Question
i just received a couple red dragon venus flytraps and was wondering if my grow room would be a good/bad place to put them. i have a 1000 watt hps/mh light system, average temps during winter months are 55-85 degrees, on a 18 hour on/ 6 hour off light cycle. i currently have a few ahpids on my lettuce and pepper plants but i am treated them with a natural soap spray. would this be the best place to keep them? thanks, mark

Answer
Hi Mark,

For indoor growing set-ups for Venus flytraps, this much better than most.  With this you will have healthy plants for about a year, to a year and a half, then they will begin to decline and die.  If you're ok with them being annuals, they will thrive well for a year.  The overall problem here is that Venus flytraps are temperate perennials.  They need real seasons with a cool to cold dormant period in the winter.  Take a look at our website of our care video we just produced:  http://www.cobraplant.com  You'll get a good idea of what our plant experience this time of year.

I wasn't entirely sure, but it sounds like you were wanting to use the flytraps for plant pest control for your vegetables.  With just a couple of exceptions, carnivorous plants for plant pest control are useless.  Pest such as aphids, scale, and thrips will attack carnivorous plants just like other plants.  The one exception is tropical sundews can be somewhat useful in capturing whitefly.

If you would like some carnivorous plants to be with your vegetables, look at our tropical page.  Many plants there would be very happy under your lights.


Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com