Help with Venus fly trap?

Question

I just bought a venus fly trap from wal mart. it came in its own container and on the package it says to keep the humidity high. it has holes in the top of the container but i dont know if i should keep the lid off or not? because i dont know how its supposed to eat flys with a lid on the top of the container.any tips on growing these things would be so helpful.thanks

Answer 1

You can just throw the cover away. Contrary to what many people believe, Venus Fly Traps adapt well to low humidity. The reason the cover is on there during the shipping process is simply to keep the soil from drying out. Once you get the plant home and you can water it regularly, you don't need the cover.

I grow a bunch of Venus Fly Traps in Boulder, Colorado and the humidity here is very low. I grow all of my plants outside in full sunshine and they thrive. During the summer months, they do require quite a bit of watering, but they do not need to be covered.

In case you are new to growing Venus Fly Traps, you might find the following information helpful. There are three major points to keeping a Venus fly trap healthy.

1) Sunlight - at least 4 hours of direct sunlight a day

2) Water - rain, distilled or reverse osmosis water only

3) Soil - Nutrient poor soil such as peat moss

Venus fly traps like lots of light. Try to give it at least 4 hours of direct sunlight a day. The more you can give it the better. It is best to grow your fly trap outside where it can get plenty of sun and catch its own food.

Venus fly traps need clean water. Usually tap water will not do. It is best to use distilled water, rain water, or reverse osmosis water. Venus fly traps need water with a TDS (total dissolved soilds) measurement of 50 ppm (parts per million) or less. In order to get this, you probably need to use distilled water or reverse osmosis water or rain water. Their soil should be kept wet at all times. It is best to use a tray and set the plant in about 1/2 inch of water.

I would guess that your plant came potted already, so the media that it is potted in is probably fine. But if you need to repot it, which wouldn't be a bad idea, you can use a combination of peat moss and perlite. Most growers use a 50:50 mix of peat moss and perlite. I have been leaning toward using pure peat moss lately. Venus Fly Traps aren't picky, but be sure to use some form of peat moss or sphagnum peat moss with perlite or vermiculite to ensure that the media is nutrient poor.

When October rolls around you have to start thinking about providing dormancy for your Venus Fly Trap. You can read about that here:

http://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-tra...

Good luck with your fly trap and enjoy growing it!

You can read more about how to care for venus fly traps here:

http://www.flytrapcare.com

And if you have more questions, feel free to join the forum and as them there:

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/