Care Tips for Venus Fly Traps

Venus Fly Traps are easy to care for, but they do have a few quirks you should know to help them thrive.

Full direct sunlight for a least 4 hours per day. Water with “pure water” – distilled, rain or water with a low concentration of mineral content. Plant should remain moist, not soggy or too dry. Use a soil mix of nutrient poor medium like Unigro Cactus Mix. Never fertilize your Venus Fly Trap.

The plant must go dormant for 3-5 months each year to insure that it stays happy and healthy. In the fall it will start shedding its summer leaves and growth will slow as tempera

tures drop. It will put out smaller, lower, ground hugging leaves as the existing leaves start to turn black. Your plant is not dying: it’s just telling you it’s going dormant.

Continue to lightly water you plant, keeping it moist and place in a south-facing window to continue getting light. Or put in a plastic bag that will hold in moisture and place it in the refrigerator’s vegetable keeper where the temperature is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit for 90-120 days. After that period take your plant out of the bag and place in a sunny window. Growth will then resume natu- rally.

A low fat diet—live insects like flies, beetles, ants and spiders work best. High fat content like raw hamburger will cause the plant to die. Never feed it anything that a Venus Fly Trap couldn’t catch naturally. The trap will also start to turn black when it cannot fully enclose it’s prey. Feed a maximum of once per week.

• Entering dormancy; leaves are naturally dying
• It’s been watered with a mineral-rich water; high minerals like salt causes the leaves to turn
• The plant dried out, which caused the root system to die; leaves turn black and the plant is dead.