Carnivorous plant water requirements

[Staehilomyces]

I was always fascinated by carnivorous plants, however I have never had much success with them because I am not one of those people who has ready access to pure water. Is there any way (aside from rain) to attain water of a standard tolerable by carnivorous plants in the everyday house?

 

[Steve Werner]

I was always fascinated by carnivorous plants, however I have never had much success with them because I am not one of those people who has ready access to pure water. Is there any way (aside from rain) to attain water of a standard tolerable by carnivorous plants in the everyday house?

We have a Venus fly trap it's 3 years old. We keep it in a window year round we use the well water the pH is6.2 it does fine . they grow in the South wear it's wet keep it wet in spring an summer not as much in winter. We live in bucks COunty pa

 

[Staehilomyces]

Thanks, but what I was querying about was how one could obtain usable water without having to resort to a well/rainwater tank.

 

[BQC123]

Distilled or RO water is usually available at Walmart or grocery stores.

 

[Staehilomyces]

OK thanks. In addition, could feeder crickets be used to feed carnivores?

 

[z32upgrader]

Yes, small crickets are good for VFTs.

 

[Staehilomyces]

Great, that's what I have been doing now.

 

[schrader]

For most carnivorous plants I would recommend you use water with TDS of 100ppm of less. I would test well water before if you get access to some, depending on your local geology it might not be pure enough for carnivorous plants.

 

[grimmjowls]

I feed my VFTs mealworms or crickets, whatever I'm feeding my pets when I notice one of their leaves are open.

 

[dragonfire1577]

Great, that's what I have been doing now.

I use distilled water from the store near my house and have a large nepenthes ventricosa and venus fly trap which are both doing great (though the fly trap looks awful because it just came out of dormancy)

 

[brolloks]

@Staehilomyces For feeding, it really depends on type of plant and it's size. For Flytraps I use freeze dried blood worms which I re-hydrate in a small amount of water. Here is a nice guide on feeding freeze dried bloodworms: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/Feeding/FeedingDBWSBS.php

For my Drosera and such I sometimes use beta fish food, not a lot is used as it will burn your plant leaf.
If you have lots of plants you need to feed then I would suggest doing some research on using a diluted fertilizers such as Maxsea. Drosera you can foliar feed with this solution. Sarracenia you can pour it into the substrate as they really benefit from diluted fertilizer. Don't use it on flytraps though, their roots are very sensitive to fertilizer and you might kill them.

With regards to water, I also buy Reverse Osmosis water at my local store, but I will be getting a Reverse Osmosis system of my own soon as I can't keep up with the amount of water that I require, and the cost of having to keep buying is crazy compared to just preparing my own

 

[Dovey]

i've always used water from my garden hose since i treat my carneys like any other potted garden patio plants...but i've also always had acidic water with pretty low mineral content. now that i'm in the desert with a high PH and my plants are under glass, I use aquarium water that has been softened and acidified with peat and oak leaves. traps, pichers, and sundews all doing well here, and my orchids are going nuts. go figure.

 

[SDCPs]

Yeah, the blue glacier water containers outside grocery stors dispense a gal of ro water for 2t. Ents or so. The perfect thing aside from installing a ro system!

CPs can tolerate higher mineral water if their pots are constantly flushed. Otherwise the mineral buildup kills them.

 

[Dovey]

Well, that certainly makes sense. I keep my plants constantly very moist and do flush old water out of their containers every time. How's this for fancy: I grow all my carnivorous plants in old casserole dishes that slide into Wardian cases. That way, I can grow them in naturalistic groupings, slide the whole thing out for a drink and a trim, and easily observe the moisture level for the whole lot at a glance. Individual pots are so much trouble!

 

[The Snark]

Ever heard of a dangling participle? See the title of this thread for a perfect example. The plant water, which is carnivorous, has certain requirements.

Every time my eyes scan past this thread title my brain cringes.

 

[Tleilaxu]

Buy distilled *NOT* purified water. RO water works as long as the filters are properly maintained.