FlyTrapCare Forums

Hi everyone, I'm new to carniverous plants and I'd like some advice. I picked up a death cube VFT (without knowing they were referred to as that! :') ) on Sunday (05/08), and I've been following advice like acclimatizing to sunlight gradually and only using distilled water (I'm watering from the bottom), but I was wondering how soon I should repot the plant?

I have some carniveous plant soil (peat moss and perlite mix) and a plastic pot (4 in diameter and 5-6 in deep) ready, but I don't know how soon I should repot it? Should I be repotting it ASAP? Or should I wait a bit longer for the plant to get used to its current conditions first.

Also, this may seem like a very silly question, but for the tray at the bottom, for this bigger pot, I am just thinking of using a plastic lid from some take-out I ordered that is just the right kind of shape and depth. Because it is still plastic, is this safe to use as a tray for the pot to sit in?

I've attached pics of my little dude and the potential new setup when I repot him.

Any advice would be awesome.

Thank you so much!

Also, one last question. After repotting, do I need to be careful about how much sunlight the plant gets? At present the plant is indoors and just getting sun by the window. Should I keep it that way after repotting while I continue to acclimatize it to getting some actual sun?
Thanks again!

I'm a Drosera guy, not a FlyTrap expert so I'll just point you to Matt's care and feeding pages here:
http://www.flytrapcare.com

(Matt is an expert as well as being the Admin of this Forum)

He does have a section on potting and repotting here:
https://www.flytrapcare.com/potting-venus-flytraps/

Thank you!

Ani wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 8:49 pm I have some carniveous plant soil (peat moss and perlite mix) and a plastic pot (4 in diameter and 5-6 in deep) ready, but I don't know how soon I should repot it? Should I be repotting it ASAP? Or should I wait a bit longer for the plant to get used to its current conditions first.

I like to give them a couple weeks to get settled in, unless the current soil is absolute garbage; then I go ahead and repot immediately.

Ani wrote: Also, this may seem like a very silly question, but for the tray at the bottom, for this bigger pot, I am just thinking of using a plastic lid from some take-out I ordered that is just the right kind of shape and depth. Because it is still plastic, is this safe to use as a tray for the pot to sit in?

As long as it's clean, I don't see a problem with this. I use leftover take-out containers as water bowls all the time.

Ani wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 9:39 pm After repotting, do I need to be careful about how much sunlight the plant gets? At present the plant is indoors and just getting sun by the window. Should I keep it that way after repotting while I continue to acclimatize it to getting some actual sun?

I give my plants reduced light for the first week after repotting. After that, I acclimate them back to their previous lighting level over the next two weeks.

Thank you so much for the detailed response! Much appreciated!

I am so sorry to bother you again, Mike. I was just thinking about what you wrote in your response and I was wondering, based on my photos, does the current medium look "garbage" at all? I did notice the top part of the sphagnum moss where it is wrapped around the rhizome looks green and a bit solid. Is this a bad thing?

Or do you think I should still wait a few weeks before repotting?

Many thanks for your time and patience!

I like to give them a couple weeks to get settled in, unless the current soil is absolute garbage; then I go ahead and repot immediately.

No, sphagnum moss is a great medium for VFTs. The green is algae or moss building up which happens a lot more frequently indoors with constant moisture. A lot of that is going to come from tray watering with sphagnum moss. If it is algae, the media will probably dry most of that out on its own outside unless the media stays saturated.

Thanks for the response. Sadly, it's an indoor plant until we have a place to sit it outside, and I have been using the tray watering method. Is the algae / moss detrimental in any way? I was just trying to follow the advice of waiting a few weeks before repotting (I have a peat moss and perlite mix at the ready), but if the algae / moss is harmful in any way, I would repot sooner.

Ani wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 7:50 pm I am so sorry to bother you again, Mike. I was just thinking about what you wrote in your response and I was wondering, based on my photos, does the current medium look "garbage" at all?

What I consider to be "garbage" is straight peat moss. When that stuff gets wet, it's dense like a slab of cheesecake. A 50/50 mix with perlite or coarse sand really loosens up the soil and allows more oxygen to get through. I actually use a 60/20/20 mix as my basic carnivorous plant soil: 3 parts peat moss, 1 part perlite, 1 part coarse sand.

When straight peat moss gets dry (all too common in the stores), it's a royal pain to get wet again. You can water it repeatedly until the soil looks wet, then dig down an inch to discover that it's bone-dry on the inside. You have to soak the pot for hours in water up to the soil level before it's finally damp all the way through.

Ani wrote: I did notice the top part of the sphagnum moss where it is wrapped around the rhizome looks green and a bit solid. Is this a bad thing?

