Growing VFT's from seeds is long, arduous, and annoying! I get very few to germinate and it take a long time for them to be large enough to b worthwhile. In my opinion, I think it's better to obtain grown plants and take leaf cuttings. They sprout more readily that seeds and when they do, you can get clusters of plants from one leaf. They are also larger than a germinated seed.

Thanks for the help. But to take cuttings of VFT is it difficult to do. And should I put root growing hormone on the ends?

Thanks

Lauren

For a first time grower, consider getting a grown plant to start with. Venus Flytrap seeds are not really difficult to germinate, but as petiolaris indicated, can take time and effort that is better spent learning to provide for an adult plant before moving on to seeds. Seeds will take from 2 weeks to a couple months to germinate and will remain as tiny seedlings for a year. Next year, they will barely be an inch across, but will begin to grow rapidly after that, reaching maturity in 2-3 years in good conditions. Seeds do not always germinate and seedlings tend to die off easily. Out of 30 seeds I sowed, I barely have 5 plantlets still growing from my adult plant's progeny.

Sometimes rooting hormone can help out in getting the leaf to sprout more vigorously, but it is not needed. Just unpot an adult Flytrap that is healthy and well established and pull a leaf down until it splits off from the white bulb like rhizome, ensuring that some of the white rhizome splits off with the leaf. That will give the leaf some root material to start with. Lay if flat on moist peat moss and provide it with plenty of light. If you are worried about mold, spray it once every few weeks with sulfur or neem oil based fungicides. It will produce plantlets in a few weeks or a couple months at most. Spray the adult plant with fungicide to reduce the chance that its damaged bulb will become infected and repot it. Do not take too many leaves at once, only one or two, and not too often. Venus flytraps also reproduce through rhizome division, so you can just leave an adult alone for a couple of years and when you repot it, several new crowns can be split off with your fingers where you feel them coming apart naturally from the adult.

Carnivorous plants can be planted together, they are just plants and will not eat each other. Just keep the tropicals seperate from the temeprates as you will need different conditions for each. Aslo, some like different types of soil or moisture differences, so just research each species you get and make sure you give each their own requirements. All Flytrap cultivars can be grown together as can all of the North Amrican sundews. As a matter of fact, some sundews and even a few Sarracenias are found growing side by side with Flytraps in nature. Sarracenias tend to like more moisture though, so they are usually found in depression in the moss near a Flytrap that is on a small hill.

Another approach is pull the leaf, with white basal part, and emplace that basal part into wet long fibered spahagnum. I used to have a tray of the life LFS and did leaf pullings of VFT's, Cephalotus, D. binata and filliformis. Here's what I mean:

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I just repotted several seedings this afternoon and while the VFTs do indeed take a long time to grow, the babies are just too darn cute sitting there smiling up.

I've had trouble with the leaf pullings for some reason. I've had trouble with VFTs in general this summer.

I'm going to have to vote for the buying of the adult plant but you can get some seeds pretty easily too and give that a try. It is rewarding to see a sea of little green mouths and know that you brought them into this world.