A long overdue update

[Tsmola]

Don't know if any of you remember me, but I first came to these forums a few months ago, can't remember exactly when, maybe April lol but I got some help in how to take care of my new vft then. I sort of forgot about this forum and today after looking at my plant I remembered this forum and decided to give an update on it. I got the plant at Meijer, it was in one of those little plastic pots with a dome over it, and well ever since then it's done fantastic. About the only thing I do is just add new distilled water every few days, otherwise it catches all it's food on it's own, it's been a pretty care-free plant for the mostpart. My god, it's grown! Grown like a weed, it spits up new traps every other day it seems and the traps have almost doubled in size and they all have a beautiful red tint to them. Here's a before and after photo to show how well it's done

before: (right after I first brought it home from work)

after: (note the two fly outlines in one trap

big thanks to you guys for helping me keep such a cool plant successfully after a few failures

 

[peter]

WOW! great looking VFT, have any secrets

 

[TheAlphaWolf]

doesn't it need re-potting? I'm a re-potting freak

 

[ChronoKiento]

LOL I wonder how both of those flies got in there. One got caught and the other came to help but got closed in as well?? That would make a great movie! LOL just kidding (HAHA! I'm gonna be rich!)

 

[TheAlphaWolf]

sure... you'll be wasting our tax money...
lol

 

[pond boy]

I remember you.....well your plant and avatar realy. It realy does seem to have come a long way! It should start going dormant in a month or so....... So you`ll have to move it to a cool windowsill(or outdoors depending on your climate) and keep the soil just moist and off the tray system. It should then grow heart shaped ground leaves again. Then in the spring you can either Aut it outdoors. B;put it on a windowsill or Cut it under lights.

 

[Kirkscoastalcarnivores]

awesome

 

[Tsmola]

thanks guys, with the pics it's really hard to show how good it's doing, but it is doing great. I was wondering about it going dormant, can't put it outside, I'm in Michigan and it'll snow on it if I did that lol

A cool windowsill? hell I can probably just move it to the other side of the window it's on for the winter then. If not there, I've got dozens of other choices.

peter, I don't have any secrets that I know of, unless you count just adding water to it as needed lol It's been feeding itself from the beginning, we've always had some trouble with flies in our kitchen but I notice the number greatly reduced now

 

[Tsmola]

another pic

yeah it's gonna need re-potting (that is the original pot btw) it seems happy so I think I'll leave it till spring and re-pot it in a bigger one then.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Tsmola

Snow won't hurt your VFT. Remember, they grow out in the wild and although coastal areas don't get tons of snow, they do get snowed on at times.

My VFTs stay out year 'round; they get rained on, snowed on, freezing rain, sleet and frozen solid. And they are fine. Of course I'm sure there is a limit to what kind of cold abuse they can take, so a little protection from the elements wouldn't hurt. In Michigan might be too cold for tossing them outside but if there is somewhere you can keep them partially protected and keep them from extended freezes, that might work. A basement or garage can be helpful. Remember, they don't have to have light in their dormant state which is why people can put them in the fridge for dormancy.

Nice looking plant there!

Suzanne

 

[Amateur_Expert]

looks great, next year it will look even better.