Venus Fly Trap? Help Please?

Question

Okay, I know there really really cheap and all, but are venus fly traps hard to take care of. Around here you buy them in plastic cups or little plastic plant pots. How often do I water them? Do I have to move them to some other type of pot. How long can it live? What do I do if I do everything right, but yet it's dying? And do I need to keep it by my window? I know it's alot, but please answer everything~! Thanks!

Answer 1

Again, its a tropical plant, and must be exposed to high humidity.  Use distilled or bottled water.  Keep it in a terrarium to ensure the proper amount of humidity.  I believe they are short lived, that is, out of its natural habitat.  It lives on the forrest/jungle floor so only needs low to moderate light.  Don't place it in direct sunlight, or it will cook.  It is carnivorous meaning... it eats meat.  Maybe yours is hungry!!!

Answer 2

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, however it is possible to grow them in a very sunny windowsill.

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. 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.

You wouldn't absolutely need to move them to some other type of pot, but if you need to repot it, which wouldn't be a bad idea, you should use a combination of peat moss and perlite.  Use only plastic pots so that you don't have to worry about minerals seeping out of the pot into the soil and killing the plant.

To survive long term, your plant will need a 3 to 4 month dormancy period every year. 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/

Answer 3

They come from a swampy environment and like some warmth.  We soaked ours, then kept water under it, and it did great.  If you need to repot it, you can put it in peat moss in a bigger pot and soak it down again.  It is normal for the traps to occasionally turn black, and you can just snip them off with a scissors when this happens.  We have been keeping ours in a mostly sunny, but partial shade location and it seems very happy.  It does need a bug every so often, and you should not feed it meat as some people advise because this will often make them sickly.