Check the forums here:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/index.php
for more details if you like.

and there is an excellent VFT FAQ here:
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2000.html

Scot

Answer 6

they eat flies