FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

PLease help me! My plants are not doing well! The venuses and cape sundews grow very sowly. Then eventually the leaves turn yellow and then brown. On my sundews, the tips of new growth turned yellow and then brown. (only tips) I am lucky if the sundew has one leaf. This has been happening since I have them under my florescent light. They are not getting any natural sunlight. I have them 6 -7 inches away from the light. The light is on 10 hours a day. I had it on for 12 hours, but decreased the light duration to try to trigger dormancy. This didin't work. They are still trying to grow.

I keep the top of the soil completely dry, but 1/4 down into the soil is moist. Is it ok for the top of the soil to be completely dry, but have the rest of soil moist? I did this b/c I was having a mold issue before. I think I was having a mold issue, though b/c I kept giving plants more water. My sundew is in a 4 inch pot. I give maybe an inch of water (using the tray method) once or twice a week. Once in a while I water it every week and 1/2, b/c I feel it doesn't need it before that. I stick my hand in soil to feel if it has moisture. That's how I tell when to water. All of my venuses have dry rot on their rhizomes. I wonder if my sundew has rot too that's why it has similar symptoms as my vensues- tips of new growth turning yellow and growing very very slowly. It's possible the sundew has rot, b/c it's in the same size pot as the venuses. What is a sign of rot in sundew?

Maybe my house temp/humidity is the problem. My heat temp is set to 64 degrees. There's all windows around my plants. I have curtains over the windows, but there's still a cold draft. Sometimes it's warm in my house when I use the hot water. My heating system goes on more when hot water is used. The plants are on my dinig room table. Underneath the windows are my heating vents. Also, my roomate puts a portable heater on in my kitchen (the room next to where my pants are) at night time and they put it on for a few hours on the weekend. ould this be why the tips of new growth on my plants are yellow and brown. The tips of new growth are also this way on my bonsai plant too. I have cape sundew seedings which I cover their pots with plastic wrap. They are the only plants doing well. They even have dew on them. They are getting 100 percent humidity. The only problem is that they have algae in their soil. Is algae harmful to htem? It doesn't appear to have harmed them, yet? I was thining that sonce they are doing so well, I was thinking that maybe I should cover the vensues and sundews pots with plastic wrap or a sandwich bag. I don't have room for a terrarium where they are. I think the bag will be good b/c it will maintain a constant temp/humidity for them. Do you think I should do this? If yes, can I keep the bag completely closed at 100 percent humidity, or shoould I make holes i it. I thought to keep it completely closed, so that no drafts could get to them and therefore affect their growing. Would the bag work, if the top of their soil is completely dry? Please help my plants.

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like i said sundew's love the sun an there soil alway's being moist.. same with venus flytraps..

Buggy213, where do you live? Is the temperature you mentioned (64 degrees) Fahrenheit or Celsius? What kind of water are you giving your plants. What kind of growing medium are they in.

In the northern hemisphere, your Venus Flytraps should be dormant right now, especially if they were growing all last season. The burn on the ends of the sundew leaves looks like either sun/heat burn or chemical burn, or just too low humidity coupled with a draft of dry air. What do you mean by "dry rot" on your Venus Flytraps? How do you know? What have you done to observe that phenomenon?

Help us help you. Please give some more details--

To Steve...The temp I mentioned is 64 F. I live in the northern hemisphere. Dry rot is not a phenomenon. What I meant is that the rot was not mushy. It had dried. The rhizome was kept too wet and started to get rot on it. When the soil dried a little, the rot stopped spreading and dried to a dark brown color.

To Matt...The top of the peat moss is completely dry, b/c when I water my plants the water does not reach to the very top. It's reaches 3/4 to the top. If you were to stick your finger in the soil, you would be amazed b/c the soil underneath actually is moist to even wet. That's why my venuses have rot issue, b/c they were kept too wet "beneath" the soil surface. The tips of new growth started to turn yellow, b/c I probably let them get too dry between waterings.

What ratio are you using for your soil mix - perlite : peat moss?

buggy213 wrote:The top of the peat moss is completely dry, b/c when I water my plants the water does not reach to the very top. It's reaches 3/4 to the top.

This has not been my experience with peat moss. In my experience, if it is moist, it is moist all the way to the top. If the top is dry, that's far too dry for the plants.

I would say you should water your plants from the top. When the soil is too dry, it will not soak water. I almost killed a plant once.

If you have too much perlite in your soil mix, moisture will drain away too quickly leaving only the bottom of the pot wet. I recommend a mix of 3 parts peat to 1 part perlite or sand. If your soil is dry on top, any surfrace roots will be killed and the plants will not be getting enough humidity from the damp soil to prevent burn off on the leaves and / or pitchers.

Your soil needs to be damp on top as well as underneath - just think of the conditions that exist naturally in a bog and let these be your guide.