Don't get me wrong, I've got Red Dragon, Dente, and Typical all growing outside. I've even got a Typical going on an East window sill (just to see how that goes). However, my best looking flytrap BY FAR is the Red Dragon that I grow inside one of my terrariums. Keep in mind that I have reflective one way glass on three sides of a 20 gallon long breeding tank and a combined 100W of compact fluorescent day lighting over the tank. I've also rigged up a computer fan on the inside which keeps the air moving. So the setup is pretty good IMO.

My outdoor flytaps end up looking kinda spindly (but healthy). I can only assume that is from the relatively low humidity in Minnesota afternoons (since they're all in full sun).

I think it's fine growing them outdoors, but people have gone too far in saying that is always the best way. Now I see some people posting that they will die in a terrarium...which is clearly not true if you know what you're doing.

If you live in North Carolina or a similar climate, by all means grow them outdoors. Just keep in mind that most of us don't, and outside isn't always the "best" way.

If by best you mean safest; then terrarium is clearly the best way when it's done properly. I can control the climate. I have ZERO problems with harmful insects, hail, racoons, birds, dogs, etc. Fungus might be a concern in a terrarium, but I have never lost a flytrap...and certainly haven't lost one to fungus. Pitcher plants of course are another matter, but you don't generally grow them in terrariums.

Ok...rant over! ;)

And what makes you think you can't do dormancy in a terrarium? That is nonsense...how do you think I do it? I dare you to try and do winter dormancy outdoors in MN...now that would be a trick! LOL

BEFORE, emerging out of dormancy:

AFTER, a few weeks after growth(present health)

My big bowl of vfts:

What catches my eye sight of the vfts' are the red hue in each of their traps. in terrariums, i can't even allow a vft flower cause' it focuses in making that flower stalk. Outdoors, i don't even have to worry, they grow fine and flower every season.

However, i do indeed can grow simple species in terraria such as droseras, and butterworts. since they only manifest growth from bright locations rather than stronger lighting compared to the vfts. i wouldn't spend electricity on a big terrarium ;) i rather conserve. oh, but i do start out my seeds in a small "germinator" using a 14 watt fan light bulb. after they germinate, i move my seedlings in a sunny windowsill. it's cool that you can grow your plants in terraria, maybe you should post pics. i wantt to see how you grow your plants. thanks in advance.

-xymox-

But that's my whole point really. Outdoors alone isn't the answer, and neither is terrarium alone. You need to figure out what you can provide in both cases and see what works best. One is not clearly superior to the other in all cases. So while it's great to try outside, it's quite possible that you will get better plants indoors. My Red Dragon in the terrarium also has much much better color than the outdoor plant...lots of rain lately! :( I think I read somewhere that you can't keep a Red Dragon red in a terrarium. Anyway, I'll try and provide some "evidence" tonight.

unfortunatly, i never been to Minnesota.

if you are good growing your plants in terraria then that is good. if you are good at something, then keep up the good work. You can make a free account in www.photobucket.com to post pics. i really want to see more pics from different plant growers from this forum because it's nice sharing different ideas from other sources.

i have good news for you.
I just got a concert ticket to see Diary Of Dreams! WOOOOO!!!

If you wish to grow flytraps in a terrarium, it is best to keep the plants in pots for easy removal for their winter dormancy. Fluorescent grow light should be 6 to 10 inches above the plant and on a 12 to 14 hour photo period. Remove them in winter to a cold windowsill or outdoors. Flytraps will not survive well year round in warm, tropical terrariums

http://community.webshots.com/photo/465449886/1463585197060102289qBULq Q

Not too bad, but kinda spindly and not great color...especially for mid-late summer. Not sure why they are always so spindly for me outdoors.

Here's one of it's little divisions in the terrarium right now.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/465449886/2532711220060102289rPACq x

Nice color...good rosetted flytrap. Keep in mind, this is a little guy in a little pot. A big Red Dragon would get a bigger pot and be even closer to the lights. If I put one of my big Red Dragons in there, it would probably be a good 6 inches closer to the lights...at least. In any case, it's pretty clear that there isn't a light defeciency.

Regards,
Joe

Regards,
Joe

PS What happened to your thumb? Usually a black thumb refers to plant killers. LOL ;)

i've been growing a young flytrap inside an "egg mini terrarium" that i bought from cooks. i have been growing it inside for almost a month. i gotta admit the plant does look healthy. the mini terrarium is growing in a windowsill. the terrarium is an "egg" shaped thingy, with top covering for humidity. the plant is covered with the top all the time. 24/7 so, the plant is growing with long leaves. nice traps, but the traps are green instead of with the red hue. i still like it ,though. i fed it a small insect, the trap triggered in a slow manner. however, the plant is healthy enough/ i wantto post afew pics of the plant growing in the small egg mini terrarium. the egg mini terrarium is about 2" inchs & a half. the plant is quite young, i predict about 3 years of age. the whole kit is called "egg mini terrarium kit" it includes an egg mini terrarium, some peatmoss+perlite mix, and a young flytrap. i have to remove the top in order to get an image of the plant.

