FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

There's definitely something affecting your plant and it certainly looks like mineral or chemical burn. I'd be suspicious of the soil first, the water second (how are you gathering the rain water?) and then other things that might have come into play like insecticides being sprayed nearby, accidental watering wit tap water, etc.

Matt wrote:There's definitely something affecting your plant and it certainly looks like mineral or chemical burn. I'd be suspicious of the soil first, the water second (how are you gathering the rain water?) and then other things that might have come into play like insecticides being sprayed nearby, accidental watering wit tap water, etc.

I've potted him into this soil 3 weeks ago, it was from original package and no other plants seem to be sick, so this is out.
I'm collecting it via a drainpipe, it is usually dirty but is bottled with filtering through a piece of cloth, it is cleanly stored. If I have to avoid it, I can't water my plants at the moment since not deionized, distilled water can be found nowhere nearby and RO water is even more rare. And, the previous grower watered him with rainwater gathered in a well, and he was beautiful when I got him (images on the prev. page above). This is out, too.
My mother usually sprays fertilizer on her orchids, although the orchids are next to my plants during nights (I keep them in the garden during the day), the fertilizing takes place in the bathroom. Out.
So, I'm puzzled. What to do now?

Xterms wrote:I've potted him into this soil 3 weeks ago, it was from original package and no other plants seem to be sick, so this is out.

What other kind of plants have you potted in it? Other Venus fly traps? Even so, different plants are affected at different rates by minerals in the soil or water. I wouldn't be so quick to rule this out. I'd take the soil, run distilled water though it and then measure the TDS of the water leaching out of the soil. It could be that the soil was washed with tap water, ocean water or some other sort of water high in minerals before being packaged.

Xterms wrote:I'm collecting it via a drainpipe, it is usually dirty but is bottled with filtering through a piece of cloth, it is cleanly stored. If I have to avoid it, I can't water my plants at the moment since not deionized, distilled water can be found nowhere nearby and RO water is even more rare. And, the previous grower watered him with rainwater gathered in a well, and he was beautiful when I got him (images on the prev. page above). This is out, too.

Just because it's rain water and collected and filtered through a cloth doesn't mean it's mineral free. Have you taken a TDS measurement of the water you've been using? If not, you can't really rule it out either.

Something else to consider is how hot you've let the soil get. The thing that's most concerning to me in the photo is the new leaf that's blackening before even opening. That's a bad sign. My guess is that it's either mineral burn, the plant is being kept too wet or that the rhizome got too hot. I notice that the plant is in a non-insulated pot that's dark in color. In direct sunlight, the soil can get very warm in those pots.

Matt wrote:What other kind of plants have you potted in it? Other Venus fly traps? Even so, different plants are affected at different rates by minerals in the soil or water. I wouldn't be so quick to rule this out. I'd take the soil, run distilled water though it and then measure the TDS of the water leaching out of the soil. It could be that the soil was washed with tap water, ocean water or some other sort of water high in minerals before being packaged.

At the moment I can't afford to buy a TDS meter for 14000 Ft (65 $). And there are 2 VFT-s, 2 Sarracenias, 2 Droseras, a Butterwort and a Nepenthes potted in the soil from the same pack. None of 'em seems to be hurt.

Matt wrote:Just because it's rain water and collected and filtered through a cloth doesn't mean it's mineral free. Have you taken a TDS measurement of the water you've been using? If not, you can't really rule it out either.

Because of the mentioned reasons, no, I haven't measured it. But it's the only way to water now.

Matt wrote:Something else to consider is how hot you've let the soil get. The thing that's most concerning to me in the photo is the new leaf that's blackening before even opening. That's a bad sign. My guess is that it's either mineral burn, the plant is being kept too wet or that the rhizome got too hot. I notice that the plant is in a non-insulated pot that's dark in color. In direct sunlight, the soil can get very warm in those pots.

Yes I know, but there's one thing that has to be mentioned: the radical blackening occured during the week when I wasn't at home and the plants were on the windowsill indoors, so they couldn't get hot. My mother watered the plants, and I administered the process every day on phone (to make sure not drying out or something like that caused this).
That's all I know, master.

Xterms wrote:At the moment I can't afford to buy a TDS meter for 14000 Ft (65 $).

TDS meters can be found for $10 to $15. I think that anyone that has more than a couple of plants should have one. They're exceptionally useful.

Well, from the information you've given, I can't say that I can venture any more guesses. If I were to see that plant and you didn't give me any information to rule anything out, I'd say with about 90% confidence that it's either bad water or bad soil that's causing what looks like mineral burn. The other 10% of my guess would be that it got too hot or that there was some freak accident like fertilizer or herbicide over spray.

To my knowledge, there are only a few things that cause burning like that on a flytrap if it's otherwise properly cared for (i.e. you didn't stick it in the microwave or feed it hamburger) and I've already listed them here.

I suppose the proper way to proceed now is to thoroughly flush the soil with distilled water a few times over the next few days and then return to caring for it as you normally would if it were healthy. If it continues to decline over the next week or two, I'd probably repot it.

Matt wrote:

Xterms wrote:At the moment I can't afford to buy a TDS meter for 14000 Ft (65 $).

TDS meters can be found for $10 to $15. I think that anyone that has more than a couple of plants should have one. They're exceptionally useful.
…

Man, I'm not joking:
http://www.waterfiltersonline.com/water-tests.asp this is really not 65 buck, bot 10, as well.
http://www.laboreszkozok.hu/vmchk/M%C5% ... ZgodlwsVmg 50-55 $ each (and on all the other sites, even on auctions, too)

I've flushed the soil and will try to obtain distilled water tomorrow, wish me good luck! Deionized water doesn't fit the problem, does it?
And may I ask, how you water your plants? Since you have an enormous army of'em.

Check out eBay for some cheap ones, the ones your looking at are far too posh!

Also, repotting a baby flytrap has never been easy for me. Dont worry though, its been about 2 months till im starting to pick up again..

Good luck!

I dont know where your located, but take a look at this:

http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TDS-EZ ... 569&sr=8-3

Xterms, the growing medium looks too wet. Please let the medium dry between waterings until it is just moist (more dry than wet), unless the Venus Flytrap leaves dehydrate and wilt too much. Even then, allow them to wilt a little before watering again.

The polystyrene chunks are so large that there are big, soggy masses of dense sphagnum peat moss between them that are probably holding on to water too long. The next time you use polystyrene (styrofoam), you might want to try to cut it into much tinier pieces. And be sure to use at _least_ 50% by volume of the finely chopped styrofoam when mixing it with 50% or less sphagnum peat moss.

The plant does not look too bad, and some of the new growth looks good, but the plant will probably not survive long if it is kept too wet at this point. Less water, fresh air movement, and plenty of sunlight will very probably help, but the main thing (in my opinion) is to keep the growing medium less wet.

Good luck and best wishes,
Steve

fish30 wrote:Check out eBay for some cheap ones, the ones your looking at are far too posh!
Good luck!

Thanks! But eBay is far from Hungary.

fish30 wrote:Also, repotting a baby flytrap has never been easy for me. Dont worry though, its been about 2 months till im starting to pick up again..

I don't know what you mean.

Andrew wrote:I dont know where your located, but take a look at this:
…

In Hungary. Too far…

Steve_D wrote:Xterms, the growing medium looks too wet…

Because it'd been watered before taking the pic. Since he is outdoors all day long, the soil gets moist by every evening, so I have to water it daily, but I always wait until the upper layer seems to be near to dry.

Steve_D wrote:The polystyrene chunks are so large that there are big, soggy masses of dense sphagnum peat moss between them that are probably holding on to water too long. The next time you use polystyrene (styrofoam), you might want to try to cut it into much tinier pieces. And be sure to use at _least_ 50% by volume of the finely chopped styrofoam when mixing it with 50% or less sphagnum peat moss.

It's 50-50%, and man, I'm not a goldsmith. I've made it with a grater, so most of the pieces in the soil are smaller, the suface is decieving, I just added a bit more, larger grains.

Steve_D wrote:The plant does not look too bad, and some of the new growth looks good, but the plant will probably not survive long if it is kept too wet at this point. Less water, fresh air movement, and plenty of sunlight will very probably help, but the main thing (in my opinion) is to keep the growing medium less wet.

Yep, thank you! I'll try, but the soil gets very wet at watering, I can't avoid this.

And thanks for all your answers!

Hello again!

I noticed small purple-red patterns on my VFTs, mostly on the leaves of old, dying traps.

And also on a dying sarracenia trap, but maybe the two patterns don't have anything in common.


I've recently noticed small insects like fruit-flies around my plants, unfortunately I don't know their name in English, but HERE is an image from the net. I've been using Actara on the plants since then, 2g/l concentration, 3-4 days of usage intervals, all the plants have got only one dose heretofore.
I don't know if the insects caused this, I only shared this with you that if that happens, I'm already on the way to cure this. If not, then please help, what can cause such pattern.

Thank you!
Xterms

I wonder what "wet" means here at FTC because each time I bought a VFT from Matt and Leah, the NZLFSM seemed more than damp. I'm tray-watering those plants, too.

Whoa bill, u found a fossilized thread and managed to bring it back to live: by Xterms » Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:45 am