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ok newbie here, advice please!

hey everyone
i found this forums through wikipedia

Well i want a venus fly trap, i am planning to buy one (they sell small ones in B&Q)

I am in london england by the way

I was wondering if it is ok to keep my fly trap indoors? I was thinking of keeping it actually by my PC, or in my room. But i was wondering if this will be ok in terms of lighting, heat etc. Will it survive ok?

I have been reading up on basics such as distilled water and stuff, but i am a big beginner so help/advice woul dbe much appriciated thanks!
 
read the vft care sheet at the top of the page
that will help a lot
then if you have any Q's ask
good luck
 
Welcome to TF!. Distilled, rain, RO. deionized water is appropriate for them. However, VFT's are really an outdoor plant, particularly during the growing season (now). They need all the light they can get and artificial lighting is inferior to direct sunlight.
 
If you just want a cool desk plant then yeah you COULD grow VFT's indoors next to your PC. You just have to make sure you have a powerfull light on them that wont burn them.

Like everyone else said, they do best outdoors in nice full sun. But they will survive desk life if given enough light.
 
I will add that they DO need their dormant period or they will weaken and die.

Tom
 
After a few years, maybie. The most I have seen anyone take a VFT without dormancy was 3 years and even then it looked very strong.
 
I'm a relative newbie at growing carnivorous plants, too. I bought two this year (one is really two plants squished into one pot, I suppose I'll have to separate them next spring) and have kept them indoors.

At first I did not give them much sunlight because of the instructions I was given by the man who sold them, but their new growth was big and leafy but very small traps that never opened. After a few weeks I decided to give them more sunlight, and after doing so they started looking much more like the pictures of flytraps I was used to, with fully developed traps.

Now I keep them on a windowsill that gets a lot of sunlight, and now that it is summer I set them outside on sunny days to get as much light as possible. So far they are growing beautifully, and even attracting a few unlucky insects.
 
Iris: Welcome to TF! 3 years ago I rekindled the notion of growing CP's, after killing every one of them, over the years. I was walking through a Home Depot and saw an array of VFT's and just couldn't resist. And then I made a personal vow to do whatever it took to keep them alive for more than 3 months. I placed this plant in a tall, plastic peretzel container and had it sitting in some deionized water, at a window sill in the labin which I worked. Within 2 months the traps grew from 1/2" to 1". 5 months later I joined the discussion forum and learned about the concept of dormancy. I took a rather circuitous route to providing dormancy (between storm & inside windows, screened in porch, and finally the butter keeper of our fridge), but when March rolled around, I took it out of the fridge and brought it back to work and then to the cold, drafty window sill. Finally, I took it outside and a few weeks later the plant rewarded me with a flower.

Two things I strongly recommend - outdoor sunlight and dormancy.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ June 17 2006,10:08)]Two things I strongly recommend - outdoor sunlight and dormancy.
I do plan to try the refigerator dormancy for the winter, since I want to keep them as healthy as possible. They do love the direct sunlight.
 
  • #10
I am an experimenter, so I have tried a variety of approaches. Last summer I put my temperate sundews, American pitcher plants, and cobra lily in buckets of minibogs. When winter came I toted the buckets to the attic and placed a SW window sill, as is. As the photoperiod increased, the plants, one by one, began to wake up. The only plants I lost were 2 VFT's. I'm not convinced that my experiment failed, since the other plants came back just fine. They may have been on their way out before I took them up. Some people use fungicides and ziplock bags as well. There's more than one way to do dormancy.
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ June 17 2006,10:02)]I am an experimenter...
There an understatement if I've ever seen one!
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  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (BigCarnivourKid @ June 18 2006,1:45)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ June 17 2006,10:02)]I am an experimenter...
There an understatement if I've ever seen one!  
smile_n_32.gif
 
smile_m_32.gif
 
laugh.gif
LOL! Geez... 3 bad experiences with that stream and I get branded for life!
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But no one remembers the toilet I fixed with bungy cords and a shoelace. Didn't use duct tape at all!
 
  • #13
I do. It was a sight to behold. Looked like one good flatulent outburst and it would have fallen apart
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.
 
  • #14
It was a masterpiece.... a hybrid between Oliver Twist & "ghetto". All I needed was some epoxy to put the pieces back together again and some flashing with holes in it to put the toilet seat bolts in, and bungy cords to keep the bowl stable, and the shoelace connected to the bungy cords & trap to keep bungy cords from slipping. It worked well for 6 months, until my wife, who has a tad more aesthetic tastes, cut a deal with a friend, to buy a new toilet. I shoulda taken a picture!
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