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So it was a windy day today so I put the plastic cover to protect from the wind. About 20 minutes later I find out that the wind knocked my stand over. So as I'm picking them up they fall out of the pots and all that. I needed to re-pot them anyways. I had this nice big pot I was gonna make a mini bog out of. Well they were all brown and mushy. They were dead anyways. This makes me mad. Why is it that everyone says these are so easy and neps are the divas when My neps are alive all year and I can never get a vft through the winter? I think the real divas are vft's. I can grow them from seeds but I can't keep them alive over the winter. Can't have it too cold or too hot in the winter. Can't be too wet but then you can't let them dry out in the winter. And for what? A couple months to veiw and enjoy them? Nope. Tropicals it is for me. Year round. I want to look at them, I look. There they are. Not just neps. Tropical sundews, ceph's whatever grows year round is what I'm going to keep. I had some cool ones too. But out of all them I had I really do think that my dente and red piranha lived. I think the red dragon died. I dunno. Tomarrow I will check. Some of the sarrs are alive too still I think. But I think that from now on, if they need a dormancy I don't want them.
 
:p. This was an interesting post to read.

I've never had a VFT Dormancy yet, I bought all my plants at the beginning of February, or started buying at least, so, dormancy was almost over anyways. VFT's seem to come easy so far... but this dormancy thing you say is kinda scary.

Neps are awesome though. I'm more of a Pitcher Plant guy myself.
 
They do rot easy. :-(

- Jeff
 
Oh yea and let me add this. Putting your VFT's outside in the summer is always an adventure too with them chipmonks and all. Neps at least you can hang them. Yea they are easy to get the typical ones at least. But what about red piranha's? Yea I can get one right now but for how much?

Even after this I know as well everyone else here knows I will get more and try again. I just had to rant about it. I thought putting them in the attic would work. Now it's time to think where I went wrong. Maybe I brought them out of the attic too early? But it looked like there was mold growing. I used a fungicide. I dunno. I might just move next to good old Bugweed. Can you grow neps year round outside in his area?
 
Some people find them easy, some don’t. Find what works for you, even if it means experimenting with different ways to solve a problem. Don’t let a plant beat you… remember, you’re the one in control.
 
Milwaukee eh?

I live in Wisconsin too, except, on the central WI/MN border.

I do like to rant a lot too. It is fun.

I just hope I don't have any wild critter problems. We got squirrels but they keep to themselves and off our deck. We get deer, but not very often. No cats.
 
I've only ever succeeded in overwintering a VFT once. That was just because I stuck it in the fridge.. and the following year its growth was TERRIBLE. Tiny traps and compact leaves... sucked.. Not really sure HOW I'm gonna do it. Unless I build a cold frame. :/
 
Come on people... it can’t be THAT difficult, can it? LOL I tortured my first two typicals indoors with practically no lighting last year (starting in April) to the verge of death. By the time October came along their traps were tiny (I’m talking millimeters!). I took them out and put them through dormancy outside, and now they seem to be recovering quite nicely ouside. I wish I had a digital camera to show you guys.:-(

I guess climate strongly affects our growing outcomes…
 
I've been growing for 7-8 years give or take. I live in Georgia. I can't grow Dionaea for some reason. I've never been able to keep one alive for a whole year.
 
  • #11
I've been growing for 7-8 years give or take.
Really? I've been growing for over 14 years, especially at year one, boy was I fat.:-)):-D Can't you just buy a mini-fridge to put them in if you turn it all the way up? Maybe put a light or two in there.
 
  • #12
Three weeks after I bought my first VFT something yanked it right out of it's pot and ran away with it. :-( I haven't gotten another one yet.
 
  • #13
VFT's don't suck. They bite.
 
  • #14
Really? I've been growing for over 14 years, especially at year one, boy was I fat.:-)):-D Can't you just buy a mini-fridge to put them in if you turn it all the way up? Maybe put a light or two in there.

No we have a winter here but if they don't rot they freeze to death up in the mountains.

Or they get eaten by aphids.

Or catch a fungus....

Luckily for me they aren't my favorite plant.
 
  • #15
VFT's don't suck. They bite.
notanumber, that was AWFUL!!!!!! LMAO good one sir!!!

I live near Niagara Falls and I leave them either outside or in my windowsill over the winter, they SEEM to do okay, I think I've had them for maybe 5 years, some of them??

Critters are the only problem, a had a HUGE Akai Ryu last summer and one day I went out and it, too, was GONE!!!

It had been buried in my bog tho, somewhere else- I dug it up and repotted it but it didn't look too good until it woke up again last month- I'm building a safety cage for it before it goes back out there...

They can be kinad goofy sometimes, but I think I am lucky to have the winter we get, it sure as heck isn't my "skill" keeping them alive and healthy :)
 
  • #16
JLAP, You live in Georgia's Moutains? Those are nothing to the teens(some times single digits) that we get up here in the NC mountains and my flytraps did WONDERFULLY in the ground this year. My bog even froze over a couple times (like they were under an inch of ice) and they are coming out nicely. This year I'm moving EVERYTHING to a bog garden in the ground. I should think they'd be happy in the ground where you are. By the way, VFT rot seems to be the popular way to kill VFTs. That's how ALL mine have died at some point or another..... how sad.:-(
 
  • #17
I did have a bog (I mean, a REAL bog on a lake) that I put them in. The muck washed away and the rhizomes were exposed and that's when they froze. It's so sad, I know. That was at a high altitude so it probably got down to the 20's. Here where I live an hour and a half south it only dips below 32 once or twice a year for brief periods.

Sarracenia are the best temperate plants, anyway :) I'm good at those lol.
 
  • #18
Wow, I have quite the VFT collection coming along, this dormancy thread is scary.

I plan to let my cold cold seasons do the job, leave them outside until they fall into dormancy, and then leave them there until temps decide to go below 20 for long periods of time, then move them inside to a windowsill and seal it up best I can, but allowing some heat in so it's a bit warmer.
 
  • #19
I dont pamper mine at all really, I treat them for aphids when the yearly spring/early summer attacks come and give them trich once a month... and I may water them once or twice at the most during the winter

knock on wood, but I dont think I have lost one in the last 10-15 yrs or so

strange these CP's

Av
 
  • #20
Because they do rot easily, the trick for me has been to use more perlite than the standard 1:1. I also topwater until the temps go above 90 or so.
 
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