FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello!

I've opened a new thread because the other one has its own owner, so I think it's better if I write my problems separately in this one.
My problem is that my VFT seems to be sick or unnormal. Its leaves are getting yellow, one of its traps hasn't opened though being full-grown, and it has only one nice trap. It has grown two shoots, but they stopped growing 3 days ago. I keep it in a terrarium, high humidity and always wet soil. It hasn't got much sunlight recently because of the rainy-cloudy weather, but before that it didn't seem well either. I also have another one in the terr. and it's growing so swiftly that I can't imagine that the conditions are improper. I bought them 2 weeks ago and they were moved in the terr. 1 week ago. I found some woodlouses in the soil, as well, but as I know, these don't hurt VFT-s.
Here is he, the photo had to undergo some Photoshop process for the colours to be made like in real, but I haven't managed to simulate the proper yellow shade.
Little adding: the trap got black so I had to cut it off.


Pleae tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Greetings from Hungary!

Xterms

Yellow is lack of light. He may also be too wet. Flytraps actually don't like to sit in water and they aren't good candidates for terrarium life. If I were you, I'd take them both out of the terrarium, set them under a flourescent light until the sun comes back out, and pot them in peat/sand mix with a tray underneath them. They like up to an inch or two of water in the tray, but only refill once it has completely evaporated from the tray.

Hello and welcome to FlytrapCare! Hungary, huh? I think you're the first Hungarian on the site. Your English is excellent, by the way

Xterms wrote:I keep it in a terrarium, high humidity and always wet soil.

That's the problem right there. It looks like your plant is struggling with root rot from being too wet all the time.

Terrariums make very poor homes for Venus fly traps. And contrary to what most people believe, Flytraps aren't bog plants. They grow in the savanna grassland with lots of grass and pine trees. The water table is fairly high, but they aren't sitting in water and the soil is only moist all the time, not wet.

I'd recommend moving the plant out of the terrarium and keeping the soil damp, not wet. Try letting it get just damp out before watering again.

Also, it looks like your plant is in pure peat moss. That is an acceptable growing medium, but flytraps do a bit better with sand or perlite in the soil to provide some aeration to their roots.

Hope this helps and good luck with the plant!

Hi!

Thank you both for your answers.
I just don't understand then why the other plant is fully healthy and growing so fast. Why doesn't he bother with these bad conditions in spite of what you said?
Moreover, I only wanted to copy the conditions of a greenhouse as the man I bougth them from kept them in a large greenhouse with high humidity and they were fine there.
Perlite-topic: I also heard about "improving" the soil with perlite, but unfortunately it's not widespread in the country and can only be found at some places. In fact, I haven't made any efforts to find perlite since I didn't know it was so important, but I'll try to seek if you advise.

I'll recommend your forums to other Hungarians, too, there is a warm and friendly athmosphere around here. And I've just made my final exams in English, so I expect myself to speak nicely. Thank you!

The other Venus Flytrap may be healthy and growing for now, but may succumb to the unhealthy conditions at any time, and once fungal or bacterial infection starts, the health of the plant will rapidly decline.

Venus Flytraps do not grow in spagnum peat moss. That is to say, sphagnum peat moss is not present (so far as I know) in their native habitat. It is only a substitute for their natural soil, which usually contains more sand than any other ingredient.

Terrariums are not ideal for Venus Flytraps (and many other plants), especially if there is not much movement of the air, because it concentrates fungal spores and other pathogens, and terrariums are usually not drained at all. Have you drained and changed the water in the terrarium? What type of water are you using?

Looking at the photo, it looks to me like the growing medium is too dense to be kept so wet all the time. If the soil is too dense (such as pure sphagnum peat moss) then one must be very careful not to overwater, and to allow the medium to dry to just moist before watering again, or it can easily stay too wet for too long and encourage fungal or bacterial growth and rot.

If you can't find perlite or pure silica sand (composed of almost 100% silicon dioxide or quartz, and not river nor beach sand which contain other kinds of rock), then try a growing mix of sphagnum peat moss and finely chopped styrofoam (polystyrene) at 50% sphagnum peat moss and 50% chopped styrofoam. It may work well. The important thing is to break up the peat moss and displace a substantial part of it so that it doesn't hold as much water in the first place, and dries out faster.

