I can't help ya- I killed all my vft's, except the one I planted outside in a "pond" we had in the yard I filled with peat & made into a bog. But from what I've read, humidity = good, and give 'im LOTS of light. (but don't quote me- as I said, I killed all mine.)

hi, the humidity thing is not big at allall u need is three things:
1) Good Light: either full sun for outdoors or windowsill, or 40 watt fluoresent or compact fluoresent bulbs.
Run the bulb about six to eight inches above the plant for fourteen hours in spring and summer and eight to ten in fall and winter.
Naturally they go dorment in winter and stop growth during this time.
2) Good water:
only pure water like Rain, Distilled or Reverse Osmosis.
They like been permanently moist to wet, use a watertray, water from above and let the drainage fill the tray.
Once it evaporates re water.

3) Good Soil:
No garden soil.
Mix one part Sphagnum Peat Moss with one part Perlite.

Mabey something like cobraplants new ebook would be a good investment if u want to have all the info at your fingertips.
you can find it at www.carnivorousplantsecrets.com

Cheers

Sheldon

one more thing, of the plant came with one of those domes over it,dont just remove it, u need to adapt the plant to your climate.
do this by raising each side of the dome over a period of two weeks then remove it.
raise one side, then two, then four by an inch over this two weeks then u can remove ir.

Cheers

Sheldon

also u want to keep in mind to NEVER fertilise the plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: CP FAQ, large section about VFT's

I personally don't agree at all with the ignoring humidty approach. I consider that to be very misleading. The plant wants 5 basic things. The correct light, humidity, soil, temps, and water. I suppose you could give it lousy humidty, or lousy soil, or poor lighting; but why would you? I could walk around without a shirt on in the MN winter, but it's not a very good idea. Providing those 5 things at the best levels that you can will also give you the greatest margin for error. This is important for a first time flytrap owner.

joeb004 we have had this discussion a few times now.
The soil water and lighting is the most important aspects in my opinion.
The plant cannot adapt to really hard water, nor can it to really bad light or soil mix.
These will indeed make the plant grow slower and make it sick.
I am proof however that adapting the plant to humidity of 30-40% still allowed the plants to grow large traps, grow lots of leaves and stay in good health.
Various plants are picky about humidity, especially some Nepenthes.
VFT's however are not one of these plants.
If you want to build a terrarium then thats fine, if however you dont have the cash for that or dont have the space and simply want the plant in a pot on a windowsill, then adapting it makes plenty of sense.
If the plant is still happy and this can be seen by the rate of growth, the size of growth and the look of the leaves, root system and bulb, then why would it be a bad thing?
And if it was not a bad thing, then Id have to say that in the instance where someone wants to grow the plants in a pot that it makes alot of sense.

Im curious as well if you have done an experiment of a hardened off plant VS a terrarium plant and what the results where.
Mine was that once adapted fully the hardened off plant grew at the same rate and produced good sized traps of up to 1.5" in length.
It also was alot greener and firmer on the leaves and was never sickly.

Cheers

Sheldon

Ok lemme show everyone something.
This VFT pic Im about to post is roughly 5-6 months now (if that), this was grown from a leaf cutting, the cutting was covered with a dome until the white base of the leaf formed a shoot.
It was left until it was roughly 3mm long.
I then hardened it off and planted it in a 50/50 peat/perlite mix.
The age of 5-6 months includes the wait for the shoot to form.
Can anyone honestly point out any problems they can see with this plant?
Does its health under flucuating humidity of 30-40% seem to have harmed it?
Does it appear unhappy?
The traps close very fast and it gobbles down ants.
I have started growing CP's this year in Februrary, I have NEVER ever had the chance before.
Now if a beginner like me can do this under conditions that the plant should not have, what could expert growers achieve?
Due to the flash I needed to use on the camera, you cant even see how dark red the inside of the mouth is, it appears much lighter here.
Its a stunning lill VFT and I am impressed with my results.

heres my baby:
{{gwi:567383}}
You will also note the baby ping primuliflora next to it that is growing well too.

Cheers

Sheldon