FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

hey i was just checking on my venus fly trap's and i noticed one was just about to open another trap and was all fully formed so i went to school looking forward to coming home to a healthy plant with another trap but when i did return and checked on the little fella my heart dropped all the way to australia as he heavily deteriorated in only 8 hours, i didn't have many recent photos of him besides one i took 2 weeks ago...any idea what happened?

the plant is getting 6 hours of direct sunlight and 2 hours of artificial light shortly after

I agree, the soil looks far too dry. In fact, it appears that it was never wetted thoroughly before the flytrap was planted in it.

i can ensure you that like my other plants i did wet the soil prior to planting them, my other plants which are under the same conditions are surviving fine but i will increase watering although it has been surviving fine for previous months on the same amount of water, but i will take all advice and hopefully get this little one back and running on all cylinders

the reason for the lack of water was because they came from a very hardy venus fly trap and i'd thought the divisions it produced would also be hardy although this one may have been the runt of the litter as it were but i have given it the water this one may need but the others seem to thrive without the high levels of water that my G16 thrives in so therefore i will try to keep them progressing as they were and help this little one

The leaves also show signs of dehydration. I'm notorious for under-watering my VFTs, probably because I heard so much about beginners over-watering when I started, so I've seen that look. I would give it a good soaking and then wait for it to get almost dry before watering again. How long were the roots when you planted it? Sometimes divisions have short roots, or no roots so you have to keep the soil wetter in order for them to reach the water because the top soil dries out first.

the roots were a couple of cm long which i thought was a decent size but i will try repotting him and making sure the soil is very wet and let him settle under artificial lights before introducing him to direct sunlight, whereas the others seem to have adopted their mothers hardiness so i will leave them be

i gave him more water and he has perked right up, hes now got strong leaves again thanks guys for the advice!

Good to hear that!

How are you watering it? that defo looks like a lack of water problem.

I sit mine is a couple of cms of water, it is getting through about a cup a week, remember the plant is now in it's growing period so watering is important.

And sorry if it is obvious but make sure the water is not tap or bottled water but rain or distilled.