How to know when to feed a venus fly trap
The Complete Venus Fly Trap Care Guide 🌱
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i have been growing venus flytraps for
more than three years and i can tell you
that caring for these plants is not
particularly hard if you have the
correct information in today's video i'm
going to be covering a complete care
guide for venus flytraps even if you're
a very beginner with this information
you should be able to keep your plant
alive healthy and thriving so let's get
started with some basics
first let's talk about a general
principle for venus slide drops in the
wild venus fly traps live in nutrient
poor environments and for that reason
they have developed an intolerance to
any type of minerals or any type of
fertilizers any type of additives can
actually end up killing your plant
because of that you'll need some special
soil some special water and even special
pots but don't worry i'll give you all
the details
never pot your venus flytrap in a
standard potting media such as miracle
grow or any standard gardening mix
this type of soil contains a ton of
minerals and a ton of fertilizers that
can end up killing your plant very very
quickly
instead you must employ some sort of
blend of carnivorous plant soil you can
buy that soil online or make it yourself
i make my carnivorous plant soil by
mixing sphagnum peat moss and perlite
doing a 50 50 mix and that is what i
provide for my plants but there's other
ingredients out there such as silica
sand
long fiber spectrum moss and many others
i have added many links in the
description for you to make sure to buy
the appropriate soil and also with
additional information
now let's talk about watering
watering is a critical part
in caring for your venus flight trap
venus flight drops can't be water with a
standard tap water bottle water
river water or pond water
most water sources contain too many
minerals and too many additives that
will end up poisoning your plant and
killing it eventually
some safe water sources are distilled
water reverse osmosis water or rain
water these three are always safe for
venus flight traps personally i always
employ distilled water because i can go
to a grocery store buy a jug and just a
one gallon jug that i get for a dollar
can last you quite a while if you only
have a couple of plants in terms of
frequency venus flight traps like to
have humid media at all times you must
never let your venus fly drop dry out
but also you shouldn't flood the pot
with water excessively
you can grow your venus flat trap sorry
you can water your inner fletcher from
the top or from the bottom i like to use
the water tray method this means
watering it from the bottom i get my
venus flytrap
place it on top of a tray
i fill out the tray with water
only a couple of a couple of inches and
then the soil will absorb that water
until it is humid all around
i let my plant consume that water some
of it will obviously get evaporated but
i just wait it out until the tray has
completely dried out when the the tray
has dried out
then i refill the tray
always when you water your plant you
want to be able to touch the soil
and feel that humidity but you shouldn't
be feeling mud if you're feeling mud or
something that feels like a swamp then
this means that you are over watering
your plant i recommend using the tray
method because it helps you avoid over
watering and underwatering and also it
provides additional humidity that really
helps your venous flight wrap many
people get their first venus flight wrap
in the grocery store or in the hardware
store where they sell them in these very
small pots these pots are fine for
transporting the plants but they are not
good long term as they are pretty small
so now i'll tell you which are the best
parts for venus flight traps
first let's talk about the size in terms
of size you really have many options
here i'm using this styrofoam cup it's a
pretty tall pot for the size of the
plant
you can also use a much larger pot like
this one it's really whatever works for
you but i do recommend that the pot is
at least
five or six inches so it can provide
enough enough depth for the roots to be
able to expand and strengthen
also you must make sure that your pot
contains drainage so
even if you use a cup make sure to poke
some holes because drainage is of
crucial importance
a proud tip in regards to pots is to
never employ
any unglazed ceramic any terracotta or
any type of clay pots for venus flytraps
as you learned a couple of minutes ago
venus flight drops are intolerant to
minerals and those materials tend to
leach minerals to the ground
and very slowly but eventually they can
end up harming your plant and maybe even
killing it
so instead try to employ materials such
as plastic or styrofoam or maybe glazed
ceramic those are completely safe for
venus flight traps
now let's talk about lighting this is a
really big one for venus flight traps
venus flight traps need plenty of light
to stay healthy and develop those bright
colors that they have in the inside the
traps and outside the traps
to a minimum venus flight drops should
receive at least
6 hours of direct sunlight and optimally
over 10 hours of direct sunlight
for best results try placing your plant
outside in the outdoors where it can get
sunlight for 10 to 12 hours a day
if that is impossible for you you can
also grow venus fly drops indoors maybe
in a windowsill or under grow lights in
terms of grow lights you want to look
for led or fluorescent grow lights that
have a 6500k
in temperature level and have high
lumens
do not hesitate to place your venus
flytraps in direct sunlight venus flight
drops are very resilient and they can
withstand temperatures of up to high 90s
in fahrenheit 100 is usually kind of the
maximum and in terms of minimum is
usually in the low
low 20s in fahrenheit
when you're just getting started
please do not just buy a plant from a
shelf in walmart where it has had no
access to light for several days or even
weeks and place it outside in direct
sunlight because your plant will end up
burning and maybe even dying
instead you have to go through an
acclimation process
so place your plant outside for a couple
of hours and do that for a few days and
then add one more hour do that for a
couple more days and so on continue
doing the process until you have been
