FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Panman wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 5:57 pm When you want to venture into Nepenthes ventrata is just about impossible to kill, and even when you start to kill it you can cut off the top of the plant and start over. It does need the right environment to produce pitchers, but even that is pretty easy.

If that’s the case would it be beginner friendly? It sounds like my kind of plant as long as I can keep it indoors if necessary. I never realized how diverse and many carnivorous plants there were.

Evenwind - definitely one of each as long as I can afford what’s needed for both.

Panman is definitely right about N. Ventrata being good for a beginner! I got a cutting from a nice guy last year, cut it in half, rooted the pieces, and have several pitchers growing now! I’ll try to get a picture this evening or tomorrow of it. The big thing is that I haven’t killed it!!!!

Jade wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 6:50 pm
Evenwind - definitely one of each as long as I can afford what’s needed for both.

Mine grow side-by-side. The pings use less water and prefer a more gravely medium but both will grow in LFS (long fibered (dried) sphagnum).

Jade wrote:If that’s the case would it be beginner friendly?

Definitely a beginner plant.

Awesome thanks everyone. I now have 3 plants I want to try buying after I see what happens with my VFT. This site only sells VFTs right? I’m just wondering where I should look for them and where to avoid buying from.

Jade wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 11:31 pm Awesome thanks everyone. I now have 3 plants I want to try buying after I see what happens with my VFT. This site only sells VFTs right? I’m just wondering where I should look for them and where to avoid buying from.

If you check the FlystoreStore link at the top of the page, you'll see that Matt and Leah also sell Sarracenia and a few Drosera. Anything you buy from them is top quality. Other than that, you might want to check any nursery you find with a Search on this forum. The bad guys are likely to have comments. I think we each have our favorites, and they will change over time, but that said, these are my current dependables:
https://rainbowcarnivorousplants.com/
https://curiousplant.com/
https://www.californiacarnivores.com/

Thank you so much. I just didn’t want to roll the dice with my next plant especially when it seems like I have a lot of research to do before starting. All the light stuff is super confusing for me and I don’t want to mess up with the next one like I did with my VFT. I’m actually wondering if I might not be able to grow anything to be honest because some of these things to figure out seem beyond my ability.

A lot of folks started out with a simple gooseneck lamp, a growbulb and maybe a timer.

Figuring out DLI has me more worried than anything. I can budget to get what I need and just take a bit longer, but I’m worried I will kill it as soon as I get it because I do the numbers wrong or something. I was thinking about care in terms of if it should be indoors or outdoors, what it needs to be potted in, etc. The calculation stuff seems really difficult? I still want to try. I just don’t want to be ordering plants thinking they’re doa because I don’t know how to do that part.

Don’t sweat the DLI, PAR, ect, etc,.. put your lights 10-12 inches above your flytrap and see how it does. Keep it in maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water in its tray and let the tray go dry for a day or two before watering it again. Top water once in a while so as to pull fresh oxygen into the grow mix and it helps to rinse impurities out of the grow mix as the water drains through. Dump the water that drains through and then add clean water to the tray. Don’t stress over the numbers. This is a hobby to enjoy, to have fun with.

This is probably going to be a weird suggestion, but Drosera regia (King Sundew) is actually not too terrible of a started plant for sunny windowsill growing, depending on where you live.

King Sundews are probably one of the closets things to the most archaic carnivorous plant, and it is proposed to be the closest thing to being the missing link between all carnivorous plants that we've discoverd (so far).

Sure, it'll kind of hate you whenever it first gets out of it's packaging and into it's new home, but that's every sundew.

King Sundews are one of the few sundews (possibly the only) that actually wants some soil fertilization. As long as the water you're giving it isn't liquid rocks (we're talking above 150PPM) it's should be okay, compared to many sundews who hate having stuff in their water or in their soil.

They aren't super picky about watering schedules, but they obviously don't want to be on the dry side, but they don't need to be soggy like a temperate sundew but they don't mind having water in their tray from time to time. I don't believe they're super picky about humidity, either, so long as you don't live somewhere where your lips get chapped even in the summer.

They don't like it super hot is all, though. Above 90 degrees Fahrenheit is probably pushing it too much for them, maybe even above 85. They don't want to be in the cold, either, probably nothing below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
They are perennials, technically, so they will kill off their leaves and come back during winter.

I have one that I decided to try putting outside during cooler weather. It liked it just fine, and then I didn't check the weather one night and it was out with the temperate plants that got frozen in place by the wind chill. I mean like frozen solid. Part of it died back, but it's now it's come back and it's even made a little baby plant.

The reason you'll see that it's technically an endangered species is likely because of mismanagement of the area it grows naturally in South Africa.

Temperate Drosera are even more hardier. I have a D. 'Dreamsicle' that is still growing out it's new leaves even though it froze one night, water in it's tray and all. Didn't even kill the leaves.

Really Sarrs and VFTs are a good start for outdoor growing. Cape Sundews are less expensive and are a classic for indoor growing. Mexican pings are cute. All 4 are plants that want sun and moisture, not too complicated.

Jade wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 10:43 pm I still want to try. I just don’t want to be ordering plants thinking they’re doa because I don’t know how to do that part.

Lets be real here. You're gonna lose plants. We all did (and do). Start off with cheap plants, try your best to manage them and don't expect too much. We can give you all the advice in the world, but even with the everyone's best of intentions, there's probably a thousand variables that will determine your success. And that's a trial and error process. Jump in and enjoy the deep end!