your plants don't look in a bad shape. to me they look really nice. my red dragon was knocked down offthe windowsill into the floor(my room is in the second floor, we have a two story house) so the plant fell into the floor and it died on me. i haven't growned a red dragon ever since, i just have dente, typical, bigmouth flytraps and red-long fingers and a sawtooth.

oh the thumb...
Lol, oh that was black nail polish. or atleast i don't remember smashing it on accident. :)

another reason why flytraps grow well in CA because it's a coast area, near the beach. in the carolina's flytraps live in the swampy bogs. when you think about it, it reflects the coast lines. southern CA has humidity during the mornings. it's get warmer during the mid day and nights. the nights are about 64 degrees or sometimes above during summers.(it depends)

if i lived in Minnesota, i would also grow flytraps in terrariums since it's usually cold.
same thing if i lived in northern states like colorado.

Or dryer states like texas, arizona or neveda. can't wait to see your plant's in the end of the growing season. do you have more plants that you grow in your terrarium besides red dragon? i like its coloration, though.

Plants in a terrarium, where to start? Lets see, I've got probably 5 species of pings, 3 species of drosera, 2 species pygmy drosera, 5 species of nepenthes, cephalotus, some flytraps, heliamphora ionantha, and am trying some rainbow plants from seed. Rainbow plants look like a failure on the first attempt, but I've still got some seeds left. Email me if you're interested in a trade or the specific species that I have. I'm also trying my hand at Voodoo Lillies/Amorphophallus this year. I've also been playing around with some very cool cacti and succulents.

Hey, I clicked on your profile. You're into horror huh? You MUST check out "Cemetary Man"!!! It's finally being released in the US on DVD. I bought a region free DVD player a few years back just so I could order this from Amazon France along with the French copy of Orson Welles "The Trial". I'm a huge horror buff myself.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F3UA8E/qid=1148781194/sr=8-1/ref= pd_bbs_1/002-4589854-8401625?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130

i never tried rainbow plants before, are they easy to germinate? probably.

yup you bet, i love horror movies, specially those retro 80s horror(and some cheesy old horror as well)

have you seen "Ichi the killer"? it's a sweet gorey movie, one of the best ones most likely. Hell raiser part 1 is far out one of my fave horror movies. so many many.. i have a list of old horror movies. cemetary man was a classic, i only saw it once when i was a child. the original 1973 exorcist was my also my fave, i used to watch it by my self when i was 5 years old with the lights off when i was home alone, it was just one of my childhood hobbies. along with messing around with insects(god bless them)

it's glad to know that there's also horror fans in here too. :D see ya. i will have probably some seeds soon, not sure when but i will inform everyone in the forum when i harvest seeds from my plants.

I can tell you how to do it in even harsher conditions. It's taken me several years and several lost plants to weather both hot and dry and freezing, mold, birds, squirrels etc to figure out my current method. I've dabbled for decades with how best to grow these plants in the conditions I have. As far as my plants go I WISH I had the humidity you have in MN. You want conditions ill suited for CPs. Try East Central Iowa. It's hot, dry and very windy. The conbination is a real killer for any CP. And yet I grow mine outside very successfully. My VFTs will have 17+ flower stalks this year, most have two stalks. Now, all mine are typicals except the two very small yearling Big mouth VFTs (yes Xymox you inspired me with those amazingly beautiful plants). So they aren't as large nor as beautiful as those grown by Xymox. But they do very well.

How do I manage you ask? I do it as simply as I can. Over the years I decided the best if not the most attractive method was to wrap my CP pot. I got some 2 inch garden mesh (the green wire mesh to keep rabbits out of your garden). I wraped it around my CP pot about 24 inches high and then covered it with 3 mil plastic leaving the top open so excess heat can escape. The wire structure gives enough support that it's withstood 50 mile per hour winds, the plastic keeps the humidity up while letting a ton of light in. as I said it's not pretty but my plants love it. As far as wintering over, I just leave them outside until we start getting killing frosts at which time they go into an unheated mud room for the winter. It's worked very well for several years now and all my plants have grown to the point that I will have to get another pot or two next year.

BTW MY CP pot has:
12-15 mature VFTs and 5-10 yearlings/seedlings( I started with 3 maure plants 5 years ago)
9 S. leucophylla 'Tarnok' ( I started with 1, 4 years ago)
8 S. X Judith Hindle ( I started with 1, 4 years ago)
11 D. Filiformis ( I started with seed 2 years ago)
more D. rotundifolia than I care to count. They are a weed in my pot.

This year all my plants are blooming. So I think they like the set up I currently have.

Just for a different solution used by many growers, how about a greenhouse?

If you can invest in such a fancy terrarium setup, I'm sure you can afford a small one. This would erradicate freezing winds, any form of precipitation, any local creatures and extend your growing season. It would also give you a reason to buy loads more CPs to fill it up :)

Cheers

Kyle

I hear what you're saying, I grow lots of my CPs outside (as I mentioned). I have my own little tricks too. However, my results aren't any better (and perhaps even slighly worse) than those grown in some of my terrariums.

