FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just got my Venus Fly Trap from amazon.com today
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Venus-Fly-Trap-Pl ... 065&sr=8-1

Everything looked fine when I ordered it, (I take deep consideration in customers reviews of their experiences with the retailer).

I just got the package today and the plant looks very miserable. Half the leaves and traps were pitch black. I immediately gave it distilled water that has been processed with reveres osmosis and direct sunlight. I am just hoping I can recover this plant because I am very fascinated with what it can do.

The sun is dying down today so I put it next to my lizards cage. The reason for doing so is because my Bearded Dragon requires UVB fluorescent light(10%) in order to survive. So I thought it would be best to put the VFT next to the cage instead of IN the cage. Reason for this is because I am assuming all the heat in my lizards cage (85degrees) would possibly dry out the plant quicker. My bearded dragon is a desert lizard, so it requires a high temperature in order to sustain his health. The white bowl contains 1/2 inch of purified water as the instructions said.

If someone can please guide me to the ropes then I would greatly appreciate it.

Here is a link to the photos:




EDIT 1: I think I gave it the wrong bottled water. I read that some bottled water is not distilled, so right now I am going to boil some water and use that instead.

First off it was 3 dollars, you need to get it out of that much water.

Welcome to Fly trap care forums!

If you are new you should read some of the main VFT info pages on this site under the home tab !

Shipping was about $8

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I will be sure to check out the main info pages

It's probably in its Dormant stage where do you live?? Also it may be light starve . Be sure to use Distilled water and have the proper soil , introduce it to Sunlight slowly so it adjust properly if the shipment to long ... Here i recommended you read these to pages if you haven't already http://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-tr ... ation.html and be sure to read this too http://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-trap-dormancy.html and yes welcome to the forum

EDIT 1: I think I gave it the wrong bottled water. I read that some bottled water is not distilled, so right now I am going to boil some water and use that instead.

I had that same mistake with my plant it nearly died , if its not distilled water I recommend you quickly rinse the plant with some real distilled water... better safe then sorry i always say

Dormancy issues! Read about dormancy on the forums! Take the vft out of the saucer now!

BTW, welcome to flytrapcare!

I am located in Norther California.

Here is a link to the weather: http://www.weather.com/weather/today/Pl ... A+USCA0882

I will be sure to used distilled water and the soil the seller gave me.

I will read the articles promptly.

Can someone give me insight on what I should be doing right now?

That's not nearly as bad as the one i got from B&Q a while back, its now flourishing. If you can repot it into a suitable medium I think that should be your next step.

Also don't panic throwing it around near your dragon etc, Slap it on a windowsill, give it some low TDS water (boiled water i guess is fine, but don't do it ever again! ), and wait.

Give it a few days it'll be fine. At least mine was - FYI i had 2 withered yellow traps on mine before i revived it like so ^

EDIT: Water it via the bottom every 2 to 6 days depending on how moist the soil is

SECONDARY EDIT: eeeeee just saw your location. Make sure said windowsill is cool, an east facing windowsill would be nice for dormancy

Yes, but they shouldnt't need to be acclimatised slowly to sunlight since:
1. The sunlight in winter is weak
2. It's probably dormant now so it shouldn't need great amounts of light required in the growin season.

Use rain, distilled, RO'ed, deionised water (etc) for carnivorous plants since the minerals and other substances in tap water and bottled water cause mineral build-up in the soil and can severely range your plant.
Still, it is dormancy period now so it should be kept between dry to moist without a tray of water underneath.

^ I was referring to swatt's post. Not yours alzuryu. Just a heads up.

/\True
I also live in Cal , If you want you could Grow you plant year round just live it outside were it get s Sunlight and it should do fine.

Darkrai283 wrote:^ I was referring to swatt's post. Not yours alzuryu. Just a heads up.

Message received

Congrats on the new flytrap and welcome to FlytrapCare!

It actually looks to be a quite healthy and happy flytrap in the middle of its dormancy period. I'm not sure what you were expecting, but it doesn't look miserable at all to me.

As others have written, there's no need to bring it indoors where you live since it almost never freezes. I'd just put it in the sunniest location you have in your yard and let it soak up the sun. If you have a frost warning, cover it. If it's going to freeze, bring it in for the night. Otherwise, just leave it outside. Also as others already mentioned, it appears to be thoroughly wet right now, so you should remove it from the water tray.

And be sure to read the articles on the main part of the site to get yourself educated in Flytrap care If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

The growing medium looks too dense and soggy. It's much too wet, which can promote fungal and bacterial rot if it lasts for too long, especially in cooler temperatures. Ideally it should be transplanted into a medium that has some non-water-holding material in it like silica sand or perlite.

Please read at FlytrapCare.com and in this Forum about the water, soil and light requirements of Venus Flytraps.

It's normal for a Venus Flytrap to lose a few leaves when it is repotted (it may have been potted just prior to shipment to you). Just cut the black parts off carefully and leave any green parts of the leaf to continue to photosynthesize.

Your plant needs more sun and less water. The water should be pure (distilled or rain water or water from reverse osmosis, with no minerals or any other additions). Boiling water will make the water worse, not better, because it will concentrate the minerals in the water. If you could catch and use the steam, that would be distilled water, but the water left behind in the pot is worse for Venus Flytraps than it was when it first came out of the tap.

Read about how to care for your new Venus Flytrap, and everyone here will help you as much as they can. Don't worry too much or you'll do something impulsive and probably wrong for the plant. But don't give it an excuse to die either. Don't drown it with too much water, and don't set it all day in the sun yet, until it acclimates to your conditions. It might have been growing in diminished light before you bought it, so you need to be conservative until you see that it's doing well, before you give it more or less of something. That said, Venus Flytraps, even those that have not been growing in much light, want and need as much light as they can handle at the time. It's up to you to figure out how much they can handle.

I wouldn't put the Venus Flytrap in the tank with your lizard. Instead, find it a sunny window or as Matt suggested, put it outside most of the time, but don't let it freeze, and be sure not to keep it sopping wet. Allow it to dry to just moist between thorough waterings.

Good luck and welcome to the FlytrapCare Forum!

I read some but not all of the replies so someone may have already said this stuff. Boiled water is not the same as distilled. In fact, it's kind of the opposite (unless you meant you're distilling your own water). When you boil the water it kills microorganisms, but the threat in tap/bottled water to flytraps isn't microorganisms, it's minerals. Boiling it down will make the water worse. You can pick up gallon jugs of distilled water at a grocery store for cheap.

UV light isn't good for flytraps either so I'd keep it away from the terrarium. Stick to what some of the others have said about watering and sunlight. I'm not sure when the right time to re-pot would be (maybe around the end of dormancy?) but you'll want to get it into a deeper and preferably better insulated pot too.