Intheswamp- thank you for the reassurance that I don’t have to be a genius to start growing it helps a lot. I didn’t even know about the top watering sometimes, I guess I should have been doing that with my VFT, but I also should have repotted it. It was just doing so well up until recently I didn’t want to change anything and kill it. I am legitimately attached to it.

Alec - hey I’m all for weird. Weird matches my personality. Thank you very much for the recommendations and advice, I will definitely look at those when I’m shopping for the cape I want.

Evenwind- thank you for the reassurance also. Having a couple regular plants die even after I followed the instructions my extraordinarily green thumbed friend gave me when she gifted them to me made me assume I just wasn’t meant to be a plant person. My VFT going strong for so long made me realize that maybe it wasn’t that I couldn’t, it was just not the right thing to try. I am someone who is always looking at plants kind of like pets so it’s possible I put too much into the daisies she gave me when they perhaps would have been better with slightly less attention and interaction, but I think that level of obsessiveness might be better served with carnivorous plants generally.

I was looking at that California site someone recommended and I have my eye on a few pings I think to start. Also they give you a free plant apparently for over $50 which I could easily spend there. There are a couple that are just mind blowingly beautiful. I was trying to figure out the exact medium though because it looks a lot different than the VFT just at a glance.

The ICPS was a good site to look at for that info right? I thought it was the one recommended, but I think I closed that tab and I forget what was mentioned and my eyeballs are somehow not seeing that suggestion even rereading my threads so I just wanted to make sure. It came up when looking for what to grow pings in.

Oh yeah do y’all get the stuff from like Lowe’s or something like that and mix from there or are those stores not good?

I saw Panman suggested looking up greenhouse supply stores and hypronics supply stores, but I only found one greenhouse near me and looking through the posts from people and description by owner it doesn’t look like they have any type of carnivorous plants. Unfortunately I don’t drive, so I wanted to have a place or a couple places to try so I didn’t have my partner driving his car randomly for hours going to places that wouldn’t work out anyhow.

Jade wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 3:49 pm <snip>
The ICPS was a good site to look at for that info right? I thought it was the one recommended, but I think I closed that tab and I forget what was mentioned and my eyeballs are somehow not seeing that suggestion even rereading my threads so I just wanted to make sure. It came up when looking for what to grow pings in.

Oh yeah do y’all get the stuff from like Lowe’s or something like that and mix from there or are those stores not good?

Yes, ICPS has some good information. The better plant vendors usually have good information online, too.

You actually need to go to the big box stores to make sure what they have in stock. Remember, never buy Miracle-Gro ingredients for carnivorous plants...it's okay for other plants but *not* for carnivorous ones.

The least expensive way of buying is naturally in large volume, meaning in "bales" of peat moss, or large bags of perlite. Home Depot has free shipping on a 2 cubic foot bag of Vigoro perlite, though I don't think I've see that at the actual store (I just received a bag I ordered). Bales of peat moss usually come in from 2 to 4 cubic foot bales. Peat quality varies between brands and even between different batches of the same brand.

I've been very pleased with "Majestic Earth" peat moss that I purchased at a brick and mortar Lowe's store. Other's have been pleased with "Premier"...this brand is found at lots of places...Home Depot, Tractor Supply, etc.,.

Sungro's "Black Gold" peat moss seems to be the best that can be found, at times, at different brick and mortar stores. I just found some at a Tractor Supply and bought two 2.2 cubic foot bales...I had checked a different Tractor Supply in another town that did not have the Sungro, but rather Premier (though online it showed Sungro! ....that's why you need to go by the stores and look). "Sunshine" is another Sungro peat moss that is good. There's other good brands, besides these, but these come to mind the quickest.

One brand of peat to NEVER BUY is "Greensmix" which Tractor Supply sold at one time. It is JUNK. There's probably other bad brands, too, but I'm really unaware of a particular one other than the Greensmix.

A consideration you need to look at is whether you have room to store the large volumes of ingredients. The 2 cu ft bag of perlite is about the size of a medium sized bag of dog food. A 2.2 cubic foot bale of peat moss is about the size of a large bag of dog food. And, a 4 cubic foot bale of peat moss is basically two large bags of dog food in size.

As for dried sphagnum moss, Lowes has good prices on Better-Gro "Sphagnum Moss - Long Fibered" and on "Orchid Moss" of the same brand...either of these work good. They come in smaller amounts, maybe 3/4 shoebox size mini-bales. There's another brand called "Mosser Lee" that you'll see on the shelf, it has several different types of moss under its brand...I wouldn't mess with that brand.

And, if you want smaller than bale or large bag quantities you could go with "Hoffman" peat moss if you find it, it comes in small "Large potatoe-chip" sized bags. There is mixed reviews/feelings about the Hoffman peat, so "buyer beware" Also, I've often seen small (potato chip size) bags of Vigoro perlite on the shelves. The basic mix is a one-to-one ratio of peat and perlite, but it doesn't hurt to have more of one than the other on hand...sometimes you might want more peat or more perlite in a mix anyhow. (Remember, though, stay away from Miracle-Gro!!!).

There *are* vendors who sell premixed "carnivorous plant soil". One to definitely stay away from is one sold on Amazon called "Perfect Plants". Lots of complaints in the forum about that one. The small bags on Amazon are EXPEN$IVE. If you only need a small amount of mix you might post a query here in the forum about your needs...there are *good* folks here that sell their own mix (the mix that they use) and at a fair price.

Anyhow, maybe some of that will help. Again...don't sweat bullets over it. Stay away from Miracle-Gro, Greensmix, Perfect Plants, and the Mosser Lee stuff and you should be okay.

When you are in the market for a capensis, hit me up. If I have divided them and repotted by then I'll have several different types available.