Venus Flytrap Cultivation
General Info:
Venus Flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) are easy to grow and a joy to feed. When given their basic needs, they are very resilient and grow vigorously.
Cultivation:
Full Sun - give them several hours of sunlight per day or at least 20W per square foot of LED grow lights.
Keep them sitting in small trays of water, generally around 1” of water. The soil should never become dry. Use distilled or reverse osmosis water.
Temperatures between 32-100F are acceptable. They are adaptable to different humidity and do not need high humidity.
Soil can be 50% peat moss to 50% sand (or perlite if sand isn’t available). Make sure to rinse the media before potting to remove excess salts. Transplanting is best done during winter dormancy.
Notes:
Flytraps go through different seasons based on light and temperature. They will generally stop growing during winter and will resume in spring with fresh traps and flowers.
Feed them light fish food suspensions every few weeks for optimal growth if grown indoors. Only feed fully developed leaves, and feed around 25% of the total leaves each time. Use a dense lump of fish food paste that is small enough to be fully enclosed by the trap without seeping out. The traps will generally only digest one meal per leaf, but this will nourish the growth of many new leaves.
Traps will flower in spring — these can be cut off to save some energy for the plant but it is fine to let them flower as well. Flowers need to be cross pollinated to produce seed.
Typical varieties of Venus Flytraps should turn red inside the traps if given enough light. If they are green or barely red (and are not a specifically green or pale variety) then they need more light.