Growing Carnivorous Indoors/Outdoors
we are a UK stockiest of Venus flytraps & other Carnivorous plants and only sell into the UK market this guide is designed for people living in the United Kingdom.
What Requirements do you need to grow indoors?
SUN LIGHT
Firstly If you are planning on growing Venus flytraps, sundew plants or pitcher plants indoors. Then you will be required to grow them in FULL SUN for at least 6 hours or more per day. Most growers use between 14-15 of light per day. As a general rule of thumb is the more sun light the better.
A good location for growing carnivorous plants indoors would be a south facing window.
If you don’t have access to a south facing window or location that offers at least 6 hours of direct sunlight don’t panic not all is lost. You can still grow healthy carnivorous plants indoors. However some additional items are required such as a grow light.
You can see our list of recommended grow lights HERE:
WATER
Most people know that water is important for plants. However not many beginners know that carnivorous plants require distilled water only. Thankfully in the UK we have an abundance of rain water which is perfect for carnivorous plants. Before growing indoors its vital to stock pile a few bottles of rain water or buy distilled water. Once you have the plants setup place the pot into a water tray. This should be 1-2″ of water during the summer period. During the winter period ½” of water is required. In both cases the tray should not dry out.
FEEDING
One of the main differences between growing outdoors vs growing indoors is the feeding phase. With an outdoor environment carnivorous plants will source there own food. However with indoor growing you will need to manually feed the plants.
To feed Carnivorous Plants indoors you can either use a plant based carnivorous solution, like the growlands carnivorous plant food which can be found in our store. You can also feed the carnivorous plants live bugs or dried blood worms. Just remember to keep feeding down to a minimum. The plants can suffer from overloading from excess nitrogen from the food and may die back as a result. We recommend feeding carnivorous plants once or twice a month depending on the size of the plant.
Spring / Summer Period
in early spring around the start of march you can start to increase the light exposure to your plants if your using a grow light that allows for dimming, the room temperature can be anywhere between 14c and 26c
In the spring depending on the carnivorous plant you may notice a tall flower stalk sprouting from the plant. If the plant is in healthy condition and you wish to collect seeds it can be allowed to flower, if you don’t wish to collect seeds then its better to cut the flower stalk off as soon as you see it, this will allow the plant to retain more energy for growth.
Autumn / Winter
Around late October when the temperature starts dropping in the UK the plants will to enter there dormancy phase which will last between three and four months normally from late October / mid November and last till mid February to early March. During this period you will want to place the plants in area with 2c – 8c you will also want to keep the soil moist but not waterlogged and prevent any freezing.
Repotting
Most Carnivorous plants like to be repotted every one to two years just before spring just remember never to use potting soil, compost or fertilizer as these will kill the plants
Should you have any questions feel free to contact us via the contact us form found in the footer of our website.