FlyTrapCare Forums

I know I've been posting so much lately, but it's so hard to find good information out here. That's part of the reason I keep gravitating to this site. Everything out there with VFTs is conflicting information, it seems.

I know the people here know what they're doing. I see the pictures, and aspire to have plants as gorgeous as all of yours. This recent plant I've only had for less then a week, and it is getting to be a beautiful red inside of the traps. It's my damn dream to have a plant that looks like the one on the far left in the banner. The color is amazing. But anyway, it's been around 80F here and sunny, which has been perfect, but I've been putting the plant in a pot with a tray with around 3/4 inches of water in it (the pot is 6" tall). I leave around between 7 and 9 each day during the week and am not home until 6, and by then, there is no water left in the pot. I keep reading that I shouldn't be keeping it so wet, but each day the water is gone by the time I get home. Of course, I take it out of the tray when it's not in the hot sun. So I was wondering, do I need to have it in water every day before I put it out in the sun or would it be okay with every other day. The mixture is 1:1 peat/perlite, just so you know.


Thanks so much everyone. Again, sorry for the high volume of questions.

The most important thing is to never let your flytrap dry out. They can stand being wet for a few days, especially during warm weather, without any long term consequences. But if they dry out, it can kill them. Don't worry too much about leaving it sit in water this time of year, especially if the pot is sufficiently deep (4+ inches). But be very careful leaving the plant sitting in water during the winter months.

The ultimate goal for watering is to keep the soil moist and not soaking wet and never dry. Whatever you can do to achieve that is fine. Using a larger pot makes it easier.

Okay, great. Thanks so much for all your help, Matt. I'm truly impressed with what you've got going here and will surely be ordering plants form you in the immediate future.

Thanks for the kind words chazzbo77.

chazzbo77 wrote:It's my damn dream to have a plant that looks like the one on the far left in the banner. The color is amazing.

Here are the things that cause flytraps to color up best:
1) Lots of direct light
2) Never tripping the traps (the traps seem to cease gaining color once tripped)
3) Cool night time temperatures
4) Shortening days (could be cooler night time temperatures because both usually happen at the same time)

These are the things I've noticed since I've started growing flytraps. If you can keep them very well lit, keep the bugs away from them and give them cool night time temps, they'll color up nicely. These conditions are most commonly met in the fall. My greenhouses are a color extravaganza in September

Oh, wow. I didn't know that, I was under the impression that it was all about sunlight. Alright, great! Thanks again!

I too have found that lower temperatures help with gaining color, sunlight hasn't seemed to be the biggest factor for me, strangely enough.
And i agree that once the traps have eaten, they stop gaining color.

That explains why most of my traps are red . I don't feed them, I let 'em do their natural thing (and I can't really run around the house chasing flies). Good luck getting some red on your plants, and thanks Matt for the observations!

If you want to check out some photos of really red flytraps, see these pics of my plants from last October:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/a-few ... tml#p74618

All I can say is WOW! Absolutely beautiful. That is without a doubt exactly what I want.