FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I bought this sand because it said Silica on the bag and after mixing it with some Peat,I filled the pot and poured a Gallon of distilled water through it then to be safe only put two plants in it. Within days the plants had started to turn brown and I moved them to a pot with Peat / Perlite and no sand.Is this mineral burn and are the plants likely to recover?

The plant might have been shocked, due to being transplanted in the middle of the growing season.

Goodkoalie wrote:The plant might have been shocked, due to being transplanted in the middle of the growing season.

None of the other ones I re-potted had a bad reaction,but that could be it.

My plants are doing good overall and if the two sick ones die I'm going to blame it on the sand.

I should have washed it better,but I thought running a gallon of water through the pot would be enough.

The bigger one is getting new leaves,so I think it will be OK and even if the other one dies all the way back I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and maybe it will come back.

They'll recover. I've ordered a bunch of different cultivars this season from different sites and some randomly shed their leaves and recover (with much smaller traps) but soon start putting out new large growth while others show no sign of shock at all. It's probably related to the previous growing conditions and the hardiness of the cultivar that causes this. Keep doing what your doing and it'll bounce back.

Kevonicus wrote:They'll recover. I've ordered a bunch of different cultivars this season from different sites and some randomly shed their leaves and recover (with much smaller traps) but soon start putting out new large growth while others show no sign of shock at all. It's probably related to the previous growing conditions and the hardiness of the cultivar that causes this. Keep doing what your doing and it'll bounce back.

That is exactly what happened to a few of VFTs when I received them. I had about 3 separate Royal Reds that looked completely healthy when I potted them up. However, 2 of them died back almost completely and are now putting out new traps at about 25% the previous size. The 3rd plant also experienced some shock but recovered a lot better than the other two. The plants all came from the same source and were potted in the same soil mix so I suppose there is individual plant variation when it comes to transplant recovery.

New growth can sometimes take a week or two in some freshly transplanted plants. As long as your plants don't turn completely black and the rhizome is intact, they should recover. They'll certainly take their time though. My royal reds spent two weeks dying back before they started putting up new growth. Just give the plants what they like and they'll bounce back.

My concern, and I'm surprised no one has said anything, is that the bag says "may contain crystalline silica".

The sand you want should be 100% silica so the warning shouldn't be ambiguous like that.

What type of quickrete product did you get? Do you have a picture of the whole bag, and what about a shot of the sand?

If I were you I'd repot it. It looks like you have perlite, assuming it isn't miracle gro brand you can just use perlite and peat.

parker679 wrote:My concern, and I'm surprised no one has said anything, is that the bag says "may contain crystalline silica".

The sand you want should be 100% silica so the warning shouldn't be ambiguous like that.

What type of quickrete product did you get? Do you have a picture of the whole bag, and what about a shot of the sand?

If I were you I'd repot it. It looks like you have perlite, assuming it isn't miracle gro brand you can just use perlite and peat.

Because I wasn't sure about the sand, I only put two plants in the pot with the sand/peat mix.

Within a week they had started to die.I took the plants out,washed the roots and put them in a new pot with peat/perlite only.The bigger plant in the pics that is putting up new leaves is still alive,so I think it will be OK,but the one that is just a half dead leaf I think is dead.There's nothing alive showing above ground anyway.It may still come back but I don't think so.

The bag said Quickrete all purpose sand on it.I can put up a pic of the sand if anyone wants to see it.

I still have the sand,but I'm not going to use it at all now.

Sorry, now I see where you said you moved them to the peat/perlite.

I couldn't find a specific ingredient list, though for things like this the content usually varies by region since there are many aggregate suppliers. But the MSDS for Quickrete all purpose sand lists limestone as an ingredient which is a big no no.

Glad to see you did re pot it. Whether they all survive or not time will tell but you never know. I've had plants die down to the rhizome and not grow new leaves for a while and then spring back to life.

If you grow other non-carnivorous plants you could probably use it in the soil for them. At least for plants that don't require an acidic soil.

The two plants closest to the camera are the only ones that were exposed to the sand.The plants in the background are small but seem healthy.

I'm hoping for the best,but I think the one on the right with only one leaf is dead.

Just have to chalk this up to lessons learned.