The classic and probably meanest carnivorous plant of all. No other plant on this site has large movable traps that can capture an insect within fractions of a second.
Although it is commonly known as a beginners plant this doesn’t apply for tropical climates. A green thumb is recommended. Dionaea is a plant that needs very high light levels. Most growers recommend a minimum of 4 hours of sunlight a day. We are giving a lot more, while shading them with a mild one or two layer shade cloth in dry season, to keep temperatures and watering intervals a little lower. If you are not sure how much sun to expose it to, you can give it less, as it might be safer for the plants survival. However, if the new traps are small and green, while the leaves get wider, you will know that they don’t have enough light. You can carefully increase the sun exposure weekly until you have found the optimum, because all green plants won’t be happy on the long run. Keep in mind though, if you don’t give direct sun, you need to grow the plants as bright as possible (no shade cloth, nothing), as they really need lots of light!
Make also sure not to put them to close to stone tiles or walls, as these heat up in the sun and release heat even at night.
Because we are located in a tropical climate we grow them without water trays, as it is common elsewhere, while taking very good care that they will never dry out for long. If you don’t have rain water, you can try distilled water or collect the runoff-water of your aircon.
No need to fertilize or feed them as they are very good in catching their own prey – a strong fertilizer can kill them instantly. Please also don’t overfeed them, don’t give them insects bigger that half of the trap size – it will cause the trap to rot. Avoid to feed ants (very acidic, can damage the trap) or human foods as in egg, cheese, meat or such. Don’t trigger the traps unnecessarily, it will stress the plant, but of course you can show it to your visitors once in a while.
The soil needs to be something soggy as in peat, or coco peat (Ace Hardware) if real peat is not available. Other alternatives are Long Fibered Sphagnum (LFS), but you need to make sure it is not Java moss, as it is sometimes mislabeled. The Java moss is usually sold in hand made plastic bags, while LFS is sold in compressed imported square bricks (Manila: Garden2000). A 90 mm pot will usually do, as big pots tend to create a too stagnant environment for the roots. If you find you can mix perlite or fine pumice, but it is not a must.
They usually require a few months of dormancy (think refrigerator), but for us they are doing very ok for us without since more than a decade. In summer the plants look weaker, but then they are returning to full strength again. If you check on google or YouTube for VFT dormancy you will find enough opinions and directions.
What to do after arrival?
FIRST, if you have ordered different clones, please locate the clone numbers (C1, C2 …) prior to unpacking, as only their containers but not the plants are labeled(!)
You can put the plants in a bowl with rain water and soak them for about 30 minutes, but that’s only if they look dehydrated. Most often, the plants arrive rather moist even after delayed shipping! If everything is moist during unpacking, no need.
If you see some black traps or leaves, it is advisable to cut them off, we sometimes forget to clean them while packing and if shipping takes long some traps might turn black as well. During the Covid Pandemic and related shipping delays, sometimes the flytrap lost a lot of their traps, but as long as the bulb stays white they usually recover well. If you have a hard time planting the plants because the traps are bending down, you can bury the outer traps partially. The white bulb part should be under soil level, but not too deep either, as it can promote root rot.
Keep the VFT out of direct sun (up to 8:30 am ok!), but still very very bright until it has grown some healthy leaves (2-3 weeks). DON’T create an environment that increases humidity. No greenhouse, aquarium, no plastic boxes, no plastic bags. These are temperate plants and the Philippines is very humid already. A good airflow is much better and is non-existent if you cover them. Then you can gradually expose it to some direct or filtered sun. In fact they love a lot of sun, but you have to be careful not to forget to water.
They are good insect catchers, everything up to small frogs is possible! The insect catching business will start after around a month, give it first some time to settle and grow new leaves.