FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi
I recently bought my first Venus flytrap. I've always admired these, but I don't know what I'm doing, I've never cared for a plant before and I had no idea this would be so difficult. I've only had it for a week and it's already dying. Please, if anybody can tell me how to save it, I would be very grateful.

Last week I went to Pennsylvania and saw somebody selling fruits and plants in an outdoor stall, including Venus flytraps. When I bought it the VFT was bright green and had twelve adult traps, with a new one sprouting. During my stay at the resort (cabin surrounded by trees, bright sunlight at noon) I kept the plant in the pot I had bought it in -- dark green plastic, very small with drainage holes -- and kept that pot inside a small plastic bag filled with tap water that I would change every day. I could tell the plant's health was declining a bit. Its color became a bit dull, but it was catching some flies, some of the traps were still open, and the new trap continued to sprout.

Back in NY, I left it outside for a day in the same pot. Its health wasn't getting any better, so I searched the Internet a bit, planted it in a styrofoam cup with sphagnum peat moss two days ago (no drainage holes), watered it with distilled water, and placed it under a fluorescent desk lamp for a few hours. The next morning half of the traps turned black and the new one started developing black spots -- even though it was otherwise bright green and healthy-looking -- so I cut them off. I thought it might have sunburn, so I watered it again and left it outside in a slightly shaded area, hoping it would get better. It's only gotten worse; the plant looks very dull and dry, and one of the six remaining traps is starting to blacken.

The thought of me killing this amazing plant is heartbreaking. Is there any way I can save it?

First picture has more accurate color, second has more detail. Sorry if this is inconvenient, I don't have good cameras

you used tap water. it kills it..
if you changed to destilled water and changed the soild and started givving it more light all ou are left to do is wait and hope for the best...
i would buy some sulphur powder and mix it with some water and spray on top.. never hurts...

I have a sulphur-based fungicide, would that be okay? Where does one get sulphur powder?

Can you give us the brand name?
Sulfur powder can be bought at pharmacies (at least here in the Netherlands)

Natria Rose and Flower, I'm looking at the label now and it's actually only 1% sulphur

Personally I'd Say repot the plant quickly into the correct soil and hope for the best as mineral burn can destroy the plant entirely

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Don't beat yourself up so much. We've probably all killed at least one flytrap at some point. It's a learning process. If I were you, I would uproot the plant again since you said your new pot doesn't have any drainage holes. Drainage is *very* important because staying too wet will cause it to rot. Since it's been watered with tap water, I'd submerge the whole plant (leaves, roots and all) and let it soak in some pure distilled water for at least an hour to help dilute any minerals it may have picked up from the tap water. If the rhizome (bulb) is still white, I'd repot it just below the surface in pure peat moss and perlite (or silica sand) in a pot that *does* have drainage holes. Then water it with distilled water from the top until the water runs out the bottom and discard the water, another way of flushing out any dissolved mineral solids. Don't expose it to any really hot sunlight right away since it's already so stressed. Keep it in a warm but shaded area outdoors if possible until any new growth starts to appear at the center, then gradually move it so it receives more and more sunlight until it's fully acclimated to hot sunshine and always keep the soil moist but not too soaking wet. Good luck and keep us posted.

Thank you for the advice, and that makes me feel a bit less guilty, thank you. If this one ends up dying, I'll try again, maybe ask a friend for advice, he's got all kinds of plants growing around his house.

I've put the whole plant in distilled water, discarded the old moss, put some holes at the bottom of a styrofoam cup, and put in new medium. I have some water distilling now, as soon as I have enough and it's cooled down, I'll repot. Peat moss wasn't a problem, but the only perlite I could find around here was MiracleGro brand, which I heard always has some sort of plant growers / chemicals. Would that be safe to use?

No miracle grow items ever it's poison

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The Miracle-Gro company adds fertilizers to *all* their products, so no, you shouldn't use it. That would kill it even faster than tap water. Just plain peat moss would be okay to use, but perlite or silica sand helps with the drainage so it doesn't stay too sopping wet. Peat moss is also hydrophobic, meaning it doesn't absorb water very well at first and will puff into dust when completely dry, so you need to mix it up really well with distilled water before potting anything in it.

Also curious how you're distilling your own water. That's usually more trouble than it's worth since a whole gallon of distilled water is only 88 cents at Walmart. If you're just boiling the water, that's definitely *not* the same as distilling. Distillation means collecting only the steam from boiling water so it's just *all* water molecules and any minerals and dissolved solids get left behind. Just boiling tap water and letting it cool only evaporates some of the water, which actually *increases* the ratio and concentration of dissolved solids in the remaining water.

All right

I fill a large pot with water, put a bowl inside the pot, put a lid on the pot, and turn on the flame. I was trying to be frugal, bu it takes forever to get a decent amount, so I think I'll just buy some tomorrow.

If I were you, I would write this one off as a loss, and just purchase a new, healthy flytrap, preferably at the Flytrapstore. Judging from the looks of your plant, if it recovers at all, it's going to be a long time before it has healthy traps forming again.

Also, your plant is not for sure yet, my mom was to lazy to take me to the store so i used tap water (mine is 450 ppm) to water my plants for the last few days. ALl you need to do is flush out the medium well, i would not have repooted, just flushed. I only ose plants during the growing season when i repot.

Also mircale grow is not nessisarly poisin, i reppoted my whole collection in it this year. I lost no plants in it. I lost my plants after i repotted them from the mircale grow to spagnum. After that i moved them to peat/sand mix, and then they started dropping.

Goodkoalie wrote:Also mircale grow is not nessisarly poisin, i reppoted my whole collection in it this year. I lost no plants in it. I lost my plants after i repotted them from the mircale grow to spagnum. After that i moved them to peat/sand mix, and then they started dropping.

I'm sorry, but I'd rather not take the risk, I think just the peat would be more natural anyway.

sbrooks wrote:If I were you, I would write this one off as a loss, and just purchase a new, healthy flytrap, preferably at the Flytrapstore. Judging from the looks of your plant, if it recovers at all, it's going to be a long time before it has healthy traps forming again.

Yeah, I don't think this one'll be saved. I just looked at this morning, had to cut off another trap, it looks like another one's starting to shrivel up completely, I'll check that store out. At least next time I'll know what not to do. Thank you guys for all your help.