How to take care of a venus flytrap?

Question

i recently got a venus flytrap but i only have tap water available because it does not rain alot here in georgia..help please!

Answer 1

If you happen to live in an area with a warm, very humid climate that gets cold in winter but does not experience hard freezes, then you should be able to grow Fly traps outside. In most areas though, the climate is not agreable to Venus Flytrap so we are forced to grow them indoors. The problem with houses is that we usually have our homes cooled in the summer and heated in the winter. This removes the necessary humidity from the environment that the flytrap requires.

This is not a problem because a terrarium is a very suitable place for flytraps to grow. A one-gallon fishbowl type terrarium can easily hold many Venus flytrap. A piece of plexi-glass or plastic on the top can be adjusted to keep the humidity above 50% and a window receiving bright light but not direct sunlight is perfect for your terrarium.

When you buy your flytrap, it may be in a small pot with a dome cover. As long as the plant is potted in the appropriate potting mixture you can leave it, although a larger terrarium will give you room for several additions (and you will probably find you want more vft).

If you are going to grow your flytrap outdoors, you will probably want to repot it in a larger, sturdy pot with other flytrap. Keep the pot in a saucer with water covering the bottom of the pot at all times. When you first put your plant outside, keep it out of direct sunlight until it is acclimated and then you can move it to stronger light. Never put a dome over an outside plant that will be in sunlight, it will fry!

A good potting mixture for Venus Fly trap is 60% peat moss and 40% perlite or clean sand. Always water your Venus Flytrap from the tray if it's in a pot or, if in a terrarium, use a spray bottle and wet the top of the potting mixture well. Terrarium kept plants that are top-dressed with sphagnum moss will probably not require too frequent a watering, although a light, daily misting is appreciated.

Never water your Venus Flytrap with tap water, the chlorine is poison to it. Use bottled distilled water or collect rain water, but not water that has run off your roof. If you must use tap water, collect the water and let it set out for several days to allow the chlorine to evaporate as much as possible.

If you take good care of your fly trap it will live a long time and will eventually flower. Unless you want to collect the seeds you should remove the flower since it will weaken the plant. According to the age of the plant you buy, the following is what you can expect.

Answer 2

How to take care of Venus Flytraps:

Click the link>>http://www.thegardenhelper.com/flytrap.h...

it helps purify the water, but it doesnt completely get out the germs and stuff, so i wouldnt drink it, unledd i was gonna die and dont worry, u can give it tap water:)

hope that helps and good luck

♥ Bella ♥  

Answer 3

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. Distilled water only costs about 75 cents a gallon.  If you must water them with tap water, you should top water the plant use a pot that allows drainage out the bottom so it can drain out some of the impurities so they don't build up as badly as they would in a sealed pot.  You will also have to repot at least once a year to give the plant fresh soil and get rid of the impurities.

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. Humidity isn't that important. Fly traps can live fine in low humidity conditions. I have about a hundred plants and I live in Colorado where the humidity in the summer is very low. They do great so long as they get plenty of sunlight and clean 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 should use a combination of peat moss and perlite.

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/