New
Venus Flytrap Giant Forms
Dionaea muscipula
Beginner's carnivorous growing kit
Grow your own fly catcher!
A kit for a new plant grower, or someone looking to try a new and interesting type of plant without having to spend a lot of money for the right kind of soil mix. Great for presents, or as an experiment to try something new. This relatively easy-to-grow variety is a great starter plant for anyone looking at getting into the carnivorous plant world.
What the kit includes: A 3" pot with enough growing medium to fill it to the top with a light packing and 10+ flytrap seeds (either giant or regular mix), along with step-by-step instructions. The plant in the pictures is an example of what the seeds will grow into, not what will be sent.
Venus flytrap is a great carnivorous plant for beginners! This is one of the first carnivorous plants we grew! It continued a trend of growing carnivorous plants, and we now have a healthy supply of plants to provide fresh seeds for our customers!
This Flytrap is easy to grow!
These seeds will produce traps with various colors, including red, green and yellow, and many in-between colors. Some will have traps that are a different color than the plant!
The Venus flytrap (also referred to as Venus's flytrap or Venus' flytrap), Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States in North Carolina and South Carolina. It catches its prey (chiefly insects and arachnids) with a trapping structure triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if another contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a Safeguard against wasting energy by trapping objects with no nutritional value, and the plant will only begin digestion after five more stimuli to ensure it has caught a live bug worthy of consumption.
Speed of closing can vary depending on the amount of humidity, light, size of prey, and general growing conditions. The speed with which traps close can be used as an indicator of a plant's general health. Venus flytraps are not as humidity-dependent as are some other carnivorous plants.
Most carnivorous plants selectively feed on specific prey. This selection is due to the available prey and the type of trap used by the organism. With the Venus flytrap, prey is limited to beetles, spiders and other crawling arthropods. In fact, the Dionaea diet is 33% ants, 30% spiders, 10% beetles, and 10% grasshoppers, with fewer than 5% flying insects.
If the prey is unable to escape, it will continue to stimulate the inner surface of the lobes, and this causes a further growth response that forces the edges of the lobes together, eventually sealing the trap hermetically and forming a "stomach" in which digestion occurs
Digestion takes about ten days, after which the prey is reduced to a husk of chitin. The trap then reopens, and is ready for reuse.
Plants can be propagated by seed. The plants will live for 20 to 30 years if cultivated in the right conditions.
Germination: Use a mix of 50% peat moss, and 50% sand or perlite. First, rinse the sand. Once cleaned, mix the sand with dampened peat moss, and gently press the mixture into a container. Flatten the surface of the soil. Gently place the seeds in the surface of the soil, do not bury them. Then, use a spray bottle to dampen the soil and the seeds. Place the container in a bag to retain moisture. Keep the container in a warm room, about 80-85F, or about 30C is ideal. Keep the seeds in bright light, but not in direct sunlight. Keep the soil consistently moist, not completely saturated, but it is VERY important that they never dry out. The seeds can be a little slow to germinate, so patience is required, and they will typically germinate within 5-8 weeks.
Flytrap care
Sun: Flytraps need a lot of sun to digest their meals. The general rule for these plants is; if there's enough light for a tomato plant to do well, there's enough light for a flytrap. If you are growing under grow lights, we currently have ours under grow lights for 14 hours a day, approximately 8" away from the light with a rating of 6500K (basic white light is fine, some people like to get more of the red spectrum in there, we haven't had any issues with our current set up).
Water: Flytraps are typically found in bog like conditions. To mimic this, we have the potted flytrap sitting in a dish of water and never let them go dry. Bottom watering seems to work the best as top watering can sometimes cause the traps to trigger and close without any actual food in the trap for the plant to digest. For the water, it needs to be extremely low mineral content. Ideally less than 50 PPM. We've been using primarily rainwater for ours, though we do use reverse osmosis water when rainwater isn't available. Another option would be to use distilled water.
Soil: Flytraps do not like to have mineral content in the soil either. Our recommended soil mix is 1 part peat moss to 1 part perlite. Coarse silica sand is an alternative to perlite, though it tends to make the soil mix quite a bit heavier, so we've been switching over to perlite for our own plants. If you do want to up-pot the plants at some point, make sure to get peat moss and perlite without any additives. Miracle Gro brand seems to like adding nutrients, so avoid that for these plants. Currently we are using 'golf green' brand peat moss and 'holland basics' perlite.
Feeding: Despite the reputation these plants have, they don't eat that many bugs. One fly a month is plenty for them. If you are feeding the plant a dead bug, you will have to massage the trap after it closes around the insect for approximately 10-15 seconds. The massaging of the trap would simulate the bug moving around after closing. They have evolved to reopen the traps if there is no movement after closing, so if it's raining, the rain might cause the trap to close, but it will reopen on its own shortly after. Make sure the insect you are feeding your plant is smaller than the overall size of the trap. Once the plant shuts around an insect, it creates a seal and releases digestive enzymes to eat the bug, if the insect is too large, those enzymes will leak out of the trap and it won't get a proper meal out of it.
Dormancy: Venus flytraps typically have a winter dormancy, it can survive a couple years without dormancy, but will eventually die off if not given time to rest. If you do want to simulate a winter period for these plants, simply place them in the fridge at the start of next Winter, the lack of light and cool temperatures will trigger the dormancy period for them. ÿ Ensure they don't completely dry out during this period, though they don't need as much water as normal. When waking them up, that would be the best time to split the plants if you want to multiply them.
Flower care: Generally, we've always let our flytraps flower, however, a lot of growers prefer cutting the flower stalk off to conserve energy for the plant. It seems to be more of a personal preference for you.
