Hello I am both new to this forum and new to carnivorous plants. I live in Denver and picked up a Venus Fly trap at Lowes the other evening. And now I want to get into them a little bit more. I have been doing some reading and there seems to be contradicting information about VFTs, do they need high humidity, or are they fine indoors here in Denver where it is very dry? Also I am looking at converting an old 55 gallon fish tank into a terrarium for the traps after I order a few more online. How much light is necessary for them to grow healthy? I have an older fish tank light that I used to help my tank plants grow, I'm not sure how powerful it is, but I was thinking about just hanging it from the ceiling a little ways above the tank. Two more things, where can i get RO water here in Denver? I tried walmart like one of the older posts in here says, but they all looked at me like I was nuts. Lastly, are there any places here in Denver that I can buy Venus Fly traps or do I need to order them over the internet. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading my post.
Peter
Hi Peter,
If you harden them off to give them time to get used to the lower humidity and higher light level, they will do fine in a window sill or outside. I don't recommend growing them in a terrarium because they do require dormancy in the winter. They can go without a dormancy for a couple years but most people find that they slowly lose vigor and die. VFTs like lots of light and will do best if they get 4 or more hours of it. I place mine in a shallow water tray (~½" of H2O) during the summer on my back porch rail. They get direct sun for about 5 to 6 hours and then are shaded by the house from 1pm on during the hottest part of the day.
I get my RO at Wal Mart from a dispensing machine. You might also try grocery stores or any other store that sells distilled water. Just look for a dispensing machine and check to see what kind of water it dispenses. If you only have the one plant, one gallon jug of distilled water will last you for a while. It's more expensive than the dispenser, but can get you through until you find a place that you can fill your own jugs at.
