FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Good afternoon all,

I’m brand new to the forum. First, thanks to everyone for the wonderful information on this board! There is a huge wealth of knowledge here.

I’ve tried growing Venus flytraps a few times many years ago and ended up murdering them. I had no idea the instructions on the boxes were bunk. Terrariums, no direct sunlight, no room for roots to go down, well water…

I was at a local department store called Meijer and saw some big, but sad looking flytraps from Rocket Farms. The traps were ~1.5” and way larger than I’m used to seeing, so I grabbed a couple. I couldn’t resist considering 1” traps were huge back when I tried growing them last. Turns out that was a gateway drug. This time, with the benefit of forums like this, I found out how to really grow them vice killing them. It is still cold here in Michigan (North of Detroit), so I bought a grow light, nice tall pots, and planted them in LFSM.

Back to the gateway drug part…. I’m good at growing flowers, vegetables, and herbs, so I figured that being armed with the correct way to grow carnivorous plants, I should buy a few more and have a ball. Another benefit is that I just installed a reverse osmosis system, so I have good water for them. I have a few on order and will post pictures once I have everything in hand but I ordered a DCXL, Low Giant, and a Megatraps. Probably going to have to get a sundew or 2 as well. All of these wonderful new cultivars knocked my socks off! There wasn’t anything like that when I was trying to grow some.

So the 2 sad looking Rocket Farms flytraps are doing well. They had a touch of repotting shock and were pretty sad to begin with. One was all contorted in the container. They got a touch of sunburn from the grow light, but have considerable new growth coming up. I cut the flower stalks to focus the plants on recovering. One has 3 new traps coming up and the other has four.

Once the nice weather arrives, I plan to move them out to the front garden which gets full sun. We have a horrible deer infestation around here. They’re as thick as cockroaches, and I’ve learned to like them about as much as roaches. I run an electric fence around the front gardens. I plan to build a chicken wire pen supported by fiberglass rods for the carnivorous plant collection then use a jumper wire to the hot fence. Basically they’ll be in an electrified cage, so hopefully they won’t get attacked by deer, rabbits, squirrels or other critters. Yeah, I’m probably going to be frying myself all the time watering them.

Thanks again,

Dan

Welcome! Don't let the seed bank go unused.

Welcome. What evenwind said about the seed bank. Love to see some pictures.

Lots of good helpful people here. Stay tuned for the giveaways!

Thank you both! Thanks for the seed bank recommendation too!

I hope to be able to start contributing to the community soon. I need to get a little experience and with some luck, I will be able share knowledge and donate some seeds.

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you're well on your way in getting addicted to familiar with the hobby!!!

I like your idea of an electrified pen to keep your plants in. Could lead to some, ah,...shocking experiences!!! Please do have somebody videoing when it happens. We've got a few deer around here, and a few squirrels. I'm in the process of getting a prefab chicken coop put up. Well, just got the old garden cleared out so as to accommodate it...need to till it now a bit to knock down some of the young weeds and level out an area for the coop. But, we're getting there. I'm looking forward to sharing deer tails/tales(?) with you...we're loaded with them, too. We had a couple take out an eight-point the other day, both sides of that confrontation lost...rolled the car but the folks were ok other than being bummed up by the airbags. The deer, well, they reported he was in hot pursuit of a doe...so he probably died with a smile on his face. And in case nobody has mentioned it....check out the seed bank...instructions are at the bottom of the inventory list. So, welcome again!!! Oh, and pay *no* attention to comments about me made by some of the other forum members...just ignore them, I think they have problems staying on schedule with their meds. Lots of them just go on and on and on and don't know when to stop talking. Then there's all the cockamamie things they come up with. I dunno how us sane folks hang in here. It's kinda like an insane asylum without the walls. After thinking about that a moment, there actually may *be* some walls for some of these characters. Ok, so, I'll catch ya later. Enjoy the forum. Lots of great folks here and (don't say I said it) some pretty smart ones, too!

Thank you! I try to remember to share pictures of that set up once I get it built.

Ugh, the deer. I’ve been battling that plague for 20 years. I can’t plant anything outside the wire. I wish I could put up an 8’ fence with concertina wire on top and a couple extra rolls inside the wire in case they jump the fence.

Deer...they're so "cute"...yeah, right. I pulled into my driveway and caught movement some movement in the backyard so I stayed in the jeep and waited <sigh>...

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks!

a warm welcome to you and your flytraps!

Good evening all,

Thank you for the warm welcome! I will attach the photos to this post.

But first, a confession…. When I got the bug for carnivorous plants again (post the department store impulse buy), I made several other impulse buys before finding this forum. If only I had been patient (obviously not my strong suit), I would have bought all the cultivars from Fly Trap Store. I have learned my lesson and future procurements will be from FTS unless they don’t carry it. My apologies up front for my impulse buying.

Assuming I did the upload correctly, the first and second picture is a DC XL and a DC XL micro (the labels are visible so you can see who I got what from). They were the same price.

The third picture is the Megatraps and low giant.

The fourth picture is the two sad typicals that started the whole thing. Yes, they are mangled and deformed from the death cubes and mishandling before I got them, however they’ve got very healthy new shoots coming up.

A sundew or two will probably have to join the party at some point. Also, I saw some really good looking dried Spaghnum in the batch so I’m going to try to revive it. Easy experiment. If it fails, oh well, I’ll buy some live spaghnum off a board member.

Thanks again everyone!

Dan

Welcome to the forum!

Dan J wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 7:49 pm We have a horrible deer infestation around here. They’re as thick as cockroaches, and I’ve learned to like them about as much as roaches.

One word about the deer: venison. I bet ChefDean could help you out with that.

I wish! These are city slicker deer. No hunting allowed unfortunately. I’m sure they’d have a great floral flavor. All I can do is hope for bovine tuberculosis to make a run thru here.

And if the deer runs, be sure to track it down. A dead deer with an arrow sticking out of it tends to attract the law's attention (not necessarily speaking from experience, mind you...).