Starting a carnivorous plant garden.?

Question

In a 3ft tall x 2ft wide x 1 1/2ft deep aquarium. Need help in sun and soil. Plants are Venus Fly Trap, Yellow Trumpet, Hooded Pitcher Plant, Purple Pitcher Plant, Pale Trumpet, Temperate Sundew Plants and Cobra Lillies.

Answer 1

If you are going to grow carnivorous plants then you need to do it right from the start. You can keep them outside in full sun or in a terrarium, but I recommend that you not keep them in thier origional container because their roots need room to grow and there is not enough air. Also, if you are going to keep them in a terrarium then make sure you do not put the terrarium in direct sunlight. What a lot of people do not know is that carnivorous plants do best outside in the open air and in full sun. They can be planted directly in the soil, but the poorer the soil the better. They are cold tolerant up to 20 degrees and actually need to be winterized and go into hibernation in order to do well next season. If your temps drop below 20 then you can keep them in an unheated garage or garden shed. If you keep them in a terrarium then you can force them into hibernation or dormancy and I will give you the site that explains how to do this. As for watering, carnivorous plants are bog plants and their soil needs to stay moist all the times. If you grow them in a terrarium this should not be a problem, however, if you grow them outside you will need to place them in a saucer of water and make sure you keep the saucer full at all times. As for feeding them, check out the expertvillage video I've included and it will answer all your questions.

carnivorous plant NoNos:
No meat of any kind. Meat rots and it will kill them
No fertilizer of any kind. Even the smallest amount of fertilizer will kill carnivorous plants. Pot carnivorous plants in a 50/50 mix of peat moss and perlite only.
No straight tap water. Use filtered tap, aged tap, distilled or rain water (preferred)

Here are some sites that will help you with just about everything you need to know about growing carnivorous plants. They will help you with everything including which plants to choose. Good Luck and have fun.

Information:
http://www.cobraplant.com/venus-flytrap.html
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/carnivorousplants?starvote=2&pid=153840
Contains a Section on dormancy:
http://www.the-venus-flytrap.com/venus-flytrap-help.html

Expertvillage videos all about carnivorous plants:
Feeding and more:
http://www.expertvillage.com/videos/pitcher-feeding.htm
Building a terrarium:
http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/terrariums-selecting.htm
Propagation and more:
http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/carnivorous-plant-propagation-division.htm

Answer 2

Plant the plants only in spaghnum moss because that is the only kind of stuff that they can grow in. Water only with distilled water they sell it at any grocery store for 4L for 1$, never give tap water because the chlorine in it will kill it, no fertilizer of any kind because this is too high in nutrients which will kill your carnivorous plants, Place the aquarium of carnivorous plants in a sunny window, no direct sunlight because this will dry up the plants, put distilled water in a misting bottle and mist the plants alot like 3 times a week, water them with distilled water when the spaghnum moss is completely dry and you have to give them a dormancy, you will notice it when the leafs start changing colors and i would just go and buy them in spring that way the dormancy would have passed.

Answer 3

The hardest plant to grow that you have on your list is the Cobra Plant. The roots on these plants need to be kept cool. Their natural habitat is beside mountain streams where the running water cools their roots. Some growers will freeze distilled water and place the cubes on top of the soil on hot days. Another method is to place the pot of Cobra Lillies inside a larger pot filled with sand. as the water soaks into the sand filled pot and evaporates it creates a cooling action. My suggestion to you would be to go to http://www.cobraplant.com and click on the Go Fetch Spike option. It will tell you which Carnivorous Plants are best suited for your region. It is recommended that all the plants on your list be grown outdoors. I've included a link to show you the perferred way of growing them.

Answer 4

One additional comment about not using fertilizer - it would be a complete waste on these plants as they get their nutrition via the unwitting guests that visit and never leave.
http://www.bugbitingplants.com/carnivorous_plants_care.php
http://www.rdrop.com/users/mvz/growcp.htm