I just got my Venus flytrap today and I’m wanting to repo...
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Best Answer
Hey, Venus!!! Unless the plant is showing signs that it needs to be repotted, like roots growing out of the drainage holes, or sour smelling substrate, you should be good to keep it in the same pot for a while :) VFTs, like a lot of other carnivorous plants, need a moist and nutrient poor substrate, like sphagnum moss, peat moss and perlite. You’re absolutely right that Miracle-Gro isn’t good, good on you!
Just wanted to chip in: when you do decide to repot down the line, you just want to make sure the peat and perlite dont have added fertilizers (which, miracle gro does). I typically look up organic peat moss on amazon and pick one of the ones on there, but ive also gotten a massive thing of peat from walmart that has worked just fine as well. Looking up "organic" stuff, I've found, yields products without fertilizers. Plus in the reviews typically there will be people talking about using it with carnivorous plants :)
I attached a photo of what the bag i use currently looks like, its from a brand called premier i think. I believe ive used stuff from a brand called Hoffmans in the past as well
I attached a photo of what the bag i use currently looks like, its from a brand called premier i think. I believe ive used stuff from a brand called Hoffmans in the past as well
@Izziemae Not 100% sure what you mean, do you mean pouring each bag into eachother so its pre-mixed? I use a 1:1 ratio of peat moss and perlite, and prior to potting up my plants I mix how much I want together in a bowl. Perlite is necessary so there's some breathability in the soil, peat moss on its own could cause root rot. If you put the VFT in a bigger pot, overtime itll get bigger because of just growth. The pot helps it have more space to grow bigger, but from my experience if you keep it in the smaller pot itll just get root bound eventually (in other words, itll keep growing in the small pot. They dont grow to their pot size necessarily). Overtime, im talking like a year or two, as they grow they kinda like duplicate in their pots. So when you unpot it, itll seem like several small plants.. does that make sense? Im bad at explaining things lol 😅 Ill attach a photo of my oldest VFT thats approaching 3 years old, Ive never divided him. They can get pretty big width wise
@Izziemae mealworms are fine if you want to feed it! You dont need to feed it if you dont wanna, I hardly ever feed them. Itll catch the occasional bug and thats enough for them. But if you do wanna feed it, mealworms work. Ive fed mine mealworms that I use for my pets & the plant digested it fine. Its good to note that itll leave behind the exoskeleton of the mealworm in the trap once it reopens. It cant digest the exoskeleton, but the remaining exoskeleton is actually used to attract more bugs!