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It won't digest live plant matter. Venus flytraps secrete the enzymes phosphatase, proteinase, nuclease and amylase. These enzymes target insect prey, which have high levels of protein. They do not digest plant matter. When a leaf closes on a bug, it (the bug) will often secrete chemicals such as uric acid, which keep the leaf closed. Otherwise (such as if ...
9
Your plant doesn't look like it's happy in the conditions it is growing in. For example, it definitely doesn't look like it is getting enough light.
Here are some tips for coaxing your plant back into healthy condition.
Basically it needs at least 4 hours of sun per day, well drained but moist growing conditions, and it is recommended to water it with ...
8
I would not recommend it, but I think you should ask this question in your siste site: https://parenting.stackexchange.com/.
The problem I find with this "gifts":
these are very very slow to grow (so very boring for a children)
very difficult to see a live trap of fly (or a digestion of I fly). IIRC two per year should be enough for the plant.
It is ...
7
Nepenthes, or the Asian pitcher plant, naturally grows in the tropical regions of Asia either in high mountain rain forests or in warm lowland grasslands at the base of mountains. They are divided into two types, those that live above 3000 feet (highlands), and those that live below that (lowlands) with differing requirements. The Nepenthes x 'Miranda' is ...
6
It is clearly an older trap that has gone into an inactive state purely for photosynthesis.
It is easy to tell from the outward bend of the sides of the trap and the hairs pointing outward. The traps with the hairs pointed inward and the inward curve are active.
They open like this when old, so the trap has more exposure to light instead of blocking the ...
6
Nepenthes can be grown as windowsill plants as long as adequate conditions are provided.
There are two main divisions for nepenthes, highland and lowland with some groups in between. Lowlanders tend to need high temperatures and very high humidity (imagine a rain forest). Highlanders need lower temperatures and usually do not require as much humidity (think ...
6
Carnivorous Plants like full sun generally though you could place your plant on a window sill with high levels of solar insolation if wanting to keep as a house plant. They live in nutrient poor boggy soils so you are going to need to water them frequently with distilled or rain water in summer. You can feed them freeze dried insects once or twice a month ...
6
Graham is right. There are carnivorous plants that can be kept it inside. I wanted to add a few things, though. One is that some carnivorous plants will stay alive inside, but they might not do extremely well. They may need brighter light or higher humidity than your house provides. You can compensate if this is what your particular species requires by ...
5
I'm going to go against the grain here, and say NO. I don't know what the lowest TDS of the water in your area is (average is 350ppm -- http://www.tdsmeter.com/education?id=0018), but 350ppm is entirely too high for VFTs.
A VFT requires 50ppm or lower of TDS (http://venusflytrap.info/gloss-tds.html). If your water is above this, regardless of chlorine or ...
5
Pitchers tend to die much earlier than leaves.
I know this from personal experience. I've had pitchers die on leaves which last a month or more afterwards. I usually cut the pitchers off once they die (mostly because I think it looks better).
On another note, you do not need a terrarium to grow nepenthes. I have a N. maxima which I have been growing as a ...
5
My experience is limited to Venus flytrap plants in Scotland, but I found that through the winter the plants growth slowed right down along with the lack of insects.
There were a few bugs that we fed to the plants, but only around one a month, and the plants just picked up their activity in the spring as the insects started to increase in numbers.
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Never let a nepenthes sit in water it will kill the plant I use a small terrarium for my nepenthes with a sphagnum moss and foam mix although many other pourous draining soils with lots of air spaces works great. This soil type has helped has kept my ventricosa x Mira hybrid alive for years and if yours is a highland species it needs a nightly tempurature ...
5
I had a Venus fly trap for years, your specimen looks healthy as far as I can judge. These plants originate from a swamp or bog ecosystem, I think in North or South Carolina, so they like wet feet (they like surplus water in the pot, which is fatal for most houseplants). Also they don't want any minerals in their water, so you'll have to use rain or ...
5
The plant evolved to eat live insects and spiders, and not dead ones. So you have to trick it by making it think it's caught live bait...
To feed a dead bug to your plant, first drop it into the trap so the trap closes. Easily done. Next, ever so gently squeeze the two lobes of the traps between your thumb and forefinger, as if you were trying to pick up ...
4
First of all, you have a nice Nepenthes! Its a mythic plant :)
It looks like a Nepenthes ventrata, or a hybrid. It's not a Nepenthes ampullaria for sure.
Your plant needs rain or demineralized water
Water the plant when the surface of the soil is a LITTLE BIT dry.
