Am I the only victim of this devious plant?

November 28, 2013 8:48 AM

Nothing is happening with my plant-in-a-can Venus Flytrap a month after planting the seeds. Do I wait?

I bought the can about a month ago in an open-air flower market. It contained ~200 ml of soil and a couple of seeds in tiny packet, with instructions to moisten the soil and push the seeds in. One thing I might have done wrong is that I dug a little hole and put them in, about 1 cm from the surface. I have put the can on an inside windowsill, and have been watering every few days with about 10-20 ml at a time just to keep the soil moist.

The only thing I can see growing in the can is a bit of white fuzz around the edges. Have I killed this plant already, or is one month too little time for it to sprout?

Disclaimier: About as ignorant about gardening as they come, please to be using simple words.

posted by Dr Dracator to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

This guide says you shouldn't use tap water unless you've left it sat out for 24-48 hours so that might be the issue.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:57 AM on November 28, 2013

I emailed jamaro, who is our resident expert on these things.
posted by Stewriffic at 9:09 AM on November 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I bought my daughter a venus flytrap in a can kit a couple years ago and we never got a single sprout. We finally tossed it after four or five months. Just another data point.
posted by looli at 9:25 AM on November 28, 2013

Response by poster: I knew the white stuff was not a Good Thing.

I've dug the seeds back out, one looks OK but the other looks kind of blackened, it's probably gone already. I'm setting them aside unitl I can get some distilled water to wash out the soil - since it came with the seeds, I'm assuming it's at least marginally the correct type, so I won't be replacing it.

I'm not going to try the plastic wrap thing - I don't really have the space for this kind of setup, and I'd be paranoid about burning the house down with a bright light shining on a piece of plastic.

I think I'll just put them back in under slightly better conditions and wait for summer (and probably get another set in the meantime, since the outlook on this one isn't looking too good and it cost something like €5).

One more question - do I add any water in the meantine? I'm thinking no, or very little, right?
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:58 PM on November 28, 2013

ISTR it took months and months for our VFT seeds to germinate, even after pretty much following exactly the instructions jamaro gives. They did eventually grow though!
posted by pharm at 8:10 AM on November 29, 2013