Venus fly trap and pitcher plant terrarium

Question

Just got a venus fly trap and a dana's delight pitcher plant. the fly trap looks mature and the pitcher plant looks very young and just about the same size as the mature fly trap. The guy at the store reccomended a layer of charcoal at the bottom for the smell and cleaning the water, sand or rocky porous layer and than a layer of potting soil. ive read that it would be best to have a layer of moss at the top. i will get the moss soon but would it be okay for the plants to just have potting soil for now? any other things i should know?

Answer 1

Congratulations on your recent purchase!  I hope you have as much fun with your plants as I do with mine.  I too have a Dana's Delight Sarracenia and it is beautiful.

Whatever you do, don't plant them in potting soil.  The soil for Venus Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants needs to be nutrient poor.  Most growers use peat moss (or long fibered sphagnum moss) mixed with perlite.  If you plant them in potting soil, they will likely be dead in a few days.  You can read more about how to mix soil for Venus Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants here:

http://www.flytrapcare.com/media-soil-fo...

If I can, I'd like to talk you into growing your new plants outside.  Venus Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants do best when they are grown outside.  As long as you live anywhere in the continental US, you can grow them outside all spring, summer and fall.  If you live in a place that has hard freezes in the winter (freezes that get down to the 20s and last multiple days), you will have to protect the plants.

If you do grow the plants outside, they will be healthier because they will get much better lighting and they can catch all the food they need on their own.

I too have a terrarium, but I mostly use it for growing seedlings.  Nearly all of my plants are grown outside in my backyard under a makeshift cage to keep the animals from eating them.  The plants grown outside are healthier and more robust than plants grown inside.

With regards to other things to know, 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.

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.

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 to you.  If you have more questions, be through to read through the articles on my website:

http://www.flytrapcare.com

and join the forum and ask questions there:

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3