Your plant needs relative humidity of 70% or more.
Your plant needs a 4-5°C temperature ...
4
As it's a CFL bulb, it won't be getting baked because of the low heat output. According to my houseplant book, Nepenthes likes to be constantly moist, but not waterlogged, not just slightly damp, and likes to be surrounded by humid air, so maybe using a pebble tray arrangement, half filled with water with pebbles sticking out for the pot to sit on top of ...
4
I have seen these plants growing wild in USDA zone 4. It should be possible to duplicate the conditions:
full sun
constant access to water but not in the water
sited at the edge of a hummock of grasses over compacted dead plant material
I would use dried sphagnum moss if you can find it at florists or craft stores. Failing that shredded coconut husk or ...
4
Yes that should be possible. But read up on the details below.
How to grow Sarracenia. From the Carnivorous Plant FAQ. Good link. The whole FAQ is also helpful.
Above says "zero-nutrient, acid medium". So I assume that means zero nitrates? If you have algae in your pond then you probably have too many nitrates they are feeding on.
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I don't disagree with Giacomo's post, except for the quantity of bugs they eat, but I can tell you a little more about this subject.
Carnivorous plants are a lot of fun and can be easy to keep. I know that I killed several until I found some good advice. I think I started out with a venus fly trap (VFT) and based on internet advice, I put it outside in the ...
4
Congratulations on the start of your CP(carnivorous plant) obsession. These are great and hardy plants. I've got a mess of them and plan to make a bog garden soon.
I'll do my best to answer your questions. For your first question, those are three separate plants. It's also not a bad thing for them to be crowded. I'd typically only split them if the pot was ...
4
greetings from Elche!
Since Valencia and Elche have quite similar climates, maybe my experience helps you: I have my venus flytraps for one year and a half, and they seem to be happy staying outside (in a balcony) all year long, getting direct sunlight even in the summer.
Regarding watering, the pot of my plants is inside a bigger pot, and everyday I pour ...
3
I purchased a venus flytrap in the middle of my roach erradication. (My ex roomies left their own roomies)
So far, one plant has captured twelve baby roaches that were drawn to the nectar.
Even baby heads of the flytrap have snapped on the tiny bugs.
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It's a nice sentiment, but considering practicality, even if you did get the environment right for your plants (most carnivorous plants are rather picky), cockroaches are not going to fall into the traps. They are careful, and usually ground feeders. They will rarely fall from above, and falling into a plant trap is not a likely thing.
Most carnivorous ...
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I would certainly question the statement 'there is a small chance they might not be red' - nearer the truth is the statement 'you have no idea what you're going to get'. Each seedling will be genetically different from all the others, so you need to decide which ones are worth keeping and which aren't, as they grow on. Although you say they've germinated, ...
3
There are a number of factors that come into play:
source of your water (affects the pH and amount of dissolved compounds)
treatment applied to the water (likely chlorine or chloramine)
ability of the soil to buffer/absorb compounds in the water
species of plant - some can tolerate water treatment chemicals more than others
How these factors all work ...
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For me, the youngest traps snap closed the best, but the older traps become convex and seem to loose interest in feeding. I have a lot of Venus Flytraps which I grew from seed. It is fun to see the differences between seed grown plants. You said you are using "purified water". You should be using distilled water since "purified" can mean many things, for ...
3
I think you are following the proper way of growing venus fly trap.
The first year i started to grow venus fly traps it happened the same to me, traps were lazy and they began to close very slowly, next year I repotted my plant 50% turf 50% perlite and they got better, anyway I needed another year to start to have nice plants again.
Did you try to ...
3
You can grow carnivorous plants (CPs) without any bugs. Think of the bugs as a dietary supplement.
If you're growing local plants, then indoor climates might still pose problems. I don't know your outside climate or if you have a/c, but carnivorous plants generally like moist bog ground. That may require frequent watering in a dry indoor climate.
Although ...
3
The fertiliser was a huge mistake, carnivorous plants hate root nutrients, so if you added any fertilizer, it would have to be extremely diluted, and apply it to the pitcher.
Water it more often, try misting it, too, with a cleaned spray-bottle.
Only use pure water; don't use tap water because it will kill the plant.
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Not all Nepenthes will work as house plants. I have tried N. alata with no luck.
N. miranda is a hybrid that I have had good luck with. I bought it at Lowest as an adult larger plant 5 years ago. It is a fussy plant as far as repotting. Taking several months to start growing well. Despite this it gets used to normal New England conditions. I grow it in a ...
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