Venus flytrap (dionaea muscipula, sometimes also simply called dionea) is a carnivorous plant native to the wetlands of North and South Carolina. This mysterious plant thrives on spiders and insects that it traps between a pair of rosy leaves. It can live well in a home environment as long as it is exposed to the right humidity and adequate sunlight. Read on to learn how to grow this amazing plant.
Steps
Part 1 of 4: Plant the Venus Flytrap
Step 1. Purchase a bulb of the carnivorous plant
The most common and easiest way to start growing it is to buy a bulb (or more) from a company specializing in plant cultivation. Search online to find a supplier who can ship your bulbs to you. You can choose from several varieties that have differences in shape and color. Eventually you can also find a nursery in your area that sells them.
Although less common, you can grow a Venus Flytrap from seed as well, but keep in mind that it may take up to 5 years for the seed to become a mature plant. Order the seeds online and germinate them in deep pots filled with a substrate made up of sphagnum moss. Place the pots in plastic bags to keep the environment warm and humid. When the seedlings have sprouted, you can transplant them to a permanent growing medium
Step 2. Choose a grow container
Since these plants require a lot of moisture, a glass container is an ideal choice. This is especially true if you live in rather cold areas, where temperatures can even reach -17 ° C in the winter and are too cold for dionea.
- If you live in such a cold environment, consider planting Venus Flytrap in a terrarium. Its high walls retain heat and moisture helping the plant to thrive. Air circulation is important, however, so do not put it in a container with a lid. An aquarium or other glass container with an opening is fine.
- Both a glass and plain clay pot with drainage holes are suitable if you live in a warm climate with mild winters, where temperatures never drop below -12 ° C.
Step 3. Prepare a soil mix
This plant grows wild in very poor soils and gets most of its nutrients by eating insects and spiders. To create a growing medium similar to the natural one of the plant, mix 2/3 of sphagnum with 1/3 of sand.
- If you plant it in regular potting soil, it will not thrive, as this contains too many nutrients.
- Do not add lime or fertilizer.
- If you are using a terrarium, cover the bottom with gravel and put the soil mix on top to ensure adequate drainage.
Step 4. Plant the bulb with the roots facing down
Dig a small hole in the ground and plant the bulb so the top is level with the surface. If you started growing from seed, plant the sprout so the bulb stays under the soil and the green stems are exposed to the air. Once the Venus Flytrap is planted, an adequate environment and food will help it grow and thrive.
Part 2 of 4: Providing Sunlight and Water
Step 1. Keep the soil moist
Dionea is native to the Carolina bogs, where the soil is constantly wet. It is therefore very important that the soil in the pot or terrarium is also kept moist to mimic its natural habitat. Having said that, however, the plant must not be kept in stagnant water; make sure the pot or terrarium drains well so the plant doesn't rot.
Step 2. Use rainwater or distilled water
Tap water is usually overly alkaline or contains too many minerals to be used to water a carnivorous plant. An easy way to get enough water to ensure humid conditions is to recover rainwater for this specific purpose. Put a container to catch the rain and store it so that you always have some available whenever you need to wet the plant. Alternatively, you can buy cans of distilled water, which you find in most supermarkets.
Step 3. Provide adequate sunlight for the plant
During the warmer months, you can keep it both outside (until the temperature drops too much at night), and in front of the window in the sun. Be careful and water it constantly so that the sun doesn't dry out the soil, especially during the summer.
- If the dionaea is in a glass terrarium, make sure it is not burned by the sun. If it looks like it is wilting a bit, take it out of sunlight after a few hours of exposure each day.
- If you don't want to worry too much about its location in the sun, you can also grow it using a fluorescent grow light. Set it to provide the equivalent of light in a normal day and turn it off during the night.
- If the leaves aren't pink in color, they probably aren't getting enough sun.
Step 4. Get them through the winter
Venus flytrap has a natural dormancy period during the winter season. It usually lasts from September or October until February or March, which is the natural winter in Carolina. During this time, the plant must be kept at a temperature of 2 ° C - 10 ° C, with less sunlight than it receives during the summer months.
- If you live in a fairly mild area, you can keep the plant outside all winter, as long as temperatures rarely drop below freezing.
- If you live in an environment with a colder winter, you need to bring the plant indoors. Place it in a garage, shed, or heated greenhouse where it is protected from frost, but where it can still receive sunlight and is still exposed to temperatures cold enough to facilitate the dormancy period.
Part 3 of 4: Feeding the Venus Flytrap
Step 1. Let yourself get the food
If you keep it outside, it is able to catch spiders and insects by itself (unless the external environment is unnaturally sterile). When you see the leaves in a closed position, it has probably caught something.
Step 2. Feed the dionaea with worms or insects
If you want to feed the carnivorous plant to keep it indoors, or just want to experience the thrill of seeing it eat, you can get worms, insects or spiders that are small enough to get trapped in the leaves. Place the food in one of the "trap leaves" or leave it in the terrarium. The trap closes when the small hairs inside are stimulated by the insect's movements.
- It is best to feed the Venus flytrap with live insects, but recently dead ones are fine too. However, since the trap does not close if the movement does not trigger it, you will have to move the insect a little so that it touches some hairs.
- You can buy live or dead insects at a pet store, but you can also try catching them yourself. For the dionaea the smaller black flies are of adequate size. If the plant has larger traps, you can try catching small crickets.
- This plant can go months without eating, but if you keep it indoors you should plan to feed it at least once a month for best results.
Step 3. Watch when the trap reopens
When it catches its food, the dionaea needs at least 12 hours to digest it. Digestive enzymes break down the soft internal fluids of the insect or spider, leaving the exoskeleton intact. After about 12 hours, the trap opens and the empty exoskeleton flies away.
If a pebble or other inedible object gets into the trap, it will be released after 12 hours
Step 4. Don't feed her meat
It may be tempting to give her a piece of ham or chicken, but the plant doesn't have the right enzymes to digest animal meat. Feeding it with other foods besides spiders or insects could cause it to rot and die.
Part 4 of 4: Growing New Plants
Step 1. Repot Venus Flytrap every 2 to 3 years
Make sure it is put in a mixture of sphagnum and sand. Repot it only in the spring, once the dormancy period is over, otherwise the plant will suffer a shock from moving.
Step 2. Let it bloom
Cut off the smaller flower stems and keep a strong stem with many buds. Let the main flower stem grow above the rest of the plant. This way the insects that pollinate the flowers will not be caught in the traps. Each flower produces a seed pod.
Step 3. Plant the seeds of a mature plant
After a few years, when the dionaea is ripe, you can propagate it by planting the seeds it produces. Break the pod to find the tiny black seeds. Plant them in sphagnum and keep them in a warm, humid environment until they sprout.
Step 4. Try planting a leaf
Since the plant can grow from rhizomes, you can also try planting a leaf by cutting it off at the base to see if it pops up. If conditions are ideal, the leaf dies and a new small plant begins to grow.
Advice
- Don't close traps artificially. Where do you think the plant gets most of its energy from? Obviously from the sun. Furthermore, solar energy allows the plant to have the strength to capture prey.
- Trim the tip when it turns brown. An even bigger new one will likely form, but it depends on the time of year (very unlikely during cold seasons).
