actually i just got a VFT from walgreens myself and the traps are rather small and do not open i saw the same stuff that you say happens for maybe a week or two but now i think it is mostly stopped but the traps still do not open. All i know is that VFT's like to be drenched im pretty sure with pure water and that they like full sun. I have not grown CP's for very long so i can't really tell you anything cept that. Since you already have it in the sun it should not go it to shock if you put it directly into full sun but i am not sure on that.

Hello hero81,

First off, a closed environment will not help the plant in any way, but tends to induce mold and weak growth. Venus Flytraps can grow just fine in lower humidity so long as you do not live in a desert with temperatures over 100 degrees where the plant is located.

If the plant came in a humidity dome, take the dome off slowly by punching holes in it or lifting and bracing the sides a fraction of an inch every 3 days until it no longer holds humidity after two weeks, then take it completely off. Taking a humidity dome off a plant in one day is like a human jumping in a pool of freezing water. Slow adaptation is key to plant health.

Adapt the plant to higher light levels slowly as well. In stores, those plants are often placed in a shady area and have lost their UV tolerance, so their leaves will burn and dry in bright sun. Place it in successively brighter windows starting with a morning sun window and ending with an all day sun window each week over the course of two weeks. Then try to get the plant outside in full sun or add florescent lights to supplement the window least 4 inches from the plant's leaves and of at least 40 watt shop light tube or 100 watt equivalent compact bulb replacement cool white varieties. Make sure the lumen output says 2000-3000 or more per light.

Water the plant with mineral free water; tap water is usually too hard. Use distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water that does not add salt to soften the water, salt is another mineral the plant will not like. Venus Flytraps like water, but do not like their roots drowned. Never over or under water the plant. Just make sure the soil is always moist and place a tray of water under the pot, making sure the pot has drainage holes in the bottom, and ensure that the water level in the tray does not go above 1/4 the pot height.

Make sure that the plant has not been fertilized or potted in regular potting mix. That will kill the plant. It should be in long fiber sphagnum or a mix of sphagnum peat moss with either silica sand or perlite for drainage.

Look for aphids and mealy bugs on the young leaves in the center of the plant. If you see any yellow, white, black, or orange pests crawling around, you can drown them in a bucket of water by submerging the entire plant for a day or two at a time. You can also use water based insecticides like pyrethrines and ortho or neem oil based products so long as none are soap based. Soap based products break down into fertilizer in the soil, so is another hazard for carnivorous plants.

The problem with leaf deformity, non-formation, and dieback is that it could be from a number of problems. Just take a shotgun approach and make sure all the conditions are right for the plant. If in doubt, you can always repot the plant into fresh moss and perlite (make sure the moss is a bale of dry sphagnum peat and that neither product has anything added to it) to ensure that it is fertilizer and mineral free.

Mutant hybrid gives excellent information in his post.

I grow flytraps in fish aquariums (or similar containers) with 5 inches or so of long-fibre sphagnum on the bottom, kept very wet with collected rainwater. The aquarium is kept open (no lid), but the sides tend to cut the wind and allow humidity to build up a bit.

I keep them outside in full sun during summer, then after they get nipped by light frosts in the fall I bring them inside under growlights for a month or two, then put them in a cool basement window for winter. (I'm in Alberta, Canada, and the draft from the window in winter tends to keep them quite cool, around 50F, sometimes cooler.) They go dormant for 3 or 4 months, and I try to extend that even longer because winters are long here so I don't want them growing too early in the spring.

I'm going to try attaching a few pics here, don't know if it will work as I just joined and haven't tried this before....
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Alright.. Sounds like I was doing things right.

But I got just One more question:

A layer of an unidentifiable "Green Substance" has formed at the top of all the dirt and what not. Is this good? Or at least along the lines of good?

And when I say "green", get a Crayola Crayon with the color green and study the color. That's almost literally the color of this green substance.

Can you post a picture? My guess is that you have non-sphagnum moss. I would simply manually remove it. It happens to all of us. No biggie.

This is good moss:

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This is bad moss:

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Sorry that I can't post a picture like requested, my digital cameras focusing engine broke. But it is similar to the moss labeled "good".

I'm now relieved.

I was thinking about the whole UV thing explained by User: "mutant hybrid". Does the window need to be open for the UV rays to hit the plant? That is my goal, right?

And right now it's in triple digit heat, is that safe? Would A/C affect anything?

Hmm.... I guess I had more questions then I thought. I just want to make sure that I'm not failing at growing my VFT.

And to top it all off...

Can Energy Saving light bulbs do anything in favor to the Venus Fly Trap?

Hello hero81,

Green stuff could also be algae and is generally not a problem.

Window panes do cut UV light by a huge amount, but for now, just concentrate on slow progressive increases in light intensity. Once you have it in the brightest window, and since your area has temps over 100 (Flytraps can tolerate a wide range of temperatures from freezing to about 100 degrees, but over that tends to cook them), dont worry about getting it outside or opening the window, just go for supplemental light fixtures.

A/C is fine, but just keep the air from directly hitting the plants to cut down on transpiration, bog plants hate drying out.

The Energy Saver Bulbs that look like a corkscrew are the florescent compact bulbs. Those are great for replacing the incandescent light bulb in a desk light fixture and placing right over a single plant. You will even show an energy savings on your power bill with additional lights on plants all day long (especially if you replace all your bulbs with them in your entire house). If you had a larger collection, I would suggest a cheap shop light as that would cover a four foot area on a counter or shelf. Just keep that light over the plant all day while it gets light from that window and that should help it out. Venus Flytraps really are more like a rose or garden plant that you would place outside, so just hit it with all the light you can.

Some really great plants for your circumstances would be tropical sundews and Asian Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes), and perhaps even butterworts. Those you could keep all year easily inside and are quite interesting plants.

Awesome information.

You people helped me a ton. Thanks for that.

But to add a bit of an unfortunate twist, my neighborhood isn't even "mildly good" and I live in an apartment and don't have a backyard/balcony and my front yard is public to disasterous children who'll love to think that the plant is a baseball. And I'm not foolish enough to plant it in the actual dirt.

I wish I could eventually get it outside for the sun and fun stuff, but I can't due to too many risks.

The best I can ever get to is opening my window and let whatever hits the VFT, hit the VFT. Or use the lightbulb trick.

I just need to find a lamp (hopefully a bargin lamp) that will beam on the plant.

Other then that, I know for a fact my plant is growing. And with that in mind, I won't give up hope in it. I just want to see those blasted leaves open up for the first time. Not: form, stay closed, start to sizzle, crisp, croke.

But that should happen soon, every leaf that forms is greener then the last.

Anyway, thanks for all the help you can give me. I'll try a few of those steps. Maybe I'll see some pink in my VFT in a few... however long it takes.

hero81:

These Flytraps are also grown inside for the same reasons you mentioned about your apartment. They are under 12,000 lumens of florescent shop lights one inch from the leaves. They are doing OK, but barely. A window with the lights over them would be even better. They are open pot in a room with central air.

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Woah!

Depressing....