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Ask questions about how to grow and care for Venus Flytraps

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By Scynful79
Posts:  16
Joined:  Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:36 am
#150165
Hi, I'm new to the forums and new to caring for these little guys. I got mine yesterday from the typical store, not a good idea i know. However, it does show some potential of becoming a good plant, lot of it was dead, although, it has quite a few baby sprouts coming in. I will be getting all the soil that is needed for it and yet, i am kind of afraid to repot this soon. It seems like it would need it, I took the plastic container off it, so its just in the little pot it came in.

I have been looking through the forums and have found quite a bit of information. Though, haven't found info on how to care for a plant that is obviously been stressed out. It was in a pet store and didn't seem like it was getting a whole lot of sun. Right now I have it in my greenhouse, its a cloud cover outside, so not much sun today (live in washington).

I want to do the best I can for this little one and help make it become strong. I love all the info here, just wondering if I repot it this early on, will it kill it? Or will the fresh soil and a bit bigger pot help? Eventually I'm going to make a little terrarium for it out of an old fish tank I have lieing around.. For now though, I just want to get it to a healthier stage. A video I watched pretty much said (in its own little way) that what I got doesn't stand a chance because of how stressed it is. I feel it has a chance, just needs some tlc... :)

Scyn ~

Any advice is much appreciated....
By konata
Posts:  12
Joined:  Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:04 am
#150167
I'm also a newbie who got my plant a couple weeks ago and can share a few options:
- unless the plant was original placed outdoors before you bought it, I'd suggest leaving it indoors right beside a window facing east or west
- don't repot it yet
- don't over-water :)

Hope you'll new growth from your plant soon~
By Scynful79
Posts:  16
Joined:  Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:36 am
#150176
Thnx... :)


I did kind of soak it for a few mins last night, kind of purge it of old water stuff. The guy told me to only use distilled water, but its anyones guess as to what the plant has been through prior to that.

It is pretty cloudy out still, might even rain today it looks like so it is fine in the greenhouse for now. Not much sun at all and it's pretty cool out, shouldn't be to stressful in that category. Plus who knows, it might eat! It didn't seem to eat the fruit flies last night. After reading a few things on here, not expecting it to eat anytime soon.

I'll try to get some pix of it today. It is pretty weak though... didn't have much of a selection. I've been wanting one for so long though, kind of grabbed when i saw it type thing!
By Veronis
Posts:  2202
Joined:  Fri May 29, 2009 8:41 pm
#150183
1. Don't feed it manually for several weeks - let it settle in. If it catches food on its own that's fine, but don't force feed it. You could accidentally overfeed it, which will cause further problems.
2. Acclimate it to sunlight since it has been in a store, otherwise it could burn quickly.
3. Keep the soil closer to the drier side than on the wetter side in general (water occasionally, and soak the soil when you do water, then let it dry out a bit). Wet soil will kill a flytrap fast, as they are very prone to root rot if kept too soggy too often.
4. You don't need to repot it this year, but if you do, I'd recommend unpotting it with all old soil intact so you don't disturb the roots too much, and put the entire plant + old soil into a bigger pot that contains appropriate flytrap soil, e.g. peat/perlite. Repot "fully" next Spring.
Repotting now won't kill it unless it's already on the verge of death.
5. Never fertilize or use Miracle Gro brand anything on it.
6. Water that is safe for flytraps should be below 50ppm. Most tap water is out of the question, and boiling it won't help. Distilled water, reverse-osmosis-purified water, or rain water are your realistic options.
7. 4 hours direct sun minimum, 6+ hours recommended. The more, the better.
8. Don't put it in a terrarium. A terrarium is a terrible place to grow a flytrap; they can adapt to low humidity, and do so rather quickly. People grow flytraps outdoors in desert regions of the US and they grow very well.

With proper care, your flytrap should do very well. You're already taking the right steps coming here.

Toss up that photo as soon as you can, and I wouldn't repot until we see the picture in case it's in really bad shape.
By Scynful79
Posts:  16
Joined:  Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:36 am
#150186
pix coming up..... well, as far as the terrarium goes, wasn't planning on having it fully enclosed.. mostly thinking about using the fish tank (beta tank, fairly small) as a pot like set up mostly... with rocks on the bottom to give the water a place to drain too.

I did think about feeding it by then, but after reading things on here, realized that wouldn't be a good idea. It is stressed as it is from people, transporting, who knows what else. Figured it'll eat when it wants to. The fruit flies were by the sink, so i didn't try to force it or anything.. just gave it an option. :)
By Scynful79
Posts:  16
Joined:  Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:36 am
#150190
here is a pik
Attachments:
VFT_01.jpg
VFT_01.jpg (521.91 KiB) Viewed 4613 times
VFT_03.jpg
VFT_03.jpg (461.84 KiB) Viewed 4613 times
User avatar
By Steve_D
Location: 
Posts:  3913
Joined:  Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:06 pm
#150205
Your Venus Flytrap has a lot of life left in it. I'm suspicious of the growing medium though, which looks to me like it could be partially composted wood and bark potting soil, not sphagnum peat moss (although I'm not sure). It looks a bit dense and wet, too water retentive.

If it were my plant, I would repot it into an airier mixture such as the often-recommended 50/50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and silica sand (or perlite).

Since it's been inside a store, don't place it outside in many hours of direct sunlight yet. Instead, try to give it direct sunlight in a window for a few hours per day, to let it acclimate to the light without burning the leaves.

Try to allow the growing medium to dry until just moist (even on the dry side of moist) between thorough waterings, and don't allow the plant to sit in water all the time.

If the pot is less than 4 inches in depth from top surface of medium to the bottom of the pot, it might be better to plant the Flytrap in a deeper pot for good root development, and the greater amount of medium will help buffer both the moisture and temperature (neither of which will change as drastically in too short a time).

Good luck. :)
Steve_D liked this
By Scynful79
Posts:  16
Joined:  Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:36 am
#150220
now to try to find some moss that isn't in a big, gigantic cube that I have no use for!!!!! And yes, the soil it is in now does have bark like substance in it, from what I can tell, doesn't appear to have any perlite or anything to make it airy.

Thank you everyone for the awesome tips! This gives me some hope and has made me feel better!!!
By Scynful79
Posts:  16
Joined:  Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:36 am
#150242
I repotted it, found some organic peat moss and perlite. Got the fish tank set up and hopefully it should be happy for a while. The root was really long, so chances are it was pretty cramped up in that tiny pot. I left most of the old soil with is as to not stress to horribly much. there was no perlite in it, but it did look like peat, or at least some kind of moss.

Will post piks t'morrow when I have better lighting!!
By Scynful79
Posts:  16
Joined:  Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:36 am
#150305
New home for this little one.... all the white and blue are just rocks, up top is the soil. I'm hoping that this little one will be happy for a while with this set up!!


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