It's important to use only pure water that contains no minerals (no tap water) and it is important that the water be drained from the growing medium regularly. It's also important to flush the growing medium from time to time and discard the water, to clean out any accumulated soluble material that would otherwise harm or possibly kill the plants.

Good luck and best wishes.

Hi!

I understand. Many of Hungarian sites about VFT-s recommend a terrarium with high humidity and keeping the soil always wet. We bought the terrarium just for the VFT-s, but I keep a Drosera and a Pingicula in it, too, so I can't say it was pointless.

I clean the walls and roof of the terr. daily with a dry cloth (vapour occurs all the time) but hasn't changed the water in its bottom. Of course there is a thick clay layer under the soil to minimalize the water staling. I almost always keep the window in my room opened, so the air changes easily.
Do I have to move them out of the terr. anyway? Just a question.
And of course I use rainwater. You probably heard about the storm sweeping across Middle- and Eastern Europe, and I took advantage of it that resulted in 5x2 litres of bottle rainwater.

Cheers,
Xterms

Xterms wrote:hasn't changed the water in its bottom. Of course there is a thick clay layer under the soil to minimalize the water staling

This also sounds like it could be a problem. Without changing the water in the bottom, minerals will build up and slowly poison your plants. Also clay contains minerals that will harm the plants as well.

Xterms wrote:Do I have to move them out of the terr. anyway? Just a question.

No one has to do anything, right? But I'd recommend moving them out of that terrarium as soon as you can. Otherwise, you might just have some dead flytraps

Xterms wrote:Many of Hungarian sites about VFT-s recommend a terrarium with high humidity and keeping the soil always wet.

Neither of those suggestions are necessarily good ones. It is much easier to keep Venus Flytraps healthy outside of a terrarium than inside one. The high humidity is not as important as many people believe and should not be considered necessary. Venus Flytraps adapt easily to low humidity and are often grown in almost desert-like conditions (mine grow in a very dry region of semi-desert). In addition, Venus Flytraps grow much better in soil that is just moist most of the time, not wet all the time, and it is especially important not too allow the soil to be continuously wet or saturated for long periods of time.

So--

• Terrarium? No, not unless growing in a terrarium is the primary goal, in which case it requires more expert knowledge and cultivation techniques and practices
• High humidity? No, high humidity is certainly OK, but not necessary.
• Wet soil? No. Although Venus Flytraps can tolerate wet soil for a while (sometimes a long while), it can easily encourage fungal growth, anaerobic conditions and bacterial growth, rot and possibly death.

Good luck.

Hello!

I've moved all the plants out, including the Drosera and the Pingicula, too. Shame, because as I saw, the latter felt very-very fine in the terrarium and was growing beautifully.
Here are my VFT-s:

Temporarily they're in pure moss, the most important thing was to get them out and plant them.
Will this be ok? And will the other 2 plants thrive this way?

Something else: how can I reuse the rest of the peet moss? The terrarium needed 1,5 packs of moss and it's a little much to simply throw out to the waste (apart from the fact that it's not cheap).

Xterms wrote:Will this be ok? And will the other 2 plants thrive this way?

That looks great for the VFTs. Depending on the species of the Drosera, you may need to keep it in filtered light. Most species like full sunlight, but some species, D. adelae for example, like less light and cooler temperatures.

Pinguicula also prefer indirect sunlight. A bright windowsill will work well for them.

Xterms wrote:how can I reuse the rest of the peet moss?

Why not just dry it out and put it in storage? Or better yet, order some more plants to pot in it

That looks much better, Xterms. The Venus Flytraps will be a lot happier in those pots, in my opinion. Since the medium is pure sphagnum peat moss, be sure to allow it to dry for the most part between waterings, because peat moss holds water for a long time.

If you can't find pure silica sand or perlite to mix with peat moss to make a less water retentive, better drained and more airy growing mix, consider making a mix by adding other ingredients, perhaps by chopping up something made of styrofoam (polystyrene) such as those plastic foam "peanuts" that are used as packing material for shipping, or an old insulating container for canned drinks. You could also mix small pieces of evergreen bark with the peat moss, or crushed lava rock. If one thinks creatively, there may be a lot of things one might mix with sphagnum peat moss that would be inert, almost completely insoluble, and which would not harm the plants.

Best wishes--

Hello there!

Thank you for your answers.

