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The Complete Venus Fly Trap Care Guide ?
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Feb 26, 2022
Learn how to care for Venus flytraps from start to finish. This video covers beginner and intermediate growing tips and information to achieve healthy Venus flytraps. Download fee Venus fly trap care sheet at venusflytrapworld.com/care Info Guide - Carnivorous Plant Soil: https://venusflytrapworld.com/the-best-soil-options-for-venus-flytrap-plus-potting-tips/ Recommended Products Carnivorous Plant Soil Carnivorous plant soil: https://amzn.to/3uVbg39 Pure peat moss for carnivorous plants: https://amzn.to/3vTqirs (you might find a cheaper option on local gardening stores, make sure you buy PURE peat) Pure perlite: https://amzn.to/3ppckLF Artificial Lighting Small plant light for 1-4 plants: https://amzn.to/2RsGlxr T8 LED light fixture for multiple plants (6500k Cool White): https://amzn.to/3uWoeh2 The T8 light fixtures do not come with timer functions; you will need an intelligent outlet like this: https://amzn.to/3fUdN9p Pots Nursery pots for single plants: https://amzn.to/34Q6byu
View Video Transcript
0:00
I have been growing Venus flight traps for more than three years, and I can tell you
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that caring for these plants is not particularly hard if you have the correct information
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In today's video, I'm going to be covering a complete care guide for Venus flight traps
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Even if you're a very beginner, with this information, you should be able to keep your plant alive, healthy, and thriving
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So let's get started with some basics. First, let's talk about a general principle for Venus flight traps
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In the wild, Venus flytraps live in nutrient-poor environments. And for that reason, they have developed an intolerance to any type of minerals or any
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type of fertilizers. Any type of additives can actually end up killing your plant
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Because of that, you will need some special soil, some special water, and even special pots
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But don't worry, I'll give you all the details. Never pot your Venus flydrab in a standard potting media, such as Miracle Grow or any standard
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gardening mix. This type of soil contains a ton of minerals and a ton of fertilizers that
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can end up killing your plant very, very quickly. Instead, you must employ some sort of blend
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of carnivorous plant soil. You can buy that soil online or make it yourself. I make my carnivorous
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plant soil by mixing spagnum peat moss and pearlite, doing a 50-50 mix and that is what I provide
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for my plants. But there's other ingredients out there, such as silica sand, long fiber spagnum moss, and many others. I have added many links in the
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description for you to make sure to buy the appropriate soil and also with additional information
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Now let's talk about watering. Watering is a critical part in caring for your Venus flytrap
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Venus fly traps can't be water with the standard tap water, water water water water, river water
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or pond water. Most water sources contain too many minerals and too many additives
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that will end up poisoning your plant and killing it eventually. Some safe water sources are distilled water, reverse osmosis water, or rainwater
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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
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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
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In terms of frequency, Venus flight traps like to have humid meat
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at all times. You must never let your Venus flytrap dry out, but also you shouldn't flood the pot with water excessively
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You can grow your Venus flight trap, sorry, you can water your Venus flight drop from the top or from the bottom
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I like to use the water tray method. This means watering it from the bottom
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I get my Venus flight trap, place it on top of a tray, I fill out that tray with water
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only a couple of, a couple of inches, and then the soil will absorb that water until
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it is humid all around. I let my plant consume that water. Some of it will obviously get evaporated
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but I just wait it out until the tray has completely dried out. When the tray has dried out
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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 be feeling mud If you feeling mud or something that feels like a swamp then this means that you have overwatering your plant
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I recommend using the tray method because it helps you avoid overwatering and underwatering, and also it provides additional humidity
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that really helps your Venus fly trap. Many people get their first Venus fly trap in the grocery store or in the hardware store
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where they sell them in these very small pots. These pots are fine for transporting the plants
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but they are not good long term, as they are pretty small. So now I'll tell you which are the best pots for Venus flight traps
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First, let's talk about the size. In terms of size, you really have many options
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Here I'm using this styrofoam cup. It's a pretty tall pot for the size of the plant
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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
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so it can provide enough depth for the roots to be able to expand and strengthen
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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
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A proud tip in regards to pots is to never employ any unglazed ceramic, any terracotta
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or any type of clay pots for Venus flytraps. As you learned a couple of minutes ago
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Venus flight traps are intolerant to minerals. And those materials tend to leach minerals to the ground
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And very slowly, but eventually, they can end up harming your plant and maybe even killing it
5:00
So instead, try to employ materials such as plastic or styrofoam or maybe glazed ceramic
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Those are completely safe for Venus flight traps. Now let's talk about lighting
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This is a really big one for Venus flight traps. Venus flight traps need plenty of light to stay
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healthy and develop those bright colors that they have inside the traps and outside the traps
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To a minimum, Venus flight traps should receive at least six hours of direct sunlight and
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optimally over 10 hours of direct sunlight. For best results, try placing your plant outside
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in the outdoors where it can get sunlight for 10 to 12 hours
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hours a day. If that is impossible for you, you can also grow Venus fly drops indoors
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maybe in a window seal or under grow lights. In terms of grow lights, you want to look for LED
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or fluorescent grow lights that have a 6,500K interpreter level and have high lumens. Do not
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hesitate to place your Venus flight drops in direct sunlight. Venus flight drops are very
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resilient and they can withstand temperatures of up to high 90s in Fahrenheit, a hundred
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100 is usually kind of the maximum and in terms of minimum is usually in the low 20s in Fahrenheit
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When you're just getting started, please do not just buy a plant from a shelf in Walmart
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where it has had no access to light for several days or even weeks and place it outside
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in direct sunlight because your plant will end up burning and maybe even dying
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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
