Dormancy's Almost Over: What to do to Prepare for the New Growing Season

With Spring approaching quickly, your Venus Flytraps should slowly be waking up from dormancy. Finally, we can say goodbye to slow growth and unimpressive traps and say hello to the new growing season! As your flytraps exit dormancy, you can expect to see faster and larger growth, better coloration, and upright traps (depending on cultivar).

A big pot of happy spring venus flytraps. This is what I personally have been waiting all winter for!

However, there are some steps you definitely should take if you hope to maximize this season of rapid growth. Here are a few of them:

1. Repot Now!

   If you haven't already, now is THE time to repot your VFTs, if you haven't already. This is because they haven't fully woken up yet from dormancy, so shocks to their roots from repotting won't affect their growth much. If you repot later into the spring, you can risk stunting them during a crucial period of rapid growth, leading to lagging plants. Also, repotting now is great, since it lets you see how much larger your rhizomes got during a full year of growth and alleviate root-boundedness!

   

   This flytrap is likely quite root-bound. A repot would give it much needed space to swell it's rhizome.

For more details on repotting media, check out my other article！

Peat Moss vs Sphagnum Moss as a Growing Medium

2. Increase Watering

   As your Venus flytraps start waking up and pushing out new traps, their water needs increase right along with that growth. They’re shifting out of dormancy and back into active mode, so now is the time to turn up the watering accordingly. Keep the soil evenly moist and don’t let it dry out as the plant ramps up energy and trap production.

   

   You don’t need to drown them, instead, just make sure they always have access to water and that moisture levels stay consistent. Steady hydration during this transition helps fuel healthy growth and sets your flytraps up for a strong season ahead. A good tip is to let them sit in a tray of water and then let the tray of water dry between waterings. This encourages strong root growth and even stronger traps! A detailed guide on this technique written by me can be found here: A Little Watering Trick to Increase the Size of Your Venus Flytraps

3. Clean up Dead Material

   Dead material, other than being ugly, can be a serious hindrance to the growth of your carnivorous plants, especially rhizomatous ones such as VFT's and Sarracenia. Dead growth not only encourages mold, which is dangerous to dormant growth points, but also shields new growth from sunlight, which can lead to leggy shoots, especially in Sarracenia. Dead matter also reduces airflow to rhizomes, which is crucial during dormancy to prevent rotting.

And of course, it's just ugly!

For Venus Flytraps, clear off dead growth by pulling black traps until they detach at their base. If the trap doesn't want to come off, leave it, or cut the black portion off with clean scissors, since it is still attached to the rhizome by living tissue. Tugging too hard may end up with an uprooted VFT, which would suck.

For Sarracenia, during dormancy, you can actually take a big pair of shears and just cut off everything in one fell swoop, even living pitchers! However, this is more of an early dormancy guideline, since during that time there is no new growth and the living leaves are going to die soon anyways. During late dormancy, like right now, it may be best to take a clean, sharp pair of pruners and trim off individual dead pitchers at their base.

Trimmed Late-Season Sarracenia. Giving them a buzzcut allows for lots of light and fresh air to reach the new spring buds.

That's pretty much it! Just keep your plants watered, clean, and in direct sunlight, and they will wake up naturally as the day lengths get longer. I'm personally super excited for this next growing season, and I hope you are too!

Happy Growing!