FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello all, I'm a new member with a question concerning my venus fly trap. I bought a store bought fly trap a couple of months ago and it was growing fine on my window sill. The leaves were green and new growth was coming out daily, the insides of the traps were turning pink. Everything seemed good until two weeks ago when I noticed the edges of some leaves turned black and eventually the traps themselves turned black and started to die. Now new growth is happening but within a couple of days, the edges of the leaves turn black. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there are tiny black minuscule dots over all the leaves, even the ones that have managed to survive and develop a trap. The tiny black dots don't seem to be moving, but are they connected to the edges of the leaves turning black? I keep my soil moist, not wet most of the time and on very hot days, I'll leave like a 1/4 of an inch of water standing in the tray. Is this a mite that is poisoning my plant or something else? I'm attaching a picture for a better understanding.

Hmm, it does appear to have a problem, but it doesn't look like mite damage and I don't see any mites. The only spots I see are the normal texture of the leaves. What kind of water and soil are you using? Can you add a picture of the whole plant viewed from above?

I am using Distilled water (steam distilled ozonated, don't know if that makes a difference or not) and still the same soil from the store so it looks like peat moss. I have tried posting another pic but it says the maximum allowed size is 4Mib. What is Mib and how can I attach pictures properly? I apologize I am new to the forums.

Supersport69 wrote:I have tried posting another pic but it says the maximum allowed size is 4Mib. What is Mib and how can I attach pictures properly?

Good question. 4 men in black? I think it means megabytes. You'll have to resize the image and/or reduce the quality. One way to do that if you happen to be using an iphone is to send it to yourself in an e-mail. When you send it, it asks what size you'd like to send and you can reduce it there and then the one you receive in your e-mail will be shrunken. You can also use photo editing software on your computer, or I think there are some websites that can resize photos for you.

Your water sounds good. If they were watering with the wrong water at the store, the peat moss could still be tainted. If you suspect that's the case, the next time you water it, you can flush a bunch of distilled water through it from the top (and let it drain out the bottom) to clean the soil.

Ok thanks! Posting another picture from the top this time.

Thanks! It looks like it's in sphagnum moss, is there peat moss underneath?

The new growth looks good, but since you say it's quickly turning black, I think it could either be bad soil/moss, or that it's staying too moist. I know you said you're keeping it damp, but maybe the days when it's in the tray are keeping it wetter than you think because it does resemble the first signs of rot, to me. I've often been surprised at how much more moisiture is left in my soil (particularly with peat moss) than I though when I'm repotting. How long each day does it get direct sunlight? Is it growing inside or outside? Flytraps can handle quite a bit of moisture but only if they're getting enough light with it. At this point it might be a good idea to take a peek at the rhizome to see if it looks healthy and to repot it into fresh moss if you can manage it.

I think I'm going to repot it with my own soil that I know for sure what's in it (mix of peat moss and perlite). As for the sunlight, this plant is growing indoors on a SouthEast facing windowsill where it gets like 2 hours of direct sunlight during the day and maybe 6 hours of indirect sunlight. How would I know that the rhizome is healthy?

The rhizome should be white and firm. Soft brown, black or gray around the growth point is rot which you can peel or scrape away when you repot if you see any. For older or larger plants, it's normal for one end of the rhizome, where leaves used to grow from, to have some black, but the opposite end where the new growth is should be firm and white.

You're going to have to find a way to give it more light. The bare minimum amount of direct sunlight for a VFT is 4 hours according to Matt Miller who runs this site. I'm somewhat skeptical that that would be enough, but I guess that's the amount required just to keep it living, not thriving. They're kind of like solar panels. Indirect sunlight isn't bright enough to power them.

Update:

I repotted my plant in a 50/50 mix of perlite and peat moss (no miracle grow stuff). Before putting in my plant in the fresh soil, I noticed my rhizome was 75% bright white and healthy looking and 25% of was rotten brown. I trimmed and cut off as much of the brown part of the rhizome that I could but I was scared of cutting out too much as to damage the overall rhizome. I added a bit of water to help with the repotting process. I observed the same thing. My new growth is still developing an outer lining of brown on the edges of the leaves before the brown consumes everything. I also moved the plant to a new window sill indoors where it should be getting enough light. The traps that do survive opening before the "brown plague" consumes them are bright red in colour, so that's gotta mean they are getting enough sunlight, right? Any new insight on my problem is appreciated. Thank you.

Supersport69 wrote: I repotted my plant in a 50/50 mix of perlite and peat moss (no miracle grow stuff) ... I added a bit of water to help with the repotting process.

Your wording "a bit of water" is worrying me a little bit. With peat moss, you need to make sure it is thoroughly moistened before using it. Otherwise it will repel water instead of absorbing it. The top can appear wet and the center can stay completely dry...like it's been sprayed with Scotch Guard. If you put the peat moss into the pot dry and then added water, I would definitely take it out and re-do it.

Supersport69 wrote: My new growth is still developing an outer lining of brown on the edges of the leaves before the brown consumes everything.

That's really strange. I'm not sure what's going on so I'm just going to think out loud and hopefully someone else can help you more definitively. Miracle Gro isn't the only maker of fertilized peat and perlite. Make sure yours isn't "enriched" at all (I'm guessing you did, but just don't want to miss anything). If we can rule out rot, chronically dry conditions, but not so dry it wilts, could potentially do that to leaves. If we rule out water problems, and nutrient problems, that only leaves pests or fungus in my mind. Mites usually affect the whole leaf, not just the leaf that I've seen, not just the edges. Aphids or some other sucking bug damage could maybe show first at the edges, but aphids would be very obvious to the naked eye on the undersides of the leaves. Fungus usually covers a large area or appears in spots. I'm really not sure. Sorry I can't be more help.

P.S. After thought: I think too high of minerals can sometimes have a lagging effect on the plant. It's possible it's still just sick from the original soil.