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until you have been able to place your Venus flytrap for over 10 hours in the outdoors
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and there your plant should be all fine and ready for the environment
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Once your plant is set up in the correct location, now it is time to start caring for it
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in some specific aspects. First, let's talk about feeding. Venus fly traps are very effective
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predators. They capture their own bugs by attracting them with sweet nectar and they extract some
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key nutrients from those insects. But technically Venus flight drops don't need to capture any
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bug to stay healthy. They produce their own food, their own nutrition through photosynthesis
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like almost any other plant. So if your plant is not capturing any bugs or is unable to
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to capture bugs, maybe there is no insects in your area. Don't worry too much
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You can always feed your plant, you can employ live bugs or dead bugs to do so, but do not
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be overly worry about it. The only thing is make sure to not get overly excited about the feeding, so don't try to feed every
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single trap with like super large bugs because that will just stress out the plant and could
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even kill it. Also, please do not, never experiment with any type of human food, never put any
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type of meat or chicken or candy in your plant because your Venus fly trap will never be able
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to digest it and that food will just rot and stink and maybe even attract fungus or attract
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bacteria so just stick to bucks if you want to feed your plant
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As your plant grows and develops, you will start noticing that some of the leaves will start
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turning black and they will whitter and die. Black leaves are completely normal
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any other plant, Venus fly traps shed leaves. So do not be overly worried when you spot a black leaf
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But continue to monitor it. If you do notice that there are a lot more black leaves than usual, and maybe you started
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with 10 traps and now you only have two, then you can start checking your setup, making
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sure that you are doing everything right. You can trim those black leaves that is completely safe just by using a pair of scissors
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and kind of chopping them off once they have completely blackened and completely dried out
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But that is not necessary. In the wild, nobody is streaming Venus flight drops
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so you can let the leaves just die and stay there. That's really no problem
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A very important aspect when you are growing Venus flight traps is dormancy
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In the wild, when Venus flight drops start experiencing cold weather, cold temperatures below 45 Fahrenheit
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they enter a process of dormancy. They start drying up, they lose most of their leaves
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of their leaves and they go into a hibernation mode for several months. During that time, the plant
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is resting. And as the weather starts to warm up, then your plant will start to recover and kind
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of re-flourish and come up as stronger as ever in the spring. It is really a very important
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process because Venus light drops are built and have evolved to require dormancy. If your plant
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doesn have exposure to cold weather it won go down dormant and if it doesn 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 it can have
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some exposure to winter. Or if you live in a location where maybe there's no winter or the winter
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is too short, maybe it only lasts a few weeks and you need at least three to four months
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then you can experiment with a method called refrigerator dormancy, where you place your Venus
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flight drop in the fridge for a few months. So your plant is a little bit of the next. So your plant can go dormant and come back very healthy. When people are not aware of dormancy, sometimes they
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are growing their plant outdoors, they just have it in the garden, winter comes and the plant starts
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looking like it's dying and sometimes people throw it away or just give up on the plant
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but in reality your plant is just dormant. So make sure to keep that in mind. Also, if your plant
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is experiencing dormancy, at the end of dormancy, maybe a few weeks until before the temperatures start
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to rise up again is the perfect time to repot your plant. I personally recommend repotting your
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plant once a year a care aspect for Venus flight drabs that is sometimes forgotten is that Venus
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flight drops can be prone to pests. So if you can't figure it out what's wrong with your plant
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but you notice that maybe some leaves are starting to look kind of deformed, maybe you have
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some spots, or maybe you notice some little bugs or little larva crawling around the soil or
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the leaves, then make sure to Google those symptoms, maybe post a picture in a
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Reddit group or in a Facebook group to try to get more information about what
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pest is attacking your plant so you can get rid of it. Now some big dons for
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Venus fly trap care. Just avoid these doing these at all costs because it will
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hurt your plant. First, even though you might consider your plant to be your
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child or your pet, please not try to like constantly play with your plant. There's
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still plants so they do get stressed so if you're constantly touching them they might end
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up losing some leaves and also if you touch the traps in the inside that traps will end up closing
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and each time a Venus flight drop closes it spends a lot of energy that it can be using to grow
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and develop so don't waste your plants energy and don't poke it also please avoid fertilizing
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your plant at all costs like I told you before Venus flight traps don't like minerals
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don't like any type of salts or additives. So avoid fertilizing your plant
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This is a little bit of a lie. Technically, you can't fertilize Venus flight traps
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and most carnivous plants. But this is a bit of a more advanced practice
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You can do it, but you need the exact and precise instructions
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For a beginner, I never recommend experimenting with fertilizing them. If you have liked this content so far
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I'll really appreciate if you can like this video and help me spread this information to more and more people
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One more thing you should avoid is to never give up too early
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Even if your plant has lost multiple leaves, maybe even if it starts looking down or you have lost
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almost all its leaves, Venus flytraps are pretty resilient and they can recover
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So make sure to seek more information. You can subscribe to my channel to get a lot more content
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or ask questions below. Now I'll try my best to help you. I hope you have found this content
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helpful. Thank you for watching
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