FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,

I got a seedling that refuses to grow and only see some strange rhizome with tiny green points just becoming bigger, it is 10 months old and those 2 traps are the only ones that had since sowing.

What do you guys think?

Brighter images

Sometimes flytraps make a burst of growth at the rhizome level that never turns into leaves or traps. I've not seen a baby flytrap do it, but I suppose it could. It looks very much alive still, so it hopefully it will grow out of it.

This is unrelated but do you find growing VFTs in live sphagnum to work out well? I've been growing my own moss recently but I've been using it for neps and utrics. I used dead sphagnum because I was worried the moss would take over since they grow so slowly.

Apollyon wrote:This is unrelated but do you find growing VFTs in live sphagnum to work out well?

I was wondering the same thing. I've always heard that the live sphagnum will overtake flytraps, but I'm not sure it would grow quite that fast and it seems like it would be easy to keep it at bay with minimal pruning. And live sphagnum is by far the most "clean" in terms of antibacterial properties, so I'd speculate that flytraps would grow quite well in it. Though, I've not tried it myself!

Matt wrote:

Apollyon wrote:This is unrelated but do you find growing VFTs in live sphagnum to work out well?

I was wondering the same thing. I've always heard that the live sphagnum will overtake flytraps, but I'm not sure it would grow quite that fast and it seems like it would be easy to keep it at bay with minimal pruning. And live sphagnum is by far the most "clean" in terms of antibacterial properties, so I'd speculate that flytraps would grow quite well in it. Though, I've not tried it myself!

Yeah, that's what made me wonder about it. I've heard it's one of the best substrates for CPs. What I think may work out too is if it's chopped up fine, it'd take a long time to "reestablish" itself and grow new heads. I used live sphagnum on a rescue drosera that was attacked by fungus and chopped it up very fine for that purpose, to keep the plant in healthier and damp conditions.

I use fertilizers on my moss too so I honestly can't say how fast the moss grows on its own. For me in high humidity with a lot of nutrients, it has been growing fast. Doubled my supply in a few months. I was able to get some moss locally that could tolerate full sun here but unless the stuff stays damp in a tray, it'd likely dry out in the sun.

Apollyon wrote:I use fertilizers on my moss too so I honestly can't say how fast the moss grows on its own.

I need to start fertilizing ours. What is your preferred fertilizer?

Matt wrote: What is your preferred fertilizer?

I just use Maxsea 16-16-16 when I'm spraying my Drosera and Neps. They don't like a lot of it though. I have a chamber where I made the bed of my highland Neps tray sphagnum moss (separated by eggcrate). I just spray it when I do them. Once every couple of weeks or so. Too much and the heads start browning. I do half strength. I'm sure your dyna gro would work well with it though; moss isn't as particular as CPs

Got it, thanks Apollyon!

Something finally growing but looks without any traps, just like leaves.