FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just mentioned this recently in another thread, so I thought I'd show an example of what I was talking about. This past spring, a friend of mine showed an interest in growing a VFT for the very first time and asked if I had any "babies" I could donate. I didn't want to disturb any of mine yet, so I "rescued" a five-dollar typical from Lowe's and transplanted it into another pot to try to get it ready for her.

Well, as it turns out, this was one of those times when a newly transplanted VFT rhizome seems to almost disintegrate, splitting itself apart into several teeny tiny plantlets instead of just continuing to grow at its regular size. It's been in this pot for about five months now, and this is still all I have to show. If I decide to even keep this at all, I'd have to carefully separate them and space them apart next spring, then try to hand-feed them fruit flies for at least a year or two before they'd be big enough to start catching anything on their own.

It's really quite maddening!

My typical did that this spring after I cut the flower stalks off. The big traps got old, turned black, and died off and it sent up a dozen small divisions in one solid clump to replace them. It looks healthy and loves to eat ants but I want my big traps back.

I know the feeling, Jack! It's always so disappointing to me when this happens. I've experienced it with several different cultivars, but the Fine Tooth x Red is the only one that's ever really bounced back and produced a pot full of several big plants. All the others are still struggling, even years later.

Pure speculation... I wonder if it has anything to do with them being tissue cultured? Maybe in vitro they were ready to do this division but were shipped first? Then when they have proper conditions they finish dividing? No idea!

I'm not sure how the plants at Lowe's are produced, but it seems to me like it has something to do with either the size and health of the rhizome, or with it getting stressed from transplantation. I've never had it happen after cutting off a flower stalk like Jack said, but that seems like it could be a big game-changer too. We may never know for sure, unless Matt can explain it...

Those are super tiny indeed! Now i can really put it all together after being apart of the other thread and then seeing a pic on this one. I am not really sure why that would really happen though. You would think with full sun and food they would produce big traps again.

Whenever I have uprooted VFT's that have undergone this change, the original rhizome that I planted in the first place is nowhere to be found anymore. It just looks like it has split itself apart into much smaller versions where there's just a tiny patch of white tissue between the leaves and the roots. Eventually, with enough TLC, they'll grow into full-size plants, but it's agonizingly slow, as if it takes them forever to get over whatever shock caused this to happen. I've been growing VFT's for about five years now and I still can't figure it out, and it's always very discouraging whenever I see it happening.

It's almost like it reset itself back to the seedling stage. It is hard to imagine stress from planting would cause such a thing to happen. I sure hope Matt will come along with some answers because i sure would like to know the why as well.

Leo756 wrote:I've been growing VFT's for about five years now and I still can't figure it out, and it's always very discouraging whenever I see it happening.

BrandonH wrote:It's almost like it reset itself back to the seedling stage. It is hard to imagine stress from planting would cause such a thing to happen. I sure hope Matt will come along with some answers because i sure would like to know the why as well.

This happens from time to time for various reasons. Typically when we see it, it's due to the plant getting sick from crown rot. However, it also sometimes happens when we allow plants to flower. Flowering seems to sometimes be the end of the life cycle for flytraps, as the main bulb can die and multiple smaller plants will grow from different sides of the dying bulb.

I've had this happen with one of my experimental fly traps right after the pot dried out a little to much.

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Thanks, Matt. It certainly can't be from flowering in my case because I have never let any of my plants bloom at all. I'm not interested in cross pollinating or growing from seed, so after reading how much it weakens the plant, I always make sure I cut the bloom stalks off when they're about an inch tall.

The clumping effect has always happened for me when I've just gotten the plant and put it in a different pot, so I figured it must have been from transplant shock. I'm always very careful while transplanting though, so it's just more proof to me of how "touchy" flytraps are!

I was going to say a similar thing to Matt. It seems to happen when a flytrap senses impending doom either from a setback or flowering. It's like its central growth regulation has shutdown or died, but parts of the tissue are still viable and sprout new growth points like a leaf pulling.

Feeding them, as you suggest will probably help. I feel ya on the repotting...see my "crazy divisions" post from a couple days ago.

Same thing is happening with my vfts. I think it's because they had a scale infestation that may have triggered the dividing.

This makes me not want to repot them next season lol

BrandonH wrote:This makes me not want to repot them next season lol

I know what you mean. I know the conventional advice always says you should repot VFT's every year or two, but to be honest, mine have been doing a LOT better since I've left them alone and stopped fussing with them so much. I think it's been about three years now, and only one pot is getting really crowded with new growth coming up pressed right against the side of the pot, but that's the only one I'll be willing to disturb yet.