Matt:
I'm gonna take photos of the other plants later, I think they aren't grown enough to be identified.
And drying is certainly an easy way, but I didn't know it would still be usable if it has already been soaked and dried out again. And thanks, but these plants are enough for me to know if I'm able to look after a living creature for long, if I pass my "test", I might buy other plants. I'm dreaming of a nice Nepenthes, but I've read they're recommended for intermediates.

Steve:
Then shouldn't I keep the tray under them filled with water?
Bark...are you speaking about this? This can be convenient, if it's enough to mix the moss only with this.
And the hardest part is to translate what you're writing about, eg.: everyone calls polystyrene at us Hungarocell. It needed a little inestigation to find out you wrote about this. But it's also easy to find around here.
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As you see, my VFT-s are pretty young and small. Are they going to grow bigger and wider traps (like the ones next to the title on the top) this year, or only later?
And won't they get a shock if I pull them out of the moss (before mixing it with polystyrene or something like that) and plant them again?

Thank you for all your answers and for enduring my amateur questions.

Cheers!

Xterms wrote:And drying is certainly an easy way, but I didn't know it would still be usable if it has already been soaked and dried out again.

Oh yeah, it's harvested wet and then dried when it's packaged.

Xterms wrote:I'm dreaming of a nice Nepenthes, but I've read they're recommended for intermediates.

I think that some Nepenthes are actually easier than Venus fly traps because they grow great with less light and don't need a dormancy. You can stick them on a windowsill and treat them like a house plant (they're even more capable of dealing with mineral-laden water) and they do very well.

Xterms wrote:Are they going to grow bigger and wider traps (like the ones next to the title on the top) this year, or only later?

Those plants aren't all that small. Given proper care, they should make nice sized traps this year.

Xterms wrote:And won't they get a shock if I pull them out of the moss (before mixing it with polystyrene or something like that) and plant them again?

Yes, a bit, but you've only just planted them. They're roots haven't settled into the soil yet, so they likely wouldn't even notice being repotted again right now. It's only when they're settled into their pots that repotting will set them back a bit.

Xterms wrote:Thank you for all your answers and for enduring my amateur questions.

Our pleasures

Oh, one more thing I noted earlier but forgot to mention is that you might want to get rid of the rocks you have in the one water tray. If the rocks are composed of soft, soluble minerals, they can leech into the water and poison your flytraps.

Xterms wrote:Then shouldn't I keep the tray under them filled with water? Bark...are you speaking about this? This can be convenient, if it's enough to mix the moss only with this. And the hardest part is to translate what you're writing about, eg.: everyone calls polystyrene at us Hungarocell. It needed a little inestigation to find out you wrote about this. But it's also easy to find around here.

I rarely allow my plants to sit in water. I usually water them thoroughly, then allow them to dry until just moist before watering again. This allows a lot more air into the growing medium and encourages very healthy root growth. Plants in too much water can grow leaves that are long, but thin and weak. Lack of adequate light can also produce thin and weak leaves.

If the bark you mentioned and linked a photo to is from evergreen trees (like fir or pine) then it should be fine. Any bark used in orchid potting mixes should be fine. In addition, yes, from the photo, it looks like what you call Hungarocell is what we here in the United States call styrofoam, expanded polystyrene. You can chop it into little bits and mix it with your sphagnum peat moss at a ratio of 1 to 1 (50% to 50%) and it should make a fairly good potting mix.

Good luck and happy growing. And thanks for joining us here at the FlytrapCare Forum! It's nice to have members from countries other than the U.S., and there are now members from Canada, South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Argentina, Holland, Spain, Saudi Arabia and quite a few other countries.

Hiiiii!

Matt:
Thanks for the info. They seem a bit shocked supposedly because of the repotting, but I hope they'll cope with this.
The rocks are from the garden but have been washed carefully before being used as decoration, I also rinsed them with rainwater to decrease the chance of "poisoning". After putting out of the terrarium, I didn't want to get rid of them, but if you advise, they'll go back home in the garden.

Matt wrote:Our pleasures

And mine.

Steve:
Thanks for the info, too. I just don't know what is considered to be 'moist', but life consist of experiments.
Yes, that bark is from pines, and it can be found at least at pet shops, too.
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I'll get polystyrene tomorrow anyway (there must be some panels left from the renovation works), plant my darlings again and provide you with photos right afterwards. If I'm not boring yet.

Thank you for all your good wishes, it's calming to be supported by experts.

Cheers!