FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

In the last couple of hours (maybe the last 12) my venus flytrap has started to wilt uncontrollably. It had around four new/baby traps but now the stems are all floppy and in the last two hours my the tallest and strongest of the stems has bent all the way so the trap is touching the peat moss.

I've had it for several months and haven't changed the pot at all although I have been meaning to get around to it b/c it is rather small. I've had it under a flourescent light for a few hours, thinking maybe I wasn't giving it enough light. After reading a few discussions I now have a new theory that I've been giving it the wrong water b/c I gave it tap water last time (first time for tap water).

Any suggestions?

On another note I heard somewhere that you might be able to make regular soil more acidic using a few drops of lemon juice, is this true?

Hello and welcome to Flytrapcare!

Tap water is bad! I'd flush that pot out with distilled water and make sure your using pure water (Distilled, RO or rainwater) Since your using artificial light also make sure it's the right one with a high output and over 6500K color temp. Give them 15-16 hours of light.

All you can do now is give them ideal conditions for them to recover.

How often have you been watering the plant? How wet has the medium been kept, and how much sunlight does the plant receive? A photo would help everyone to diagnose the situation and give you more helpful comments and suggestions.

Best wishes--

Also, if you only used tap water once, then you should be alright if you don't use it again. Also, do you have any sphagnum or perlite in your mixture, because it also sounds like you could be possibly waterlogging it.