Venus fly trap

Gordon

Disclaimer: I don't have green fingers, I can underfeed/water cactus plants and they'll die on me, I have no green skills in the slightest.

I bought venus fly trap seeds ages ago and went through the instructions on how to plant them. I had to put the seeds in the fridge for ages, and in a bowl of ice water for a while also, then put them in a small pot with sandy soil and contained in a ziplock plastic bag. All of this was in a cool handy box I bought.

I did all that, left it on the windowsill and it never grew into a shoot. Instead a fungus/mould type thing started to grow, so I thought I'd just grow fungus instead, if that's all I can ever grow from the plant world. But then amazingly, many months later a small shoot appeared. It is still in the ziplock bag and I put a bit of water in it every month and it slowly grows a tiny bit.

I just recently put it on my radiator as I thought it might get a little cold with this weather, and it's suddenly growing more, and I can even see a tiny purple thing appear on the top of it, so maybe it's wanting to flower.

So, my question is, how long will it last in the ziplock bag? Should I take it out of the bag? I don't want to as it's happy enough there, and I know they like warm moist environments. But it seems a bit mad having a plant in a bag..

Also, this is going to sound rather morbid, but about 4 or 5 months ago I put a small fruit fly into the ziplock bag so that when it died the nutrients would go into the soil maybe. I dunno, it was flying about my bathroom so I caught it and left it to the fly trap shoot.. But the mad thing is, it is still alive! How is this fly still alive in the sealed ziplock bag after months of being in there?! What is it eating? Is the fly trap shoot giving off enough oxygen for it? Am I giving it enough oxygen when I open the bag every month to water the shoot?

Any help appreciated.

SandiSommers

I have purchased some Venus Fly Trap seeds and will be planting them soon. Seeds from Thompson & Morgan. The instructions on these seem somewhat less cumbersome than your 'ordeal'. Should take from 20-40 days to germinate. I will keep you posted.

Gordon

Nice one. This is what I got btw.

I'm leaving it sealed up (taken out the flies!) and keeping it on a radiator and it's really growing. I fear I'll need to get more light as it grows(?) but at least it's growing noticably. Good luck Sandi.

unkel

Sorry Gordon, I can't help you with your flytrap. But that's one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time.

Gordon wrote:

it never grew into a shoot. Instead a fungus/mould type thing started to grow, so I thought I'd just grow fungus instead

ROFL