Hello! Just discovered that this forum exists so I thought I'd bring my question here. I bought a venus fly trap plant a while ago and had been growing it indoor on an East-facing window sill where it can get ~4 to 6 hours of direct sunlight daily (provided that there is sunlight), and I put it under my lamp when it does get that much. Its name is Nibbles, it seems to be doing okay, maybe all the frantic growing tips reading help (set it in dish of rain water, feed no more than one bug per trap per week… etc.). However, I see from multiple sources that VFTs needs light. A lot. Ideally, they should be turning red when happy about light condition and after staring at Nibbles for hours I seems to see a hint of red on one of it's trap. The best way to get them light (and bug snacks) is, of course, to grow them outside. One guide says that they can handle outdoors in zone 8-12, and I am considering moving it out maybe in April? However, my balcony is facing north, and I am not sure moving it to where it cannot get that much direct light is a good idea. Sooooo… Should I do it when it is warmer? Will regular desktop lamp be enough? (Attached are photos taken after Nibbles had it's first meal. Carnivorous plants are so cool I want to study about them…)
I think it would be better off in the east-facing window sill instead of the north-facing balcony, even in the summer. You'll want to try and find a broad-spectrum growing light instead of a desktop lamp for indoors (the desktop lamp doesn't give off light in all of the needed frequencies for the plant)
