FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Whats all this i keep hearing about sticking vfts in the frige, my grilfriend allready thinks ive lost my mind with all my plants,if im not feeding the vfts a fly im misting my orkids or misting the vfts or repoting somthing, if she one day comes to my house and opens the frige and its jam packed with flytraps im telling you it over.

The refrigerator is a last resort for people who are unable to provide a normal dormancy.

but wouldent it be too cold in the frige? and very dark

Dr GreenThumb wrote:but wouldent it be too cold in the frige? and very dark

Yes, it's too cold and too dark for the flytrap to grow at all. It's really just in a state of suspended animation until it's taken out of the fridge. However, it does allow the plant to "rest" enough that it thinks it has had its dormancy.

As Nick said, it's really should be used a last resort for people that can't provide dormancy any other way.

The refrigeration method is not as complicated and not as bad as it sounds. I stick hundreds of vfts and sarrs in a tupperware container with damp LFS and had 100% success. There is a thread that Matt created in the forum that will give you the step by step on how to do this.

hb

hackerberry wrote:The refrigeration method is not as complicated and not as bad as it sounds. I stick hundreds of vfts and sarrs in a tupperware container with damp LFS and had 100% success. There is a thread that Matt created in the forum that will give you the step by step on how to do this.

hb

QFT.

I use the fridge method for all my temperates as well. Originally, it was given a bad rap because you're *sticking a plant in the fridge with no light*. In practice, though, it's a very safe and effective method to use. The biggest caveats are

a) Fridge space
b) Plants that were in the fridge for dormancy get about a 2-weeks-to-a-month later start on getting growing than plants that had a "natural" dormancy. Reason I think is because in the fridge, plants are basically in a coma (really cold and no light), so it takes them longer to wake up. When mine get going though, they grow like mad and always catch up, so this shouldn't be a reason not to use the fridge method imo.

Oh and a warning - make sure your plant is already dormant before you stick it in the fridge. Putting a plant in the fridge that's actively growing might kill it.

Go here and scroll down to refrigerator dormancy - http://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-trap-dormancy.html

Also, check this link for a detailed photo-driven walkthrough: http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/CP/page2.html (his pics will be back up on Nov 1)

I don't usually fridge mine until around Thanksgiving. Scott does his around Halloween.

It's really just in a state of suspended animation

Har like this