able to place your venus flytrap for
over 10 hours in the outdoors and there
your plant should be all fine and ready
for the environment once your plant is
set up in the correct location now it is
time to start caring for it in some
specific aspects
first let's talk about feeding
venus flight drops are very effective
predators they capture their own bugs by
attracting them with sweet nectar and
they extract some key nutrients from
those insects
but technically venus fly traps don't
need to capture any any bug to stay
healthy they produce their own food
their their own nutrition through
photosynthesis like
almost you know any other plant
so if your plant is not capturing any
bugs or is unable to capture bugs maybe
there is no insects in your area don't
worry too much you can always feed your
plants you can employ live bugs or dead
bugs to do so but do not be overly
worried about it the only thing it's
make sure to not get overly excited
about the feeding so don't try to feed
every single trap with like super large
bugs because that will just stress out
the plant and could even kill it
also please do not
never experiment with any type of human
food never put any type of meat or
chicken or candy in your plant because
your vino fly trap will never be able to
digest it and that food will just rot
and stink and maybe even attract fungus
or attract bacteria so just stick to
bugs if you want to fill your plant
as your plant grows and develops you
will start noticing that some of the
leaves will start turning black and they
will wither and die
black leaves are completely normal
like any other plant venus fly traps
shed leaves
so do not be overly worried when you
spot a black leaf
but continue to monitor it if you do
notice that there are a lot more black
leaves than usual and maybe you started
with 10 traps and now you only have two
then you can start checking your setup
making sure that you are doing
everything right you can trim those
black leaves that is completely safe
just by using a pair of scissors and
kind of chopping them off once they have
completely
blackened and completely dried out but
that is not necessary in the wild nobody
is streaming venus flight drops so you
can let the leaves just die and stay
there that's really no problem a very
important aspect when you are growing
venus flytraps is dormancy
in the wild when venus flight drops
start experiencing cold weathers cold
temperatures below 45 fahrenheit they
enter a process of dormancy they start
drying up they lose most of their leaves
and they go into a hibernation mode for
several months
during that time the plant is is resting
and as the weather starts to warm up
then your plant will start to recover
and kind of reflourish and come up as
stronger as ever in the spring it is
really a very important process because
venus flight drops are built and have
been have evolved to require dormancy
if your plant doesn't have exposure to
cold weather it won't go dormant and if
it doesn't go dormant for a couple of
years in a row it will end up dying
so make sure that you place your plant
outdoors where you can have some
exposure to winter or if you live in a
location where maybe there's no winter
or the winter is too short maybe only
last a few weeks and you need at least
three to four months then you can
experiment with a method called
refrigerator dormancy where you place
your venus flat drop in the fridge for a
few months so your plant can go dormant
and come back very healthy when people
are not aware of dormancy sometimes they
are growing their plant outdoors they
just have it in the garden winter comes
and the plant starts
looking like it's dying and sometimes
people throw it away or
just give up on the plant but in reality
your plant is just dormant so make sure
to keep that in mind
also if your plant is experiencing
dormancy at the end of dormancy maybe a
few weeks until before the temperatures
starts start to rise up again is the
perfect time to repot your plant i
personally recommend repotting your
plant once a year a care aspect for
venus fly traps that is sometimes
forgotten is that venus flight drops can
be prone to to pests
so if you can't figure out what's wrong
with your plant but you notice that
maybe some leaves are starting to look
kind of deformed maybe you have some
spots or maybe you'll notice some little
bugs or little larva crawling around the
soil or around the leaves then make sure
to google those symptoms maybe post a
picture in a reddit group or in a
facebook group to try to get more
information about what pestis attacking
your plant so you can get rid of it
now some big don'ts for vino's flight
drop care just avoid these doing these
at all costs because it will hurt your
plant
first
even though you might consider your plan
to be your your child or your pet please
do not try to like
constantly play with your plant there
are still plants so they do get stress
so if you're constantly touching them
they might end up losing some leaves
and also if you touch the traps in the
inside that traps will end up closing
and each time a venus flight drop closes
it expands a lot of energy that it can
be using to to grow and develop so don't
waste your plants energy and don't poke
it also please avoid fertilizing your
plant at all costs
like i told you before venus flight
drops don't like minerals don't like any
type of salts or additives so avoid
fertilizing your plant
this is a little bit of a lie
technically you can't fertilize venus
flight traps and most carnivorous plants
but this is a bit of a more advanced
practice you can do it but you need the
exact and precise instructions for a
beginner i never recommend experience
experimenting with fertilizing them if
you have liked this content so far i'll
really appreciate if you can like this
video and help me spread this
information to more and more people one
more thing you should avoid is to never
give up too early even if your plant has
lost multiple leaves maybe even if it
starts looking down or you have lost
almost all its leaves venus flight drops
are pretty resilient and they can
recover so make sure to seek more
information you can subscribe to my
channel to get a lot more content or ask
questions below and i'll try my best to
help you i hope you have found this
content helpful thank you for watching
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