Hi guys,
I am an orchid collector that has expended to putting my plants in ikea greenhouse cabinets and now getting little fruit flies and things stuck in there. I was told by my orchid group that carnivorous plants are great companions to orchids and now I’m looking to get a few of my own.
I will be getting a Pinguicula Johanna Butterwort that looks insanely adorable. I am looking at some recommendations on compact plants that you’d recommend that pair well with orchids. I would like to get a compact pitcher plant too but not sure which one to get. Any recommendations on compact pitcher plants and others?
by Beneficial_Rooster53
8 Comments
Pitcher plants won’t help you with fu gus gnats, and those don’t stay compact. Although they are not a solution, carnivorous plants that can lend a hand (or a leaf) are those with sticky traps, like pinguiculas and droseras.
Most pinguiculas have a winter succulent phase. Easy beginner friendly plants include pinguicula moranensis, p. Weser, p. Gigantea, p. Aphrodite. All those have bigger leaves too, which is probably best if you want to catch more bugs.
And droseras need considerable amounts of lights. Look at subtropical species with no dormancy, some easy to care for are drosera capensis (many variations available), d. Alicia, d. Spatulata, d. Tokaiensis, or d. Natalensis.
But as I have no experience with orchids, I can’t recommend exact plants that would be perfect companions.
Edit to change fruit flies into fungus gnats
Pretty much any Nepenthes you can reasonably obtain will get very big over time, so its up to you if you’re willing to allocate the space for it. They are very effective though, and will probably enjoy the conditions your orchids like.
You might want to aim for butterworts without a dormancy. Mexican butterworts also don’t like humidity too much, so I wouldn’t go for those. Temperate butterworts will work well though.
Also look into the sundews, ones like Drosera rotundifolia work pretty well while being compact.
I’d advise against Sarracenia or flytraps, they’re very effective at catching bugs but Sarracenia grow very large and do poorly inside and flytraps aren’t that good at catching small things.
Yep, a moderately sized tropical pinguicula is definitely what you’re after. They’re very undemanding and stay reasonably compact. I gave my mother, who is an orchid collector, some P. agnata and P. moranensis to keep with her orchids. I’m pretty sure she gives them the same lightly fertilized water that she does her orchids, with the occasional bit of ridiculously hard well water, and they have been thriving for years. You need to be very careful about fertilizer and minerals with most carnivorous plants. They do have a dormant period where they won’t be catching bugs in winter, though.
I’d skip pitcher plants as most will get larger than it sounds like you’d be after. Drosera might be an option, but I suspect their high light needs might be incompatible with your orchids.
I’ve got a flytrap and a cape sundew. The flytrap is not very compact but the sundew is small (he’s relatively new and I don’t know how big he will get). Flytrap is TERRIBLE with little flies like fungus gnats/fruit flies. They can trigger his traps but then they just escape through the gaps in his teeth. The sundew is AWESOME. So efficient for such a little guy. For fly sticky paper power alone, I’d recommend considering the sundew. I don’t have pinguiculas but they also look like they’d be great and have more surface area to catch flies on too!
you don’t have fruit flies you have fungus gnats and you need to treat for them. carnivorous plants will not get rid of fungus gnats. they might help but you won’t notice a reduction in population.
I agree with those saying you need to just treat the source of the fungus gnats. I have a lot of pings but I didn’t notice a difference with the gnats until I actually started treating my soils and substrates to get rid of them
https://preview.redd.it/hii8kp1baeag1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9045221ebbfdfb1c35b231e1316a694ed47d6e0c
Bring in the fruit fly champ. 🥊🥊
Thing with carnivorous plants is the same as why yellow sticky traps alone won’t kill your fungus gnats. They don’t affect the larvae. That way there’s always a generation of new growing gnats present. To fully eradicate gnats, use carnivores or yellow sticky traps for the adults plus nematodes for the larvae. Predatory mites will work too.