How To Grow Venus Flytrap In An Indoor Garden

When I and the Click & Grow team shared my Venus Flytrap Click & Growing experiment on their community forum and social media channels, it turned out that quite many people are interested in growing this plant. Even though it may appear to be a difficult project at first, it becomes quite simple once you learn the basics. So why not help all of you out?

There's 2 yellowjacket wasps stuck in my Venus Flytrap - can you spot both of them? ;)

Matt & Leah from FlyTrapCare.com say fly traps need three ridiculously basic and obvious things to flourish:

1. Light

Your Venus Flytrap LOVES light. If you're growing it in the Click & Grow indoor herb garden, caring for light is one thing you can cross off your Venus Flytrap experiment to-do list - their lamp will automatically provide the plant with 16 hours of light every single day, which is completely enough.

2. Water

Make sure the water you're using has as little mineral content as possible (use distilled water). Just fill up the Click & Grow garden's water tank whenever necessary and you're good to go. I had to fill it up approximately once in 2.5 weeks.

3. Growth medium

When the Venus Flytrap has germinated big enough in your indoor garden, you'll need to transplant it to a bigger pot, so it can really take off. The most popular soil mixes for that are sphagnum moss, peat, sand and perlite. I myself recommend just using New Zealand Long Fiber Sphagnum Moss - it can hold 20 times its weight in water, without minerals. While the Click & Grow Smart Soil is perfect for most plants, Venus Flytrap is a rare exception, as it does not tolerate any medium that has minerals.

So here's what you have to do:

1. Put your Click & Grow (or any other indoor garden) into the dish washer to remove minerals from past plants. Fill up the water reservoir with distilled water.

2. Gather your Click & Grow plant capsule pods (if you reuse any pods, make sure you wash them throughly and remove all remains of the old soil - it could have minerals or other ingredients that are harmful to fly traps) and your germination domes that come with the pods, and poke 4-6 holes in them for ventilation.

3. Get the media you plan on using and rinse it 3-5 times with distilled water in case it contains any unwanted minerals. I would recommend New Zealand Long Fiber Sphagnum Moss for germination and for the rest of your plant's life.

4. Pour distilled water over the growing medium until it is moist and place it into your clean pod.

5. When you “plant” fly trap seeds, they do not go underground, they get scattered on top of the already moist media. Then, scatter a very light amount of the New Zealand Moss over the seeds. You should still be able to see the seeds after this sprinkle.

6. Spray distilled water on the seeds and the sprinkled on moss. Cover the pod with the germination dome. Take the domes off after the plants have germinated, which should be within 4-6 weeks.

*Pro Tips

1. The Click & Grow indoor gardens already come with a perfectly fine grow light, but I'd still suggest placing the garden in a sunny spot - just to double up on the light.

2. Make sure the growth medium is always moist. This shouldn't be a problem as long as the media is sucking up water from the Click & Grow garden's reservoir.

3. Lift the dome off every day or two to prevent mold from growing and give the seedlings some fresh air.

4. The warmer, the better. For germination, 78 degrees Fahrenheit is best. You can grow fly traps within 40-90 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. Go to FlyTrapCare.com for the most comprehensive guides on fly traps.

If you decide to try growing a Venus Flytrap in your Click & Grow, feel free to post about the process in the comments of my Venus Flytrap discussion on the Click & Grow community forum - I'd love to check it out! 

Happy growing,

Noah