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Can a Sarracenia grow indoors?

theweedking24

theweedking
I want it to be the biggest most colorful one I can get. I would take it outside for many hours a day and give artificial light to it as well. BTW this is my first plant what size pot would be perfect for it? and what kind of soil fertilizer and other things do I need. Im reading and reading but I cant totally understand it
 
I love your screen name, and welcome to the forum.

No fertilizer, just peat and sand, or just peat, or peat and perlite etc. Really no fertilizer at all until you are experienced, and definitely not soil fertilizer. It's not practical to grow them inside unless you have HID lighting. You can grow the decumbent species under fluorescent lighting like S. purpurea and S. psittacina, but you still must respect their dormancy.

These are outside plants and need as much sun as possible to thrive. the size of the pot depends on the size of the plant, and for a mature, multi growth plant I think a quarter-half gallon pot is good.
 
HID lighting

what kind of High intensity lighting should I use theres so many and i dont know the wattage even. And what size pot do you think should work? I know that sizes differ when shipping im getting mine from www.petflytrap.com, and of course its better to have a bigger pot than a small one cuz you can just fill it with the peat you talked about. and i know im asking alot of questions but generally how long do these plants live?
 
You'd need at least a 400 watt metal halide and the erect species would have to be right under it to get decent form and color. More would be better. They really are outside plants. Save the terraria for Nepenthes :)


Does petflytrap.com still exist? I dunno. Andrew took over.

They live a long time! It takes 3-5 years from a seed to a flowering plant, and from then on as long as conditions are correct, they will outlive you and divide to produce big clumps (I've seen clumps of plants 2 -3 feet across in the wild!)
 
The purpurea in the photos here were grown indoors under flourescent lights by Ivan Snyder. There's not much in the photos to show scale but the white box on the left hand side of the first photo is a standard index card box so that might give you and idea. It's huge and the color is incredible.

You can see Ivan's setup here. Nothing fancy.

Forbes took the photos.

I wouldn't grow Sarracenia other than purpurea or psittiscina indoors. The others grow too tall and you need an enormous amount of light to grow them properly.
 
Yah they still exist... The difference is Phil no longer owns it and it no longer runs or supports these forums. Me and my store www.flytrapshop.com does all that now. :) I don't have any Sarrs listed on my site, but I do have some S. purpurea, S. catsbaie, S. flava, S. 'Judith Hindle', S. leucophylla willisii, S. ‘Scarlet Belle’, and S. wrigleyana I could sell. So if you're interested theweedking feel free to PM me, and I'll check the g/h and get you some prices. :)
Andrew
 
There's easier ways to grow them, like in a minibog and kept outdoors for the growing season:

IMG_4212.jpg


IMG_4213.jpg


IMG_4215.jpg


This is just one more approach.
 
Well,

I'd go with Andrew on getting plants. Some websites on the net selling carnivorous plants sell small plants at least in my experience (I'm not going to say who).

Why not grow outside? I live in Wisconsin too, my friend, and I grow about 10 Sarracenia which are thriving outside all day long in direct sunshine. All they need is a pot, peat moss and perlite or whatever combination you feel like doing, a tray of DISTILLED or REVERSE OSMOSIS water they are standing in, in a good sunny position and they are set to go, you just have to keep refilling the water tray. It can get more technical when the pests come... but, I won't get into that.

A big plant with nice colors is S. leucophylla, but, that depends if you like lots of white and red :).

Soil fertilizer = Sarracenia leucophylla var. dead pile of mush

Just grow outside. You are enthusiastic now, but, taking a plant in and out of your house day by day will make you not like doing it. S. psittacina and S. purpurea can be grown under lights in the house, as well as young Sarracenia, but, then you'll find S. purpurea and S. psittacina are the two smallest Sarracenia, but, the large, beautiful ones can only be grown outside. Even a windowsill isn't good because it would have to be incredibly tall to house an adult Sarracenia, adults have the most beauty you know, plus, it's harder to get insects in a windowsill.

I grow in Wisconsin too, I recommend www.Sarracenia.com as a starter in the FAQ and read about Sarracenia. It's actually nice to see someone just starting asking about other carnivorous plant species and not just Venus Flytraps :).

For pot sizes:

3-4 inch pot is good for a plant only about 6-12 inches tall in my experience
A 5 inch pot is good for a lot larger plants, from 12-24 or so inches depending on the root system (Sarracenia aren't picky on root space, but, they do need some, my Sarracenia with 20+ inch pitchers do great in 5 inch pots)
6+ Inches is good for any plant with multiple growth points, clumping, or just huge in the case of S. leucophylla 'titan' which has been known to reach 3 feet tall, and sometimes even over 40 inches!

Leave it to the professionals though, I did what I can to help, especially since I saw you lived in Wisconsin.

P.S. Most Sarracenia, except S. purpurea ssp.purpurea NOT venosa cannot grow in our climate since during winter it is so freezing. However, some Drosera like D. intermedia, D. rotundifolia and Pinguicula like P. macroceras and P. vulgaris can grow up here too, but, only S. purpurea ssp. purpurea can grow here out of the Sarracenia.
 
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Come on man you know the rules, and you just said you wouldn't name names but you did anyway. You cant give bad press if you can't give good press.
 
  • #10
I thought it was just no linking to sites, hmm, okay, sorry.
 
  • #11
theweedking, keep in mind that the bigger the plant you want, the more it will cost. Both the plant itself and the shipping. Your best bet is to keep your eyes on the NASC auction that will begin tomorrow (Saturday, June 9th). I got some amazing Sars from it last year and I expect there to be more offered this year. Or, if you take Andrew up on his offer, you won't be dissappointed. I recently ordered several VFTs from him and they are good healthy plants which arrived in very good condition. You can't go wrong either way :bigthumpup:
 
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