FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,

Can someone tell me why the traps on my plant are turning black?

I know that they normally eventually turn black, but right now, the traps on my plant are turning black, before even opening into a new trap. The stems on my plant seem healthy and new traps/stems are growing, they just start turning more and more black (the traps), before the point when they open. Next thing you know, the trap is completely black and dead, yet the stem it was on looks healthy. Right now, I can't get any green/purple traps to grow. Any traps I bought the plant with have died off.

The store, where I bought the Venus flytrap from has told me I should keep the soil much more wet than I've been doing. By the way, I've been using long fiber ed peat moss (only kind I could find, without fertilizer, and put rocks with a fairly large hole on the bottom of my pot for drainage). Pictures are attached. The healthy trap in the picture has since died.

That looks like mineral damage.
What rocks did you use in the pot?
What do you water with?
Has the plant recently been moved into the sun?
Is that a clay or terracotta pot?

-The rocks I put in the bottom of the pot are like .5-1" inch big, i'm unsure of the type of rocks they are though.

-I use distilled water, which was purchased from the store in a gallon container.

-The plant has recently been re-potted, a few weeks ago

-The plant has been placed in the sun, all day long (9 am, until 5 pm); it used to be kept indoors

-The pot has a shiny coating, so it's unlikely the pot is the problem

Wouldn't mineral damage hurt the whole plant, not just the traps? The actual stems appear to be healthy.

Is this plant outside or inside?

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During the day, I put the plant outside. At night, I take the plant indoors.

a few things here to touch on:

1) why do you take it in doors exactly? can it be left outside? if so leave it outside taking it in and bringing it out daily is very stressful to the plant and you are causing a big shift in its temperatures/humidities at a rapid and every changing pace - which will not allow it to properly acclimate and focus on growing proper/healthy leaves/traps

2) the material in the photos looks bad to me, I'd recommend looking into the care guides on the forums here for more details on different mixtures people tend to agree upon being very good for healthy growing. I personally use long fiber new zealand sphagnum moss (besgrow brand) its a little pricey for what it is but a little goes a long ways. some use peat moss (with no added fertilizers), mixed with perlite 50/50 or some do a slightly different ratio with silica sand also mixed in... some do a combination of all of the above its a personal preference and some stuff might work better for some people in different situations that won't work out for others... but the basic formula is generally the same.

do you know what brand or where the material you are using in the pot currently is?

3) on the container you are using, how deep is it? are you using any sort of tray at the bottom and watering there?

it looks like it may be getting too much water which would depend on the medium its planted in, the container and how its watered also. I strongly recommend looking around the forums and spending some time with the care guides - learn it, live it, love it (and make that lil plant prosper!)

1) It get's chilly at night around here (can dip below 60). Plus, the insects can get bad around here during the summer. The other plant, which I leave outside (Pineapple plant), already has aphids on it.

2)I tried mixing long fibered peat-moss with sand from Home Depot, but unfortunately, the sand washed right through the peat moss. Saddly, this was the only thing from Home Depo, which didn't contain fertilizer. I initially, stupidly, used the pear-lite peat-moss, but I quickly replanted, after realizing that it contained fertilizer.

3)The container I'm using is about 4-5"'s deep. I put about 1" of rocks on the bottom on the container to prevent root rot, below the peat moss. The tray on the bottom holds about 1/4" of water; it definitely doesn't come above the rocks, placed at the bottom.

My plant was withering, it was so dry in the pot, which is why I now water it a lot more; it looks much better than it did before. I had the stems shriveling up, along with the heads of the traps turning black.

I second the above, bringing it inside and outside every day does more harm than good. Always remember, these grow in the wild and no one brings them in and out there.

Mineral burn affects the most sensitive parts of the plant first. I.e. the traps, and the leaves and the stem of the leaf will be last because it's tougher.

Is this mosser lee long fiber sphagnum by chance? It does look really bad for being fresh media.

The rocks along the bottom are most likely not safe and can leach minerals.

Lastly, it's probably gonna take some time for this plant to get used to all the changes. You said you repotted, moved it outside that's a lot of trauma all at once.


