Just leave the plant alone, let it go dorment as the plant has decided that it wants to.
Just dont feed it further.
When dorment it should be very sluggish in closing its traps and itsalso normal to see all the traps close once dormency is fully under way.

Cheers

Sheldon

Vft will go dormate when frost weather arrives. The frost will let the vft know its time to go to sleep,and start releasing its own plant like anti-freeze to protect it from freezing winter.

about how often should I water it? I live in phoenix, arizona.

another question: when it is spring can you artifically pollinate it? If so, how?

I'd water it just enough so that the soil stays barely above being damp. You don't want it drenched as you normally would during the growing season. The plant should be heading into dormancy soon and you'd probably want to give it like conditions - minimal water, less light per day, cooler temperatures. Eventually, it'll get the hint and start to drift off into sleep. You don't want to force it as this shock might kill it as opposed to send it to sleep.

As for pollination, I'm not 100% sure. Personally, I've never let my VFT flowers grow more than an inch or two because I've heard rumours it weakens the plant severely. The flip side of the coin is that a healthy plant should pull through just fine and only the weaker ones die. I'm not sure so I've never done it. I'd let the plant get up in the ages to at least 3 or 5 years, with a good and strong system before risking letting the flowers up and bloom.

That depends when you got the plants. If you got them a while ago, say last february-march.. then it's most likely falling dormant. If it is, then let it be. Or if still keeps on growing, leave it alone, keep growing it the same way you have been growing it since it has made it this far.

For dormancy, well.. i just leave my venus' flytraps outdoors, it usually rains here in CA during falls and winters. I don't bug watering my plants around this period time, however, Never allow the soil to COMPLETELY DRY OUT. If it does, you may lose your plants. My plants always have a tray filled with water due to the rainy days, despite the waterted media, they do not rot since they are always outside, day and night.

The nights are very cold. Maybe your venus' flytraps IS falling dormant due to the shorter photo period days and colder days/nights. Traps will eventually turn brown, this is natural, simply trim them off, new ones will slowly grow from the center offshoot but very slowly, then suddenly they will stop the growth eventually. Venus' flytraps will rely atleast to 3-4 hours of sunlight during dormancy period, too.

As pollination, to obtain seeds, it is better when two plants are cross-breed to obtain more seed credit. A venus' fly trap won't turn into its weak point IF growned correctly. If a venus' flytrap is allowed to flower and it's growned in a dimmer area, it will most likely die(poor lighting, excessive watering) If you choose to allow your venus' flytrap to flower, i advice you to atleast give it 4-6 hours of full sun next growing season, this way, the plant will still grow vigorously and reward you with a bunch of seeds. a healthy plant is a happy plant, and it will still grow vigorously after giving seed. just make sure to water it daily and grow it outdoors if you are willing to let it flower.(from my experience, venus' flytraps are best kept outdoors, specially if you are seeking to obtain seeds.)

ya i have just gotten a venus fly trap and is doing great. now i want to cross breed with other plants.but i dont know how to cross breed them or what plants i can cross breed with?

venus' flytraps can only cross-breed with its only genus of species. or other venus' flytrap cultivars. they can be self pollinated or cross pollinated with other flytraps. anthers to stigma.

If ya cross a VFT and a butterwort, you get an Audrey11!

how do i pollinate my venus fly trap ethough its risky and what should i before and after the plant produces seeds

They self-pollinate but you could help it by taking a thin paintbrush and touch the anthers, where the pollen is, and rub it onto the stamen. Wait until the pods are full and seeds are black before harvesting and sow them ASAP.

I'm considering undertaking a project to breed the largest, hardiest, and most exotic venus flytraps possable. I don't know much about the finer differences between flytrap species so I was hopeing to find a good place to start and to obtain various species. Also any breeding techniques or advice would be greatly appriciated as would any other information.

There is only ONE species of VFT. It is Dionaea muscipula.

That is one long undertaking you plan to do!

Just remember, depending on the cultivar or variety, VFT will take about 4 to 6 years to reach flowering size. You have to be very patient & have good record keeping system, as well as keeping a good tracking record of each plant of not only the number but also what variety you have & how you are growing them & how it is behaving. That is how dedicated horticulturist develop new strains of plants resistant to diseases & bad growing conditions, as well as developing showing plants.

I suppose you have to start by growing different variety or cultivar of VFTs in ideal conditions. Then slowly growing them somewhat in less then ideal conditions, but not too much that you loose the plant. Just enough that you can differentiate between the different strains of VFT which are still growing normally under these less then ideal condition. Wait for them to flower then crossing these strong plants with each other to produce seeds, then being careful to grow these seedlings under the same condition to weed out the week plants, growing them a little bit more less then ideal condition.

