Venus Flytrap Terrarium Care
Do NOT remove the lid until you plan on taking the plant out, or the gel will become contaminated with mold. Set it on a surface avoiding sunlight or artificial light giving off heat. Sunlight or too close to strong light will cause temperatures to soar inside the terrarium, killing the plant.
Instead, place the terrarium 12" away from a CFL or LED or using VERY WEAK FILTERED sunlight (eg. frosted window) will help the claws grow bigger. Just keep an eye on the plant. If the leaves start to turn light brown, then it means the light is too strong.
A darker area “tells” the plants to grow taller, and a brighter area “tells” the plants to green up, broaden the leaves, and increase claw size. Play with these parameters to customize your growth!
Enjoy your plant for months, without worrying about maintenance, bugs, or spills! That’s it!
Venus Flytrap Transplant Guide
1. Take out your plant
When your Venus Flytrap has grown to the point where it fills up the terrarium, it will slow down growth. At this point, you can take it out and transplant it into a pot.
You can use blunt tweezers to take the plants out of the gel from their roots WITHOUT smashing the cute glass jar. But the bottle neck is small, how do we do that?
To make life easier, use your blunt tweezer to smash the solid gel into smaller ones. This step make it much easier for you to lift the plants out of the jar without hurting them.
​
After smashing the gel, you are able to take out the plants easily. Please watch the video below to see how we do that.
Basically, we pull out the plants piece by piece. It's completely fine to split your Venus Flytraps into smaller plants. After the plants is out (like the picture shown below), you might be wondering which parts of the Venus Flytraps can be transplanted.
The answer is: the ones with ROOTS. Even if the plant itself is small, like the top-right one in the picture below, it can be transplanted. All of the plants in the picture below can transplant, and we will pick up a small one for demo later on.
2. Rinse your plant
After the plant is out, rinse the gel COMPLETELY off the plant under room temperature running water. If this step is skipped, molds will grow on the gel killing your plant.
​
Give the plant one final rinse with DISTILLED WATER to get rid of any mineral residue from the previous tap water rinse. The most important rule to follow is that tap water or any mineral / fertilizer sources are LETHAL to these plants!
3. Replant your plant
Use a pot with good drainage.
For the soil, we sell a transplant kit with soil. However, you can also make it yourself by mixing 50% sphagnum peat moss with 50% silica sand from local home improvement store. Make sure the soil mix has no fertilizer added. Just keep in mind you might have to buy 50 lb's at one time.
After mixing sand with sphagnum peat moss, give the whole mix one generous wash with DISTILLED WATER and discard this water. Later on, the distilled water you used for watering can be collected.
Because your planter has good drainage, we encourage you to put a holder at the bottom of the planter to collect the distilled water. This helps keeping your Venus Flytrap in a high humidity level.
Next, bury the black roots of the plant into the soil and also the white bulb, so that the only part above soil is green leaves.
4. Acclimate your plant
Your Venus Flytrap has been living in a closed glass with high humidity and low light environment. Therefore, it is crucial to slowly acclimate the plant over the course of a month to real world parameters.
This step is the key to transplant your Venus Flytrap, keep your plants watered, leaves misted, and covered with Saran wrap. Gradually wean off the humidity levels by poking holes in the Saran wrap over the course of one month until the cover is completely taken off.
Water only with mineral-free DISTILLED WATER. If you notice mold, placing your plant in the sun is a sure way to kill the mold! You can also provide a low heat emitting light source like LED or fluorescent, but make sure it is over 12" away from the source.
5. Enjoy
Do not attempt to do any feedings until it is successfully hardened off. If the traps are big enough, you can feed with freeze dried bloodworm pellets soaked in distilled water. At this stage your plant is still juvenile, so it will need your attention and care to transition into real world parameters.
If it's approaching winter, do not try to hibernate the plant, just focus on acclimating and growing it at temperatures over 70 degrees. It is a somewhat tedious but rewarding process. Your plant can grow for many years, good luck and have fun!