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Yea, it's mosser lee long fiber sphagnum moss; that's the exact stuff I bought (https://www.amazon.com/MOSS-FIBER-432CU ... FEVE56M3B7). That was the only thing I could find at Home Depot, which didn't have minerals in it.

Everything else was Miracle Gro. Would replanting it a third time cause even more stress to the plant?

Additionally, would a nursery even have this peat moss? Seems like I would almost certainly need to buy it on Amazon, which would take a few weeks.

you can order new zealand long fiber sphagnum online at a number of places (including FTS) it will run you around the $10 mark for 100g which once rehydrated will make a lot more than you'll need for just one plant in a small pot.

depending on the type of rocks used I'd remove them all together, as you don't want minerals to leech into your growing medium. if you have a problem with your soil medium falling out the bottom a little cutout of landscape fabric should fix that up for you and still allow proper drainage no problem.

both our local lowes and home depot had at least one type of peat moss that was suitable but will vary by area for sure! we ended up settling with the besgrow new zealand LFSM. to give an idea the comparison of growing medium:

http://www.flytrapcare.com/store/growin ... agnum-moss

that is what I'm referring to above looks like once hydrated.

the flytraps will be fine in 60's or even lower, as long as the plant is not freezing I'd leave it be. we live in the country in NC bugs are a part of life out here, bugs can be managed if pests that will hurt the plant come knocking - otherwise the plant will just not grow well from changing humidity/temperature so rapidly daily and most likely die.

at this point the plant already looked to not be settled, replanting into better conditions and keeping it in better conditions (ie: not indoors/outdoors daily) it will be getting the sunlight, water and conditions to help it start recovering.

Mosser Lee is a very very poor quality medium to grow in (in the main questions forum search the forum for "mosser lee" I'd definitely recommend something better for your plant(s)

So the Mosser lee long fiber spag is really ugly and its dry as all hell. I used the same stuff when i repotted mine. What i ended up doing was cutting that stuff into pieces and adding it to my pot and rinsed all that moss with distilled water. I used about 2 gallons of distilled water to make sure it was clean.. again that stuff is really ugly but its dead that moss isent coming back to life. Im new myself so its ironic im giving advice. But seriously a month ago i was in your same shoes.

Just set it where ever it is you want it and keep it there. Give it a couple weeks and before you know it, itll be growing. These guys on the forum know there stuff. Take what you can and apply. Ull see results fast.

Ratfus wrote:During the day, I put the plant outside. At night, I take the plant indoors.

There's your problem! Your stressing the plant out. They like to stay outside from hot days to cold nights!

It can handle the natural temp drops outside when the sun drops and temp too. But your shocking it, swapping from natural outside to inside environment with weak lighting. That will give you And I a cold.

Get pesticide for the bugs

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Ok, I purchased the new Zealand long fiber-ed sphagnum moss from Amazon. So I should wet the hell outa it to get it to expand, remove the rocks from the bottom of the pot, then plant my trap in the new peat moss?

The live stuff (peat moss) the plant has come with has already started to expand, into the mosor lee stuff. Thanks for the help guys.

Wet the heck out of the New Zealand moss, un-pot the plant, clean its roots completely, remove everything from the pot, and plant the flytrap in pure New Zealand moss. Don't pack the moss in, and be sure it's fully soaked before you pot the plant. Keep it moist but not wet, and it'll recover well.

Thanks, that new stuff is a lot more full than the Mosey Lee crap, which didn't really even keep the plant in place.

I soaked the the plant in some water for a bit, dumped the old dirty water that I put the plant in, then repeated. I didn't want to get too aggressive with removing dirt near the plants root as that may damage the root.

I cleaned the pot of the old mosey lee/sand/rock mixture and used just new Zealand sphagnum moss, which seems to hold water better.

My suspicion is that the Home Depot sand was the culprit of leaching minerals into the roots. I don't think the 3-4 rocks at the bottom of the pot had enough surface area to cause harm; additionally, they were smooth. Regardless, I took all that crap out. We'll see what happens.