Difficulty rating: 3/5 assuming tomatoes are a 1/5.
Grow your own fly catcher!
A kit for a new plant grower, or someone looking to try a new and interesting type of plant without having to spend a lot of money for the right kind of soil mix. Great for presents, or as an experiment to try something new. This relatively easy-to-grow variety is a great starter plant for anyone looking at getting into the carnivorous plant world.
What the kit includes: A 3" pot with enough growing medium to fill it to the top with a light packing and 10+ flytrap seeds (either giant or regular mix), along with step-by-step instructions. The plant in the pictures is an example of what the seeds will grow into, not what will be sent.
Venus flytrap is a great carnivorous plant for beginners! This is one of the first carnivorous plants we grew! It continued a trend of growing carnivorous plants, and we now have a healthy supply of plants to provide fresh seeds for our customers!
This Flytrap is easy to grow!
These seeds will produce traps with various colors, including red, green and yellow, and many in-between colors. Some will have traps that are a different color than the plant!
The Venus flytrap (also referred to as Venus's flytrap or Venus' flytrap), Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States in North Carolina and South Carolina. It catches its prey (chiefly insects and arachnids) with a trapping structure triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if another contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a Safeguard against wasting energy by trapping objects with no nutritional value, and the plant will only begin digestion after five more stimuli to ensure it has caught a live bug worthy of consumption.
Speed of closing can vary depending on the amount of humidity, light, size of prey, and general growing conditions. The speed with which traps close can be used as an indicator of a plant's general health. Venus flytraps are not as humidity-dependent as are some other carnivorous plants.
Most carnivorous plants selectively feed on specific prey. This selection is due to the available prey and the type of trap used by the organism. With the Venus flytrap, prey is limited to beetles, spiders and other crawling arthropods. In fact, the Dionaea diet is 33% ants, 30% spiders, 10% beetles, and 10% grasshoppers, with fewer than 5% flying insects.
If the prey is unable to escape, it will continue to stimulate the inner surface of the lobes, and this causes a further growth response that forces the edges of the lobes together, eventually sealing the trap hermetically and forming a "stomach" in which digestion occurs
Digestion takes about ten days, after which the prey is reduced to a husk of chitin. The trap then reopens, and is ready for reuse.
Plants can be propagated by seed. The plants will live for 20 to 30 years if cultivated in the right conditions.
Germination: Use a mix of 50% peat moss, and 50% sand or perlite. First, rinse the sand. Once cleaned, mix the sand with dampened peat moss, and gently press the mixture into a container. Flatten the surface of the soil. Gently place the seeds in the surface of the soil, do not bury them. Then, use a spray bottle to dampen the soil and the seeds. Place the container in a bag to retain moisture. Keep the container in a warm room, about 80-85F, or about 30C is ideal. Keep the seeds in bright light, but not in direct sunlight. Keep the soil consistently moist, not completely saturated, but it is VERY important that they never dry out. The seeds can be a little slow to germinate, so patience is required, and they will typically germinate within 5-8 weeks.
Flytrap care
Sun: Flytraps need a lot of sun to digest their meals. The general rule for these plants is; if there's enough light for a tomato plant to do well, there's enough light for a flytrap. If you are growing under grow lights, we currently have ours under grow lights for 14 hours a day, approximately 8" away from the light with a rating of 6500K (basic white light is fine, some people like to get more of the red spectrum in there, we haven't had any issues with our current set up).
Water: Flytraps are typically found in bog like conditions. To mimic this, we have the potted flytrap sitting in a dish of water and never let them go dry. Bottom watering seems to work the best as top watering can sometimes cause the traps to trigger and close without any actual food in the trap for the plant to digest. For the water, it needs to be extremely low mineral content. Ideally less than 50 PPM. We've been using primarily rainwater for ours, though we do use reverse osmosis water when rainwater isn't available. Another option would be to use distilled water.
Soil: Flytraps do not like to have mineral content in the soil either. Our recommended soil mix is 1 part peat moss to 1 part perlite. Coarse silica sand is an alternative to perlite, though it tends to make the soil mix quite a bit heavier, so we've been switching over to perlite for our own plants. If you do want to up-pot the plants at some point, make sure to get peat moss and perlite without any additives. Miracle Gro brand seems to like adding nutrients, so avoid that for these plants. Currently we are using 'golf green' brand peat moss and 'holland basics' perlite.
Feeding: Despite the reputation these plants have, they don't eat that many bugs. One fly a month is plenty for them. If you are feeding the plant a dead bug, you will have to massage the trap after it closes around the insect for approximately 10-15 seconds. The massaging of the trap would simulate the bug moving around after closing. They have evolved to reopen the traps if there is no movement after closing, so if it's raining, the rain might cause the trap to close, but it will reopen on its own shortly after. Make sure the insect you are feeding your plant is smaller than the overall size of the trap. Once the plant shuts around an insect, it creates a seal and releases digestive enzymes to eat the bug, if the insect is too large, those enzymes will leak out of the trap and it won't get a proper meal out of it.
Dormancy: Venus flytraps typically have a winter dormancy, it can survive a couple years without dormancy, but will eventually die off if not given time to rest. If you do want to simulate a winter period for these plants, simply place them in the fridge at the start of next Winter, the lack of light and cool temperatures will trigger the dormancy period for them. ÿ Ensure they don't completely dry out during this period, though they don't need as much water as normal. When waking them up, that would be the best time to split the plants if you want to multiply them.
Flower care: Generally, we've always let our flytraps flower, however, a lot of growers prefer cutting the flower stalk off to conserve energy for the plant. It seems to be more of a personal preference for you.
Difficulty rating: 3/5 assuming tomatoes are a 1/5.
