Question
Greetings Jeff & Jacob:

I promise to follow the 3 critical actions required for proper CP growth: full sun 6+ hours per day, rain water or distilled water only, and 1:1 peat/perlite soil medium.  Do you guys treat the VFTs in your "private collection" any differently than those you sell online or at the local market?  Different soil medium composition, cutting flower stem before bloom versus allowing flower stem to grow and produce seeds (I don't intend on growing from seed until I'm a VFT pro), cutting dead leaves versus letting them decay and fall away naturally, fertilizing leaves with 20/20/20 versus no fertilizer, top watering versus tray watering, pea gravel on surface (if so what specific type/brand of pea gravel) versus no gravel, preventative insecticide/fungicide routines, complete 24hr water submersion schedule to prevent aphid infestation, repotting every X months/years, feeding freeze-dried bloodworms or mini crickets (if so, what brand and how often) versus assuming VFTs catch enough food for themselves outside, playing classical music for them, twice monthly root massage, etc.?  Just kidding about the last two, but seriously I want to provide the best possible conditions for my new plants.  If these three die on me, I might just quit on growing VFTs due to a chronic case of 'CP black thumb'.  Thank you for your time in this matter, and I look forward to your response!  =)

Best Regards,

Jennifer

Answer
Hi Jennifer,

We actually give daily root massages.  Twice monthly is too infrequent.  All joking aside, we actually neglect the plants in our private collection.  In fact, I didn't even bother repotting them this year since we were too busy repotting plants for our inventory.  Since plants in our private collection don't have any impact on our sales, I tend to focus on the plants that we sell.  So in reality, plants that we sell receive more care and attention than plants in our private collection!  And still, our private collection plants grow beautifully.  The only time we pay attention to these plants is when we prep them as display plants for the market.  At that time we trim off dead leaves and such. We'll also inspect for pests.  Other than that, they get no special treatment.

As long as you provide the recommended sunlight and water, your flytraps will grow just fine.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin