FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

The trouble with those rocks as that even if you thoroughly wash and rinse them, some of them may still slowly dissolve as time passes, and believe it or not, what might seem like a slow process and not much soluble minerals from the process can actually be enough to poison and kill the plants in time.

If the rocks are all quartz, that would be fine, but if they include sandstone, limestone, many kinds of conglomerate rock, marble, etc., they are relatively soft and will slowly dissolve.

Steve:

I see. It seems impossible chemically, but IRL it can happen as it can be seen.
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I've made the soil mix with styrofoam. We have plenty of it! I tried to keep the 50-50%, but I rather counted on my eyes.
And my other idea: what if I empty the terrarium, fill the bottom of it with water (but it doesn't get to the plants) and put the pots in it? Their soil woldn't get soaked and cause rot, but they could get high air humidity (especially the droseras and the pingiucula loved it in the terr.).

heres a solution for your excess soil:

i always mix up more than i need so i have some on hand, just incase.

after mixing i put the excess mix in a "green shopper" bag, tie the handle up and leave it in a dry spot.
air can flow through so it'll dry out but it wont go mouldy and theyre real cheap storage. untie the handle when you need some.

Thank you for the tip, I'll take it if there is a chance.

Hello!

I've just managed to get a new VFT in the previous days you could see a photo of it in another topic…
Since he is at me, 4 leaves have got black and the traps darkened,too, I guess these are going to dry away, but is it normal? I repotted him, but I don't think either a shock or a natural drying could have so much radical symptoms. He was grown in a greenhouse, and now he gets full sunlight for many hours, can it be the problem that i didn't introduce him slowly? Or what else can destroy my darling?

The fourth leaf can't be seen, I just marked him to let you know.

It looks good to me Xterms.
Old leaves will die off after repotting, aslong as the others are continuing their growth it will be fine.

It shouldnt take too long to get acclimatised to full sunlight. I have put plants straight into bright sunlight before without any acclimatisation and they were fine but it is best to just give it a bit more and more each day for a couple of weeks or whatever is suitible for you.

Just wondering what you have used in your peat mix though? is that foam?

Good luck with your plants

I've noticed that even if you slowly introduce the plants to full sunlight, they'll lose older leaves that seem to be less able to adapt to the UV rays and prevent themselves from being burned.

Your plant looks healthy and the traps that are dying appear to be older traps. I wouldn't worry at all if that were my plant

Xterms wrote:Since he is at me, 4 leaves have got black and the traps darkened,too

As others have said, don't worry. Those are old leaves. It doesn't matter if the traps or entire leaves turn black. The new growth is what is important.

Venus Flytraps will often allow a few leaves to die when they are transplanted. It takes a short while for their roots to become comfortable in the new medium, and until the roots are able to supply enough water to lots of leaves again, it is easier on the plant to lose a few of its older leaves. That way it can support the more important new and emerging leaves.

So don't worry. The styrofoam in the mix will help the medium dry faster, because you have displaced a lot of the sphagnum peat moss with the styrofoam. That's good, especially if you grow the plant indoors where it might otherwise dry out too slowly and therefore be susceptible to rot. Give it plenty of sunlight, but be gentle with the plant for a few weeks and introduce it to more and more sunlight gradually.

Good luck--

From what it looks like, is that you didnt introduce the VFT to sunlight slowly "known as acclimation". With that, it looks like burn. Dont worry though, just make sure you keep the soil moist... It will in time grow new traps that will be stronger and have the adaptation to handle the suns harmful UV rays.

Thank you, guys for the advices, good wishes and opinions, I can't tell how much you helped!

PatsPlants wrote:Just wondering what you have used in your peat mix though? is that foam?

Yes, there are several polystyrene boards left from the doing up, so I grabbed a grater and started to fabricate my own mix component. I do have a pack of perlite, as well, but I'd like to store it for tougher times.

Matt wrote:I wouldn't worry at all if that were my plant

If it was your plant, it would already have 128 developed traps.

Steve_D wrote: So don't worry. The styrofoam in the mix will help the medium dry faster, because you have displaced a lot of the sphagnum peat moss with the styrofoam. That's good, especially if you grow the plant indoors where it might otherwise dry out too slowly and therefore be susceptible to rot. Give it plenty of sunlight, but be gentle with the plant for a few weeks and introduce it to more and more sunlight gradually.

Yes, he's grown indoors, and I'm glad you like the mix and I took your advice well.

Ae9803 wrote:With that, it looks like burn. Dont worry though, just make sure you keep the soil moist...

It's natural. And I'll give him some suntan lotion for sure.

Xterms wrote: And I'll give him some suntan lotion for sure.

it puts the lotion on its skin
or else it gets the hose again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDgS6qLsVM4

Hahaha silence of the lambs!

This has become from my beautiful plant…


I cut off 4-5 dead leaves, and more are dying! It gets 6 hour of direct light (with 30 minutes intervals in every 2-3 hours because of the acclimation process and to cool down the container), but I don't want to give him less light because then the leaves will get long and narrow which is ugly. It's growing 3 shoots that seems a good sign good to me, but I'm not sure I'm doing everything as I should.
I bet Matt wouldn't say now if it was his plant, he wouldn't worry about it.

Please help, I can't believe I've done this to a once nice plant.

Xterms wrote:I bet Matt wouldn't say now if it was his plant, he wouldn't worry about it.

Yes, I'd probably be a bit worried because it looks like the plant is suffering from some sort of mineral burn to me. What kind of soil is it potted in? What is the white stuff in the soil? What kind of water have you been using? Has it been exposed to anything other than sunlight and water?

Whatever the problem is, it doesn't appear to be sunburn.

Matt wrote:Yes, I'd probably be a bit worried because it looks like the plant is suffering from some sort of mineral burn to me. What kind of soil is it potted in? What is the white stuff in the soil? What kind of water have you been using? Has it been exposed to anything other than sunlight and water?
Whatever the problem is, it doesn't appear to be sunburn.

He's potted in 50% peat moss + 50% polystyrene foam. I use only rainwater and let the soil get moist. He hasn't been exposed to anything else. Since the days are hot and rich in sunlight, the soil has to be watered daily, which is done by me, as well.
What can this be?