FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I find it very disappointing that Miracle Grow Peat Moss kills Cps. I tried to make sure I read up on the needs as much as possible online and most of those descriptions never mentioned Miracle Grow Peat Moss being a problem, heck I looked at the bag when I bought it to see if fertilizer was in it. Hahah, I look at it now and it says "enriched with plant food" gaahhh. My problem is I've had one of my flytraps in this root burner for a week and a half. 5 or so traps died but new ones are growing in, I was trying to figure out why they were dying, I thought I gave it too much sun too fast. So it seems to be doing ok but does that mean it is adapting to the soil or is the fertilizer washed out by the water? Then the next question is, when I noticed this root burning problem, my Akai Ryu sat in it for about a day, gawd I made sure to get it out of there when the sundew next to it just croaked, I'm wondering, will it recover if I put it in good CP soil mix, or will it inevitably die. I'm stressing out, since my other plant seems to not mind anymore. I did order good CP soil mix online to be delivered in about a week from now, since none of these stores have anything with no fertilizer in it. So if anyone had any experience with this kind of situation plz bring the advice ^^;

It should recover. It sounds like it didn't have to spend too much time in there.

Hi Budukai and welcome!

Please do not stress as I'm going to help you.

The first thing you should do is water your plants from above using distilled water or rain water. This will help to flush out any minerals or enrichments in your growing medium. While It may not get all of them, it is a way of providing your plants water while flushing out the Miracle Grow Peat Moss, until your new growing medium arrives.
While awaiting your CP soil mix make sure your flytraps are in full sun! The more sun the better with 6-8 hours of direct sunlight being the minimum. This way while your plants may not be in the ideal growing medium, at least they are getting the proper water and sunlight.
Once your soil mix arrives, re-pot right away and throw away the Miracle Grow Peat Moss.
You will probably be buying more plants in the future and do not want to risk the same thing again.
The soil mix that you are going to use should be a standard carnivorous plant soil mix of 1 part peat moss and 1 part perlite and both should not have any enrichments added. Peat moss adds acidity and retains moisture, while perlite provides drainage. Some growers like to mix in silica sand for drainage which is fine also.
Once you have done all this, your plants should go through transplant shock for a couple of weeks but should recover just fine.

Good luck and please keep us apprised of your situation!

Giovanni

italo.americano wrote:Hi Budukai and welcome!

Please do not stress as I'm going to help you.

The first thing you should do is water your plants from above using distilled water or rain water. This will help to flush out any minerals or enrichments in your growing medium. While It may not get all of them, it is a way of providing your plants water while flushing out the Miracle Grow Peat Moss, until your new growing medium arrives.
While awaiting your CP soil mix make sure your flytraps are in full sun! The more sun the better with 6-8 hours of direct sunlight being the minimum. This way while your plants may not be in the ideal growing medium, at least they are getting the proper water and sunlight.
Once your soil mix arrives, re-pot right away and throw away the Miracle Grow Peat Moss.
You will probably be buying more plants in the future and do not want to risk the same thing again.
The soil mix that you are going to use should be a standard carnivorous plant soil mix of 1 part peat moss and 1 part perlite and both should not have any enrichments added. Peat moss adds acidity and retains moisture, while perlite provides drainage. Some growers like to mix in silica sand for drainage which is fine also.
Once you have done all this, your plants should go through transplant shock for a couple of weeks but should recover just fine.

Good luck and please keep us apprised of your situation!

Giovanni

Ok that's very reassuring thank you, that seems to work wonders for my first flytrap, but I'm not sure if my new trap can do that or not, Akai Ryu, I'm not sure if its been living off of artificial light or not, should I set increments on how long its in the sun or just give it as much light as possible, last thing I want is death by sun?

Budukai,

You're welcomed and I'm glad you're reassured!

Because you do not know if your 'Red Dragon' was living off of artificial light or not, you should slowly acclimate it to full sunlight. This would entail placing it outside during the morning hours and giving it shade during the hottest part of the day. Some growers like to place their Dionaea outside without any acclimation period, which is also fine, but older traps will suffer from sun burn and die while newer traps will be okay. Because you will be re-potting soon, I would suggest putting you 'Red Dragon' outside during the morning hours and then inside during the hottest part of the day, for your growing area, for at least three weeks. Some people may consider this too conservative but it is better to be safe than sorry.

I hope this helps and please ask should you have anymore questions?

Giovanni

Ok, so here's what happend so far. Like I said before, I was scared my akai was going to die after being in the acid soil, since the traps were wilting and falling limp. I rememberd however, that I had a small vft in a small 2 inch pot and put them both together, the soil was never changed to the new peat moss like the rest and it perked right on up, so relived. That was my biggest worry, hopefully they can share until the final re-potting is in, thanks for the wise advice, I'll keep yall posted for the final verdict after I re-pot them.

