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this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2023
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Nature and Gardening
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Lol. Just bugs! I have a bog garden planter outside and they catch their own dinner, but my indoor carnivorous plants need to be fed periodically. Dried mealworms work fine.
Other carnivorous plants include venus fly traps, pitcher plants like sarracenia and nepenthes or csphalotus, and pings. They require a bit of specialized care but so fun to watch and rewarding.
Found out the other day that the natural habitat for the venus fly trap is literally a small radius around Wilmington, NC and not like some exotic jungle somewhere. One of the biggest curveballs I've ever been hit with
It's kinda funny innit? It seems most people expect them to be a tropical plant but a huge variety of them are temperate and do need a dormancy period in order to stay healthy. I'm in zone 4 so it's a little colder than they can handle, so for people in my zone with a carnivorous plant collection we need to be crafty. Putting them in a mini fridge works so they don't die overwinter.
That’s so fascinating! I always wanted a Venus fly trap when I was younger but I looked into their care and it seemed way more complicated than tomatoes.
Yeah they can seem intimidating if you don't have houseplants. I have over 170 in my "indoor garden" so it's not bad for me since I have the setup, but the amount of light they need is kind of annoying. Luckily I have an extensive cactus collection so I have lots of lights. Don't ask me why I'm crazy enough to collect cacti in zone 4....
The other thing with carnivorous plants is they get their "fertilizer" from insects, so fertilizing it otherwise is actually bad. Likewise watering it with anything but rainwater or distilled water can kill it.
I have a rain barrel set up for all my plant watering so I'm all set! But when people get VFT's sometimes that mistake is made for a while and they end up dying. Like I said... they require specialized care but they're very rewarding when you see your VFT with a ton of huge hungry traps :)
Yeah from keeping it germinating in a fridge (correct me here I’m going off memory) to distilled water it seemed nuts but good to know they take rainwater as well!
How do you keep track of all those plants? You should post that collection here sometime!
"Fridge dormancy" is the term for doing that. Basically giving them a period of lower light (some is still necessary, so a glass door minifridge with backlight is what I use) and lower temps is what they need. In higher growing zones they can just stay outside during the winter since they tolerate snow well.
I use an app called planta to keep track of them, but honestly when I buy a plant I get used to it and research it a bit if needed. Once you get used to the main species they are similar in care needs. I'll certainly post my collection soon!