And it is without a doubt, much more hassle to keep these plants outside. Time is one thing that I do not have in abundance. My terrarium plants get attention on Wed and Sunday. My outdoor plants need some attention every day. Then there are the things I mentioned before...coons, hail, excessive elements, squirrels, etc. None of that indoors.

If you can get the lighting right, and I think I'm pretty close, there is no doubt you can give these plants much closer to their ideal conditions in a terrarium if you live in MN or IA.

Hi Kyle...yeah, I was in the UK this winter...(went to see my beloved Newcastle United beat Arsenal at St. James Park). You guys have greenhouses everywhere!!! The problems for me right now are space and sunlight. I live in a fairly wooded location. Great scenery, but not much light getting into the yard. Buy you're right, I've been kicking around the idea of a greenhouse for a while.

Regards,
Joe

There's always a way.

Kyle

i have to put the settings as 'public' however, the last time i did, some of my pics were erased by some one.. i guess i can make another account for plants only because i have that account and i have pics of me, which i hate ahahaha. sorry i hate pictures.. anyway, sure i guess i can make another account for plants only. i was thinking of making one anyway.. you can find it here:

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/Infekkted/Plants/

i have to put the settings as 'public' however, the last time i did, some of my pics were erased by some one.. i guess i can make another account for plants only because i have that account and i have pics of me, which i hate ahahaha. sorry i hate pictures.. anyway, sure i guess i can make another account for plants only. i was thinking of making one anyway.. you can find it here:

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/Infekkted/Plants/

Nice looking plants ... again.. :)

so.. i have been growing the plant in a bright indirect area.(not full sun) in my room's windowsill. how i grow the plant was very simple, the egg mini terrarium is remained shut so humidity can be achieved by the dome. i have to admit, the plant does fairly nice, however, everytime i feed it , the traps closes in a slow manner rather than a fast motion than the plants that i grow outside. i am assumin that plants that are growned outside in full sun aquire more photoperiod & more energy from brighter/sunnier locations. not only that, the plant that i am growing in this egg mini terrarium does not that strong red hue inside the traps. they remain green, only one trap managed to reach a pinkish hue in one trap. Not only that, the plants i grow outside may grow tall leaves, but they are intact, the plant that i grow in the egg mini terrarium has floppy leaves; they are long and they wabble a little when i move the plant without its dome, the leaves are not intact like the plants' leaves that i grow outside. here's two pics of the plant inside the egg mini terrarium that i have been growing over 2 months now:
(this is how i always grow this plant, i keep the terrarium shut at all times, except when i water it, then i close it again)

Here's how it looks like without the dome:

Ok, this is another mini terrarium i made with a peanut butter/jelly jar. the jar was cleaned well. after that, i scattered some perlite on the bottom for drainage. then added a layer of peatmoss+perlite mix, then some live moss on top of the peatmoss for top dressing. after that, i planted a young flytrap(say about 3 years old) then.. i watered it. after that, i sealed the jar with a plastic wrap using a rubber band. the plant has been growing nicely, nice reddish traps, and it has been growing in there for almost a month. i am assumin THIS one gets red traps is due because i grow it in a different bright window. it gets BRIGHT light only, not full hot sun like my other windowsill plants. i only have watered this plant once. the sealed plastic wrap keeps the humidity very high since i only made 3 small ventilation holes on the top.
here's how the whole terrarium jar looks like:
( i apologize for the dark results but you get the idea)
But here's a better pic of the plant inside the terrarium jar:

Note: this plant's traps are reddishs since it gets brighter light than the one from the egg mini terrarium. it has a bit more room as well. the humidity plastic wrap helps it maintain the humidity high and helps the soil staying moist, even the live moss is growing nicely in there. i still do manage to get moss grow on top of my cps outside still. :D

Like joe said, flytraps may grow fine inside terrariums as long as you know what you are doing. it took some time for me to figure out what to do & how to grow flytraps inside terrariums without any artificial lighting. i DO NOT use any type of artificial lighting method to grow these two plants in their terrarium(too much electricity), they grow in a bright/semi sunny window with their domes shut at all times. these two terrarium plants get about..4 hours of bright light(not full sun)

However, i still find more attractive the plants that are growned outdoors..

hope you guys enjoy the pics :) well this is the method i use to grow flytraps inside terrariums. i am not sure if i could ever grow a larger plant inside a bigger jar, but i can always attempt to try.

"here's two pics of the plant inside the egg mini terrarium that i have been growing over 2 months now"

i mistyped " over 2 months" the plant has only been growing in the egg mini terrarium for only 1 month and few days now.

this is another picture that i just took of the jar terrarium(the second mini terrarium above)despite the plant can bearly be seen, due to the high humidity inside the enclosed little jar that is growing. i finally were able to get a more descent pic of it.

Although the discussion is old hope you see my post.

When you said that your VFT look kind of spindly, did you mean like these? (my plants)

First two are 'Akai Ryu', the next plants are 'typical', 'gint From', and 'Dentate.

As you can see the plants are starting to produce their "summer leaves", these are usually long and spindly, not short like the "spring leaves". Supposedly this allows the plants that are overgrown with grass to have their traps up high and not hidden from view.