Phamcliff Farm
Phamcliff Farm
Dionaea muscipula
Your Venus flytrap has been shipped bare root, meaning it arrives without a pot or soil. It is completely normal for the plant to look a little rough after shipping. The traps may all be closed, and the plant may appear slightly wilted. Don't worry: with proper care, it should begin to perk up within the first week, especially if given warm temperatures and constant bright light (such as from grow lights). Around that time, you can expect the traps to begin reopening as well.
It is also normal for some of the older traps to senesce — that is, to yellow and die off, and be replaced by new growth. This is something Venus flytraps do throughout their growing cycle as part of their natural leaf turnover. The stress of being uprooted and shipped can accelerate this process just a little, but it is entirely normal and not a cause for concern.
Because your plant arrives bare root, you will need to pot it into an appropriate medium. Venus flytraps do well in pure peat moss, pure sphagnum moss, or a combination of either with perlite or sand. The key requirement is that the medium must be fertilizer-free. Standard potting soils and anything with added nutrients will harm or kill the plant.
To pot the plant, fill your container with moistened potting medium and use your finger or a small tool to create a hole deep enough for the roots. Place the plant so that the roots extend all the way to the bottom of the pot, then cover the base of the rhizome with soil so that it sits underground with the leaves emerging above the surface. If you are unsure about the correct depth, look at the rhizome closely: you will notice a color change from a pale, bleached section (the part that was previously underground) to greener tissue where the leaves developed chlorophyll above the soil line. That transition point is a good guide for how deep to plant it.
Use a plastic or glazed ceramic pot. Unglazed terracotta can leach minerals into the soil over time, which is harmful to Venus flytraps.
Venus flytraps must be kept constantly wet. The soil should never be allowed to dry out completely, as this will kill the plant. The best method is to keep the pot sitting in a shallow tray of water at all times.
Water quality is critical. Use distilled water, reverse osmosis water, or collected rain water. If you live in an area with very low mineral content in the tap water, that can work too, but you should test it first. Anything under 50 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS) is generally acceptable. Regular unfiltered tap water in most areas will harm the plant over time.
Venus flytraps need full sun. Outdoors, this means a location that receives direct sunlight for most of the day. They can also be grown at a very sunny window indoors, though realistically, most windows do not provide enough light on their own. If you plan to grow your plant indoors, supplemental LED grow lights are usually necessary.
Our plants are grown indoors under 16 hours of Barrina T8 LED light (5000K) per day, with daytime temperatures around 85°F and nighttime temperatures around 65°F. The fixtures are spaced 6 inches apart and positioned about 2 inches above the tops of the plants. This means they are in full active summer growth mode when they ship to you.
At this distance and photoperiod, we measure a PAR of 342 μmol/m²/s and a DLI of 19.7 mol/m²/day — well into the range that drives vigorous growth. The spectral breakdown is 150 μmol/m²/s red (600–700 nm), 124 green (500–600 nm), and 68 blue (400–500 nm).
Sun acclimation: Because our plants are grown under artificial light, they are not yet hardened to the intensity of direct outdoor sun. Moving them directly into full sun can cause sunburn — bleached, papery patches on the traps and leaves. To avoid this, acclimate them gradually: start with about one hour of direct sun per day, then increase the exposure by an hour or so every few days until the plant is in full sun. The full transition typically takes one to two weeks. Once acclimated, they thrive in as much sun as you can give them.
Because our plants are actively growing in warm summer conditions, they should not be placed outside during cooler months. Nighttime temperatures in the 40s or 50s °F will stunt their growth and set them back. Once nighttime temperatures are consistently in the high 50s or above, they are fine to transition outdoors without any growth setbacks.
If the weather is still cool where you are, keep your plant indoors for now unless you live in a consistently warm climate such as southern Florida or southern California. A setup with grow lights and warm indoor temperatures will keep the plant thriving until outdoor conditions are suitable.