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Hi from Oklahoma!

Hello all my name is Brandon and like the title says I'm from Oklahoma and just got really interested in CPs mainly VFTs for now but sundews are really starting to interest me more and more. I'm about to move into an apartment and tho most of yall are against it I'm going to try and raise a couple of VFTs inside under a light that I used on my saltwater tank before the heater stuck and fried everything in it :-( . It's a 96watt 50/50 24" light I think. So I was wondering if anyone thinks that light won't be good enough. Also when it comes to dormancy I may be able to put the plants outside for the winter would that work or should I go with the fridge method?

Alot of questions but I'd really like to be able to keep some VFTs and as I learned from my saltwater experience you should always research somthing of this sort before getting into it.

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to TF! VFT's should be outside, as artificial lighting for them is insufficient in the long run. You could leave them outside all year long as the climate isn't terribly dissimilar to that of North Carolina, their native environs.
 
Hey Brandon! Welcome to TF. I am also in Oklahoma and am growing several VFTs right now (recently acquired) outdoors in 3" pots on a back patio that gets 6 hours of sun light minimum. I will say though that in the past I have grown VFTs under artificial light indoors in a terrarium with my tropical sundews and they did fair. The coloring inside the traps was pale green on the typical forms (should be red) and the red dragons that I had didn't really turn the true deep maroon color that they do in full sun (more like dark green with some light-maroon on the petiols). At any rate the hard part is gradually introducing seasonal attributes since a terrarium is always one temperature during the day (hot and humid) and one temperature @ night (room temperature). Being in 100% humidity the leaves tends to be softer and less hardened. As such mine would flower at random times from spring to fall, and some would grow the characteristic summer long petoils while others stayed in spring growth patterns all year. One flowered 3 times in one growing season then died (probably from burning all of it's energy producing flower stalks). I like others would recommend the outdoors for VFTs so they can get the sunlight they need and also the slow but sure changes in seasons that ultimately keep them in a normal cycle.

Honestly I think if you're gonna keep them outdoors all season they probably need to go in larger pots than what I'm using to help protect them from extreme heat in the summer and extreme cold in the winter (I move all of mine into a fish tank and then into the garage when extremes are reached) and also with larger plants such as sarracenia.
Just recently we had a stretch of 3 weeks with temps in the 100s and RH was down in the 30%s. In full sun I was pretty sure it would roast my VFTs even in trays with 1/2" of water, because I have no other large plants to shade them and they're in 3" dark green, plastic pots so the pots would've reached...REALLY HOT.....all day. So I moved all mine into the shade on the patio during that time and as a result the new traps opening are solid green and the traps are greatly reduced in size from the summer traps that they had when I originally got them. So it dont take long for these plants to respond to sunlight requirements not being met.

At any rate, good luck growing your VFTs however you choose to do so and welcome to the forums.
 
Yeah and on keeping them outside here I was worried about the 100 temps and in the winter it does ice over quite often plus I'm not even sure if I'll be able to keep anything outside since my apartment is on the 2nd floor. Maybe one of those window sill things?
 
Hey there Brandon, welcome to Terror Forums.
I think terra forums is a misnomer. cause of all the trerryifying things these plants do to insects.LOL
I am one of the older folk on here,with only about 9 years total being invovled with carni plants.
LMO
 
Welcome to TF! VFT's are not my cup of tea, but maybe you will have better luck. Sundews, however, have treated me much better.
 
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