FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

What is going on with my plant?! The edges of the leaves are turning black on an otherwise healthy VFT!

My healthy flytraps get that all the time. It's definitely nothing to worry about.

It usually happens if the flytrap is getting more light than it needs, and/or it's hotter than the flytrap would prefer. It's hard to give a flytrap too much or too intense sun unless you're above zone 8. An east-facing window will usually solve that problem (morning sun is better and won't burn the plant as readily as late afternoon/evening sun will).

Another common reason for this is if a flytrap is coming out of dormancy and makes a few leaves/traps, then the Spring weather suddenly gets much hotter for several days, the flytrap can't adapt fast enough and you get some burning. But this doesn't harm the plant either.

In fact, chances are if you do nothing, the burning you have in that photo is about as bad as it's going to get.

That's good info to know. Some of my leaves had the same kind of spots, which I figured was fungus, so I went out and purchased some fungicide to spray on them.

The leaves that are turning black on the edges look like the oldest leaves, which is common as they reach the end of their life. However, yellowing and browning of leaf margins could also indicate salt burn (too many dissolved minerals in the water or growing medium).

If you water only with pure distilled water (or rain water or reverse osmosis water) and your growing medium is a typical carnivorous plant medium with no additives (such as Miracle-Gro puts in their sphagnum peat and perlite), and you flush the medium by top watering occasionally and disposing of the drained water, then all should be fine.

What if you have a brand new tiny trap come up and then the edge of the trap turns black before it even opens for the first time? Is it likely that it was just sunburn?

It happens sometimes after dormancy on a couple of traps, or it can be the effect of overwatering if such traps keep developing

PaikuhanX wrote:What if you have a brand new tiny trap come up and then the edge of the trap turns black before it even opens for the first time? Is it likely that it was just sunburn?

Yes, that often happens when a Flytrap used to more humid conditions experiences hotter, dryer conditions, and it's nothing to worry about to much. Venus Flytraps will adjust to lower humidity and more sunlight, but occasionally a newly emerging trap tip will dry and darken.

It helps in the long run not to overwater the plants. When watered too much, Venus Flytraps can grow faster, but the leaves are thinner and weaker, more fragile and susceptible to such things as you mentioned. So it's a good idea to water thoroughly but conservatively, allowing the medium to dry substantially before watering again, unless the Flytrap wilts terribly, in which case the process of going from overwatering to conservative watering will have to occur more slowly, but is still a good idea, in my opinion.