FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello I am brand new to this forum and know nothing about Venus Fly Traps.

I have a venus fly trap that I purchased at Home Depot 10 years ago. It's in an enclosed box and I've left it on a shelf in a cool room for the past 9 years and pretty much forgot about it. It has never been watered in those 9 years and the moss is more than half gone now. The moss started to grow a few years ago and I didn't even think the VFT was alive anymore.

Today I pulled it out and removed all the moss. It is alive, but there are only long arms with no traps.
I don't want to kill it, so please help me in getting it back in shape. I've got some spagnum moss that I was going to soak in distilled water and then lift what is in the container out and place the new stuff underneath.

How do I get it back to health?

Thanks!

Well sounds like you got the hang of it, ten years!!! I'm surprised it lived that long without any water or maintenance. Mine can die within a month

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Ok, clearly we getting trolled.

9 years without any water would definitely kill it. Even a day completely dry will damage it, check the rhizome to see if it's white.

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Maybe he meant.weeks

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Follow the care guides all over the forum. Re-pot it into a suitably deep pot, preferably in pure long-fiber sphagnum moss, and place it in bright sunlight. You'll need to acclimate it slowly to the light, so start off by placing it in bright light for just an hour a day, then two hours the next day, then three the next, and so on. Water with distilled water only.
Basically, just treat it like you would treat a newly purchased flytrap. It's alive, just light-starved.

That container looks like it's very near air-tight. It could certainly keep a lot of moisture inside. The plant should not stay in there, though, you won't be able to put that container in enough sunlight without cooking the plant.

Fishkeeper wrote:Follow the care guides all over the forum. Re-pot it into a suitably deep pot, preferably in pure long-fiber sphagnum moss, and place it in bright sunlight. You'll need to acclimate it slowly to the light, so start off by placing it in bright light for just an hour a day, then two hours the next day, then three the next, and so on. Water with distilled water only.
Basically, just treat it like you would treat a newly purchased flytrap. It's alive, just light-starved.

That container looks like it's very near air-tight. It could certainly keep a lot of moisture inside. The plant should not stay in there, though, you won't be able to put that container in enough sunlight without cooking the plant.

Thank you!
Yes the container holds the moisture, so it's never evaporated. It's been in light, just on a wire shelf with other plants, so not completely light deprived. I'm not sure how it's kept alive all this time as it obviously was a novelty purchase from the hardware store and I never expected it to live long.
I'm so glad it didn't die from the initial first year when I used our well water for it. That first year it was in a window and got hot so it did need water, then I moved it to the other side of the room. We're right along the Canada/Maine border, so very cold winters.

I hope it doesn't get shocked!

uusa2000 wrote:Maybe he meant.weeks

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Haha, nope I bought it in 2007 and in 2008 it was moved to another shelf when we changed our plant room around.

That box is very tightly closed so no water evaporates unless it's in a hot window.

Branmuffin wrote:Ok, clearly we getting trolled.

Not even kidding. I moved across country in 2007 and it was something we bought on a trip to the city for building supplies. It sat in a window for the first year and I watered it with well water if it looked like it was getting a little dry.

I moved it to the other side of the room a year later when we reorganized the room. It's just been on a shelf for the last 9 years, getting dull daylight and in an enclosed box so it keeps the humidity inside and I've never had to add water over there.

My in-laws are moving in up there next month so I had to clean out the room, or it may have lived another 10 years on a shelf up there.

I think there is a hole in your roof that was watering the plant. Don't get me wrong, that plant looks like death, how it's not dead I have no idea.

If it's airtight the water cycle just stayed in the container, like a mini Earth.

Pretty amazing though, to do it on accident.

Distilled water, fresh new media, and gradual introduction to bright light should fix it right up. Flytraps are startlingly hardy if they have enough light and enough zero-TDS water.

New VFT cultivar discovered...Dionaea 'Indistructable'

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jcroyle wrote:If it's airtight the water cycle just stayed in the container, like a mini Earth.

Pretty amazing though, to do it on accident.

Except what was producing the CO2?

Unbelievable that it's still alive. I accidentally buried a small division of a red piranha a couple years ago and when I repotted a year later, found it had like 5 inch, super skinny shoots trying to reach the surface all that time. But 10 years... It will definitely need to be slowly acclimated to lower humidity. Beyond that, just start giving it normal care - new sphagnum moss, keep it damp, lots of light.

xr280xr wrote:

jcroyle wrote:If it's airtight the water cycle just stayed in the container, like a mini Earth.

Pretty amazing though, to do it on accident.

Except what was producing the CO2?

Unbelievable that it's still alive. I accidentally buried a small division of a red piranha a couple years ago and when I repotted a year later, found it had like 5 inch, super skinny shoots trying to reach the surface all that time. But 10 years... It will definitely need to be slowly acclimated to lower humidity. Beyond that, just start giving it normal care - new sphagnum moss, keep it damp, lots of light.

Would the rotting of the moss cause CO2 release? The moss is more than half gone now, so it's decayed and gone somewhere.

I'm terrified to even touch it now. I want to just go put it back on the shelf and leave it alone. I'm afraid starting to mess with it is going to be disastrous.