Like Apollyon said, that's just algae taking advantage of the damp sphagnum moss. Flytraps like growing in sphagnum because it sucks up water like a sponge but still stays loose and "springy". I don't do sphagnum moss with most of my plants because I have so many of them and it would be too costly.

Something I do when I'm starting my pepper and tomato seedlings in the early spring is to run a small 5-inch diameter fan to move the air around the seedlings to help keep the air fresh around them. I also try to have a window open if it is warm enough so they can get fresh air. Remember not to keep the plants too wet. This little moisture meter is something I've been using to judge the moisture in my plants. I used one for years with my houseplants and recently bought a couple more as my old one was failing (after probably 20 years!). They're really basic meters but consistent. They'll let you know instantly if the growing medium is wet, just right, or needing some water. I ordered mine off eBay but it looks like the seller is offline. They run around $10 each. Seems lots of vendors print their names on this generic meter and sell them. They're really all identical. Here's a link to one on Amazon: Moisture Meter I don't know if it'll help you with watering but it's helped me. I usually bottom water until the pot won't take anymore water....I'll pour about a half inch in saucer and let the peat soak it up, add a little bit more, let it soak it up, etc., decreasing the amount that I add each time until it won't take any more. The water left in the saucer is minimal and the (6-inch) pot is good to go for a couple of days. The small death cube pots only get maybe a 1/4" of water to start with... It might take 5-10 minutes to water the big pot and the small ones. This is just the way I'm doing right now...I'm sure I'll probably change my process as I learn more but this way I know I've got them moist enough but not too wet standing in water. The meter lets me know quick if I need to be watering them or to let them go another day. Just some of my thoughts. Best wishes.

Thank you so much for all the replies! Ok, I will wait a few more weeks and then repot the little guy.
I just have another question about the medium I have awaiting for repotting. So, surprise surprise, what I ordered off Amazon doesn't quite look like the picture. I ordered this mix because I found a link to it on some site and it was recommended:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07T85C17V? ... ct_details

It was advertised looking like this:


It arrived looking like this:


Based on how it actually looks, does this look like a decent mix? It's supposed to be 50% peat moss and 50% perlite, but it looks mostly peat moss to me, but I don't know enough about mediums to really make a good judgement.

I don't have space or room to buy and store huge bags to make my own mix, so pre-mixed is my only option. Does this look like it will do for now?

I also had it suggested to me by someone that I should just take my plant in its current sphagnum medium and when it comes to repotting it, just put it straight into the new pot in its current medium and just fill the gaps under and on the sides with the new soil - all to reduce stress. I guess while that does seem easier than having to untangle the moss and possibly hurt the roots, it seems like the whole point of repotting is to change into fresh medium as well as a bigger space. Has anyone ever done what was suggested to me before?

Thank you again for all your time and patience, everyone!

How it arrived looking ( the medium ) for if the pic I tried to embed doesn't load: https://picbun.com/p/t4TAOJl1

and what it was supposed to look like: https://picbun.com/p/iRrO8DHT

That soil looks fine. The only time you want to do slip potting, that is when you slip the media out of one pot and fill in it around another, is when you know the media is good and you just need another pot. If the soil is at all old you need to completely replace the soil.

Ani wrote: ↑Sun May 15, 2022 3:04 pm How it arrived looking ( the medium ) for if the pic I tried to embed doesn't load: https://picbun.com/p/t4TAOJl1

and what it was supposed to look like: https://picbun.com/p/iRrO8DHT

I ordered the same mix. It seems ok to me, but that's looking through my newbie eyes. There is definitely perlite in it...whether 50:50 I have no way really of knowing. I re-potted two Walmart rescues, one for my granddaughter and one for myself. It seems to both hold moisture but drain well. They were re-potted nine days ago and they appear to not be dying. One thing I did *not* do is rinse the mix before filling the pot, which I wish I had...but, I'll top water a few times and it should be ok. Right now we're getting a good rain that is doing a good job of top watering!!!

What I did was I put a bit more than would fit in my pot (roughly 6" diameter x 5.5" tall) into a gallon zip lock bag and added a bit of water to it, closed the bag while squeezing the air out of it. I then kneaded it like bread to work the water into the peat moss. This help contain the dust. I checked it for moistness, added more water if it was still "dry'ish" and kneaded it some more...repeating this procedure until I found the mix was good and moist. I packed the first inch down good in the pot and then finished filling the pot up with a lighter firmness. The descriptions that I've read give the description of "brownie consistency" for the bottom layer and "moist cake consistency" for the rest (top portion) of the the fill. The firm mix at the bottom helps to wick water from the tray and into the rest of the mix. I'm not sure the firmer mix in the bottom actually does that much more wicking that just regular packed mix or not...I do know that a SWC that I built for some tomato plants is working great, though, and it uses packed mix for the wick.