FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

How do I use the tray method? I've been top watering but I don't think it's such a good idea considering the fungus/mold that can grow.

top watering is fine just dont let it get so much wet thats how it catches mold and fungus and give it atleast 12 hours of sun is fine and water it until its moist enough not soggy I'd recommend watering every morning at around 7:00 am or 8:00 am and the afternoon around 3:00 or 4:00 pm or if you cant then at whatever time you can in afternoon or night but not too night time ok

get a tray.. sit your pot on it.. put water in the tray..
And the soil will soak it up..
Tray method gives less trouble with mold etc..
Also induces growth of plants growth as they try to move downwards towards the water..
In the growing season in full sun i reccomend 2cm for water in the tray at all times..
Some may say different and say 2cm then let it dry until the top of the soil in your pot is getting dryish.. Then refil the tray..

I keep mine at 2cm in the summer and just water about once a week in the colder months..

Ronnie.

manzano167 wrote:top watering is fine just dont let it get so much wet thats how it catches mold and fungus and give it atleast 12 hours of sun is fine and water it until its moist enough not soggy I'd recommend watering every morning at around 7:00 am or 8:00 am and the afternoon around 3:00 or 4:00 pm or if you cant then at whatever time you can in afternoon or night but not too night time ok

Twice a day? I heard you only have to water them every 3 days.

Ronnie wrote:get a tray.. sit your pot on it.. put water in the tray..
And the soil will soak it up..
Tray method gives less trouble with mold etc..
Also induces growth of plants growth as they try to move downwards towards the water..
In the growing season in full sun i reccomend 2cm for water in the tray at all times..
Some may say different and say 2cm then let it dry until the top of the soil in your pot is getting dryish.. Then refil the tray..

I keep mine at 2cm in the summer and just water about once a week in the colder months..

Ronnie.

How long?

how long what?

Put more water in the tray every 3-7 days..
Whatever your prefrence..
Tray method is definatly much better.. Bogs are supplied with running water underground every so often.. Not so much from rain comming from above..
So, this is ideally the closest to their natural enviroment..
Plus, you can have multiple pots in one tray, so you dont have to induvidually water each one!

Ron.

I did that, though, when I first started and the soil on the top still got moldy! Matt said not to keep it standing in water.

Maybe thats matts prefrence.. But when it's summer and they are getting direct light i like to keep it at 2cm..
Plants can get dehydrated fast and the roots will soak up lots from the soil..
But i agree not to keep them standing otherwise..

Ronnie.

2 to 3 times is ok

I know about the Summer time. But what about right now? How long in Spring/Fall/Winter?

Put the tray 2cm of water.. and wait until all the water is gone.. And then wait until the top of the soil is getting lesser and lesser on the wet side.. they don't like to be too moist if the tempretures are cool..

The when you think yourself it needs watered, fill the tray back up to around 2cm..

Your watering schedule may also vary from Matt's or Ronnie's. The time it takes for the soil to absorb the water and get saturated and the amount of time it takes for it to dry out are going to differ depending on your potting medium, relative humidity etc. Just keep a close eye on the plants. I would recommend watering less and then increasing the amount of water if the plants don't seem as happy. I dropped down to watering my Capensis once a week for the past 3 weeks. The plants didn't grow as fast and I noticed a lack of dew on new leaves. Now I'm going to start increasing how much I water. There's a decent amount of experimentation that you can do without significantly harming your plant to find what works for your plants.

If you're having problems with mold watering less will help. You can also pick up some Neem oil to take care of the mold that's already there.

So, I experiment, basically?

Funny enough I just made a page a few months ago about the tray method:
http://www.growsundews.com/tray_method_ ... lants.html

hopefully this can help your confusion out a little bit.
I ended up growing all mine via the tray method indoors last summer because I was taking a class in another city. Worked just fine, but they do great outdoors when they're able to catch all those insects and use the energy as fuel to make hundreds of flowers.