Thanks Brian! Where do you get "distilled water", or are you just
using bottled?
With hope and heart,
Kathleen
--
There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for
bread.
~ Mother Teresa


"Brian Anderson" wrote :
: Kathleen wrote:
:
: : I've bought them before... how the heck do you keep them
alive?
: :
: : I'll let you know if I succeed.
:
: Please do! (let me know if you succeed)
:
: One month later, all three plants are still alive.
:
: We bought three of them for $5 each at Lowe's. They all
: looked healthy when we started, but they come in very small
: plastic "terrariums," that are so small that opening and
: closing them risks accidentally choping off leaves -- which I
: did to two of the three plants before we transplanted them.
:
: We went to Petsmart and bought a 2.5 gallon aquarium with a
: glass lid for $10, and got some sphagnum peat moss from Home
: Depot for about $2.50. We replanted all three Venus fly traps
: in one terrarium, and we keep it outside under a slatted
: overhang, so they get partial sun.
:
: One of the three plants is absolutely thriving. It has new
: growth in every direction, and is too big to fit into its
: original container. Another plant has new growth in some
: areas, but two of the leaves (including one mouth) have turned
: black and died. The third plant is kind of hanging in there,
: wilting a little on one side, and not showing much new growth.
:
: I have hardly watered them at all, except to squirt in some
: distilled water around the edges when I replanted them. The
: glass walls are covered with condensation all day long.
:
: When we first got the plants, we fed them a freshly dead fly
: cut in half, and the mouths stayed shut for about two weeks,
: as expected. But there was a little black corpse in each one
: when they opened. We also fed some mouths dead crickets
: (small size from Petco or Petsmart, cut in half), with the
: same result. Coincidentally, the mouth that turned black was
: one that got cricket, and the other plant that's not doing
: well also got cricket. It might only be coincidence, but the
: plants seem to do better without being fed meat.
:
: We haven't fed them anything for three weeks or so, ever since
: replanting them, because the biggest mouths are
: downward-facing. I'll probably refrain from feeding them
: anything more for the rest of the summer. The peat moss seems
: to have everything the plants need, without me spoon-feeding
: them extra nitrogen.
:
: I'll let you know in a month or so if they're still alive.
: