anyone know any information about growing carnivorous plants ? would having a certain carnivorous plant growing along with all other plants greatly reduce the risk of pest ?
Lots of experience here with drosera capensis and venus flytrap.
They can grow in any climate I think inside the house - they are bog plants and therefore require to be in water most of the time, but they can go through short periods of dry soil. I use small plastic pots with just peat moss in them, which I stick in a second container (usually a transparent yogurt container), which I fill to the brim with water - usually refill the water once a week, unless it's summer then more often. i.e. instead of a saucer you use a tall transparent container that contains the pot with the plant - and of course the pot should have holes it it to take the water in.
The most important thing is that they need either direct sun or "meat" - flies, warms, etc. Some people feed them blood warms, etc. But if you keep it on a sun facing window sill they will be mostly fine with just sun. Though venus fly trap will need an occasional pray to thrive.
As far as watering - at the beginning I did use distilled water, but then I switched to normal tap water - there was no impact whatsoever, and the plants do need minerals which are absent from distilled water. For the same reason we humans should avoid drinking bottled water unless it has minerals - when you drink distilled water, it leaches minerals out of your body, so you're making things worse for your health. Same applies to plants with some exceptions.
Of course, it may depend on the quality of your tap water, which can vary greatly from city to city. A simple filter might do the trick if your water is very plant-unfriendly.
Drosera capensis is amazing with fruit flies, and venus fly trap catches the big flies.
Drosera capensis that I have likes to seed like crazy, after giving a stock of beautiful white flowers, that unfold one a day! So you have to be very careful not to let the seeds to ripen, otherwise you will end up having Drosera capensis in every pot of your house - they shoot their seeds once the pod is ripe. But of course, it is helpful to save some seeds for propagation and sharing. I give away lots of babies since most people won't know how to start one.
I also picked a Drosera rotundifolia in one of the rain forests and so far it's been happy - waiting for it to seed!
Bottom line - at least the first two I described are very easy to maintain if you set them up right, just remembering to cut the seeding stocks down before it's gone wild and keep the outer container full of water, refilling once a week or so.
Sorry, the shot didn't come out in perfect focus, but you can see a pile of fruit flies stuck in the leaves of the plant
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Topic: carnivorous plants (Read 2783 times)