I hate Miracle-Gro-- can't buy their sphagnum peat moss anymore, nor their perlite, and most stores only carry Miracle-Gro products-- GRRRR!


Just a few notes from me, Budukai--

Venus Flytraps like acid soil. It's not the plant food that makes the soil acid, but the sphagnum peat moss itself that is acidic.

Any "plant food" of any kind in the growing medium will almost surely harm the plant. As Giovanni mentioned, flushing it frequently with water will help in the short term. But any mineral salts that have already been absorbed by the plant's roots will continue to "poison" it even after it has been transplanted, because they are already incorporated into the plant tissue. The only thing you can do in that case is to repot into good medium as soon as possible and see if the plant outgrows it, which is to say, grows new leaves and roots that don't have much of the absorbed minerals while sacrificing those older roots and leaves that have already been poisoned.

What kind of growing medium did you order? What exactly is it composed of?

If it were my plant, I might uproot it and let it soak submerged in pure distilled or rain water for a few days, out of direct sunlight, until your new growing medium arrives. If you do soak the plants, be sure to rinse them and use new water about every 2-3 days.

Best wishes and good luck,
Steve

Steve_D wrote: What kind of growing medium did you order? What exactly is it composed of?

If it were my plant, I might uproot it and let it soak submerged in pure distilled or rain water for a few days, out of direct sunlight, until your new growing medium arrives. If you do soak the plants, be sure to rinse them and use new water about every 2-3 days.

Steve

Ok, here's the link http://www.world-of-carnivores.com/cgi- ... pid_95.htm, I trust them as far as keeping the right soil. I think it's ok as far as uprooting the flytraps, I stressed them out enough and the one I was worried about is now in a small but good medium for now, but that is something good to think about for the future, I thought that soaking them in straight distilled water like that was dangerous but if it's only for a few days it makes since. So how long to they last usually just sitting in water like that?

Budukai wrote:Ok, here's the link http://www.world-of-carnivores.com/cgi- ... pid_95.htm

That looks pretty good. It is a sphagnum peat moss / perlite / silica sand mix. I sell a similar growing medium for about the same price (when shipping is included) composed of the same ingredients in a proportion of 50% sphagnum peat moss, 30% silica sand and 20% perlite. These ingredients make a good potting mix for Venus Flytraps.

Budukai wrote:I thought that soaking them in straight distilled water like that was dangerous but if it's only for a few days it makes since. So how long to they last usually just sitting in water like that?

There is one FlytrapCare.com member, Joseph Clemens, an experienced grower, who has kept Venus Flytraps submerged in water, cold in the refrigerator, for months of dormancy, and also for some extended time out of the refrigerator in regular light. I'm not sure exactly how he does it, but maybe he'll add to the discussion. I would probably only feel comfortable keeping them in water for up to a week and a half, rinsing them and changing the water every 2-3 days to keep it fresh and clean.

Flytraps aren't aquatic plants. And keeping them in soggy soil will encourage rot. They like "moist, not wet" conditions. They like to have water available to their roots, but they don't like to have a soggy soil surface or area around the "bulb" (the buried leaf bases). It's OK to thoroughly water them, but then it's best to let them dry at least somewhat til just moist before watering them again. If it's impractical or difficult to water them that carefully, and if one is afraid they may dry out completely and then die while one is at school, at work or on vacation, then it's good to use the water-from-below tray technique, standing in a reservoir of water. But if you do that, remember 2 things:

1. The water level in the reservoir should be substantially below the level of the bottom of the plant's bulb in the medium
2. If you're going to use the tray method over the long term instead of just during vacation, etc., it's better to use a very aerated soil mix to help prevent the possibility of rot: that means more perlite and sand in the mix, for example

Steve

Steve_D wrote: I sell a similar growing medium for about the same price (when shipping is included) composed of the same ingredients in a proportion of 50% sphagnum peat moss, 30% silica sand and 20% perlite.
Steve

Really, then the next time I need a good medium I'll go to you if that's ok Wow, I didn't expect replies like these, they themselves are very knowledgeable and helpful, thanks.

Budukai,

Glad we could be of help!

I've ordered numerous times from Steve and he sells great plants also besides growing mediums.

I would highly recommend flytrapranch for all your Dionaea needs.

This is a website rating we put together and Steve scored a perfect 5 out of 5!

http://www.flytrapcare.com/carnivorous- ... sites.html

Giovanni

yes Steve is awesome he's like a Dionaea god!!! all hail steve! hehe

allen,

Sorry to hear about your Miracle Gro problems. You've already gotten tons of great advice. I just wanted to drop in and say welcome to flytrapcare!

I did check out Steve's site and your right. Very professional and thoughtful of the costumer, put a bookmark on it. I know I'll come by there very soon.

Budukai,

Glad you liked it!

You will probably be coming back more and more as you start accumulating plants.
Dionaea is a wonderful disease and Steve feeds our addiction.


Giovanni