I'm doing it all wrong! Help!

[hjsullivan]

Hi there!

I've always been fascinated by Venus Fly Traps and my recent interest in gardening prompted me to buy one (on impulse) a few weeks ago at my local grocery store (Market Basket). I'm totally in love with the thing, but realize I have no idea what I'm doing.

So far I have potted re-potted it in a clay pot (from what I was reading today, is a bad idea) and it's in potting soil (even worse from what I discovered through this mornings research). I do have it under an LED plant light, not sure if that's good or bad? I've also read a lot about them doing better outdoors, but other sites say you can keep them happy indoors as well.

At any rate, I need some help, stat. I Live in Massachusetts, the Boston area, and it is COLD here already (it was 27 degrees this morning). I'm planning on re-potting again in the next day or two into a ceramic pot with a 1:1 mixture of peat moss and sand (I'll boil it first, from my nephews sandbox).

Then what!?!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Signed,
Clueless about CP

[ICPS-bob]

Dear clueless (we all were once):
There are some excellent growing tips for VFTs. Go to
cpphotofinder.com/Dionaea.html
and scroll down a bit to Growing Tips

First, I suggest you not use your nephew's sandbox sand. If you decide to use sand, use only quartz (silica) sand. Sandbox sand can be from any source and may include limestone. You could just use 100% Sphagnum peat with no sand, but make certain that no fertilizer has been added. A glazed ceramic pot should be OK, but a plastic pot is safer.

Since you are just now potting it, I would keep it inside for the winter -- or at least give it a chance to go dormant slowly by reducing photoperiod over the next month or so. The shock of adjusting to a new potted environment plus the shock of freezing would likely kill it. A VFT that has slowly gone dormant under several months of natural reduced photoperiod and lowering temperatures might survive your winter outside in a pot, but perhaps not. The generally do not like to be frozen solid.

They do best if allowed a dormancy period, but for your first year, you could forego that. Next year, you could experiment a bit with dormancy.