When a Venus flytrap flower is fertilized, many of the small black seeds form inside. From these you can grow new plants. How to harvest the seed, and how to grow Venus Flytraps from it.

The Venus Flytrap can also be grown from seed

How to pollinate the flowers of a Venus Flytrap

The flower of the Venus flytrap is hermaphrodite. Pollination is via insects. Even in closed rooms there are usually enough pollinators available.

To be on the safe side, you can also pollinate the flowers yourself. For this you need a fine brush or a cotton swab. Run a brush or chopstick over the stamens of each flower. Feel free to repeat this process several times.

It takes some time for the flower to fade and the fruit pods containing the black seed to develop.

Harvesting and storing Venus flytrap seeds

When the flower has dried up, there are several ways to harvest the seed:

  • cut off the flower
  • Tie off the flower with a plastic bag
  • Place a plate under the flower

Because Venus flytraps are cold germs, you need to refrigerate them after harvest. Place them in an opaque paper bag in the crisper of your refrigerator. They remain there until spring sowing time.

Sow Venus flytrap seeds

In early March, it's time to sow the Venus Flytrap seeds. To do this, prepare seed pots (€16.68) that you fill with a mixture of two-thirds peat and one-third sand. The substrate must be well moistened.

Scatter the seeds thinly and gently press them down. Venus fly traps germinate in the light, so the seeds must not be covered with substrate.

Place the pots as sunny as possible and protected from draughts. To maintain humidity, experts recommend covering the pots with plastic wrap or panes of glass.

Nurture seeds until they germinate

Make sure that the surface and thus the seeds do not dry out. Mist them more often with a fine spray of rainwater. However, the substrate must not become too moist.

If you have covered the pots, air them regularly so that the seeds and substrate cannot rot. Make sure the pots get enough light.

Fresh seed should germinate in three weeks. If it takes longer, the seed is probably old and may not germinate at all. After emergence separate the small plants. Put larger specimens carefully in their own pots. They are now cared for like adult Venus flytraps.

Several years pass before the first flowering

It takes several years for the plants propagated from seeds to flower for the first time. The flowers usually only develop after four years.

tips

There is only one species of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), and there are no subspecies or varieties. So you cannot breed different species, you can only multiply the plant.

Category:

Vegetable garden