Once these reach flowering age, crossing the strongest ones to produce a more robust plant. Now size of the trap will depend will be a little hard to obtain, I suppose crossing say a ÂB52Â cultivar with a strong clone & wait to see in a few years how large the trap it will produce but there could always be the danger this strain with bigger traps will loose its vigor. One problem trying to develop a new strain is that it doesnÂt always come out as you want. It will take years to develop a new strain that you want. Then there are the mistakes you will make which will result with the loss of a plant.

Think about itÂ

venus fly trap advice

Here is a link that might be useful: fly trap care

I've got a plan I'm putting into place and setting up the equipment with near lab conditions so the breeding project looks promising. Now I need to know more about the plants' dietary needs and digestive processes to formulate special food to maxamise intake with minimum output. In other words I need to know exactly what the plants need from their prey, what of it is just waste, and how they break it down and absorb it if any such information is available.

For the record I'd like to state that I'm mostly posting for outside thoughts and information I may have overlooked.

I really don't think you want to dedicate the time it takes to get a trap to close on dead material. The movement of the insect is what closes the trap tight enough to seal and digest it's food.

I have read about the venus flytraps on a few sites and as far as I have read, it is possible to get a trap to close, you need some kind of tool that you can slide inside the trap, then hit some of the trigger hairs on it, when tapped in rapid succession, the trigger hairs will close the trap. I do not know what kind of nutrients are digested from insects, although some guy put dead skin cells from a bad case of athlete's foot in the trap. The trap digested the skin chunks into gummy, amorphous blobs that looked like soft scabs except it was an oddball experiment and kind of weird/stupid to me. I was wondering if it is possible to use fertilizers in the trap, then trigger it to close and see what happens although I do think the trap will just die. I have used my orchid fertilizer on the underside of trap leaves, applied by cue-tips but just enough to dampen the under side of the leaves. If any fertilizer gets into the medium, it will kill the plants so always be careful and only fertilize the underside of a couple leaves- not all of them all at once and not more than once a month because that will only sustain them if they are too small or ill equipped to catch their own food. It does work if you keep the feedings light and to a minimum so the plants just get what they need for photosynthesis or to aid sugar production from photosynthesis. I grow my carnivorous plants in the dead sphagnum moss, but I will try to get the live moss to grow as well since that is what carnivorous plants grow in for the most part, and that is the reason why they need to supplement their diet with light fertilizer in the form of small vertebrates and invertebrates. The sphagnum moss tends to pull calcium and magnesium from rain water, which leaves nothing but the excess hydrogen as a byproduct. This creates a very acidic environment where most plants that grow in it cannot get absorb nutrients properly as on the ph scale, soil ph needs to be around 5.8-6.2 to absorb the wide range of micro and macro nutrients. When soil ph falls below 5.5, certain nutrients needed by the plants are not absorbed because they are not readily available in more acidic environments. I hope this helps you as it helped me to understand the plant physiology more.

I have read about the venus flytraps on a few sites and as far as I have read, it is possible to get a trap to close, you need some kind of tool that you can slide inside the trap, then hit some of the trigger hairs on it, when tapped in rapid succession, the trigger hairs will close the trap. I do not know what kind of nutrients are digested from insects, although some guy put dead skin cells from a bad case of athlete's foot in the trap. The trap digested the skin chunks into gummy, amorphous blobs that looked like soft scabs except it was an oddball experiment and kind of weird/stupid to me. I was wondering if it is possible to use fertilizers in the trap, then trigger it to close and see what happens although I do think the trap will just die. I have used my orchid fertilizer on the underside of trap leaves, applied by cue-tips but just enough to dampen the under side of the leaves. If any fertilizer gets into the medium, it will kill the plants so always be careful and only fertilize the underside of a couple leaves- not all of them all at once and not more than once a month because that will only sustain them if they are too small or ill equipped to catch their own food. It does work if you keep the feedings light and to a minimum so the plants just get what they need for photosynthesis or to aid sugar production from photosynthesis. I grow my carnivorous plants in the dead sphagnum moss, but I will try to get the live moss to grow as well since that is what carnivorous plants grow in for the most part, and that is the reason why they need to supplement their diet with light fertilizer in the form of small vertebrates and invertebrates. The sphagnum moss tends to pull calcium and magnesium from rain water, which leaves nothing but the excess hydrogen as a byproduct. This creates a very acidic environment where most plants that grow in it cannot get absorb nutrients properly as on the ph scale, soil ph needs to be around 5.8-6.2 to absorb the wide range of micro and macro nutrients. When soil ph falls below 5.5, certain nutrients needed by the plants are not absorbed because they are not readily available in more acidic environments. I hope this helps you as it helped me to understand the plant physiology more.