FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, my name is Vedran and i live in Croatia..... recently,I bought myself a venus flytrap and i repotted her in a mix of ordinary soil and perlite rich soil, something about 35% ordinary and 65% perlite rich soil. Here are 3 pics of my plant because i think she isn't doing well, i fear that she might die. I'm holding her in a tray of standing water (destilated water) and i'm trying to give her as much sun as possible, however today we had bad weather so i gave her a dose of fluorescent light as you see on the pic (around 3 hours). Please if you see something that's not normal help me because i really care for her.

Thanks to everyone

I'm hoping by ordinary, you mean "Peat moss" soil! & what do you mean by "perlite rich soil"


50% Peat Moss and 50% perlite is a pretty good ratio. Make sure you don't let the soil get too wet. Moist is good, wet is not. Although, they look pretty healthy to me. Lots of big traps.

happiness wrote:I'm hoping by ordinary, you mean "Peat moss" soil! & what do you mean by "perlite rich soil"


50% Peat Moss and 50% perlite is a pretty good ratio. Make sure you don't let the soil get too wet. Moist is good, wet is not. Although, they look pretty healthy to me. Lots of big traps.

Well, i don't know for the ordinary soil, don't have the packing to check and perlite rich soil is a mixture of 60% peat moss, 30% humus and 10 % perlite and plant fibers
The problem in Croatia is that you can't find perlite by it's own, the closest is this mixture :/

Veco wrote:

happiness wrote:I'm hoping by ordinary, you mean "Peat moss" soil! & what do you mean by "perlite rich soil"


50% Peat Moss and 50% perlite is a pretty good ratio. Make sure you don't let the soil get too wet. Moist is good, wet is not. Although, they look pretty healthy to me. Lots of big traps.

Well, i don't know for the ordinary soil, don't have the packing to check and perlite rich soil is a mixture of 60% peat moss, 30% humus and 10 % perlite and plant fibers
The problem in Croatia is that you can't find perlite by it's own, the closest is this mixture :/

I think what happiness is saying is that soil that comes pre-mixed in a bag sometimes has fertilizer added.

That would be bad.

Veco wrote:

happiness wrote:I'm hoping by ordinary, you mean "Peat moss" soil! & what do you mean by "perlite rich soil"


50% Peat Moss and 50% perlite is a pretty good ratio. Make sure you don't let the soil get too wet. Moist is good, wet is not. Although, they look pretty healthy to me. Lots of big traps.

Well, i don't know for the ordinary soil, don't have the packing to check and perlite rich soil is a mixture of 60% peat moss, 30% humus and 10 % perlite and plant fibers
The problem in Croatia is that you can't find perlite by it's own, the closest is this mixture :/

You could always buy the soil on ebay or here at the Venusflytrap store. I have no idea what humus is or what plant fibers do .. Have you tried to look for "sphagnum moss" ? That's another median that Venus flytraps grow well in. It would probably be a lot cheaper than buying separate perlite + peat moss. I spent $16 on a gallon bag of perlite/peat moss each on ebay.

If you didn't live so far away I would send you some! I've never shipped out of the country before.

I'm suspecting that you're going to hear that the problem is mineral burn, caused by the soil. I'd try to find regular peat moss, and since you're having trouble finding perlite, use a silica sand instead to mix with it. Or you can get long fiber sphagnum moss and plant the plant in that, and not have to worry about mixing anything. Either way, I think it's the soil mix that is probably causing the problem. I can't say if it's too far gone to save, but some of the others here who have been raising CPs/VFTs longer will be able to tell you, I'm sure.

Ahh! I forgot to add silica sand to that list.. And I use it.. x_x!!

It definitely has some time left, he should be worried when there's nothing left but the rhizome.. but even then, it has a chance of surviving =P

Tnhx for instructions, will see what can i do