FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

A few weeks ago, I noticed that my VFT had started a new growth point with a few new traps sprouting up, each of them smaller than at the main growth point, but all at least 10mm long.

However one of the traps is a complete dwarf. I measured it at 4mm long, and attempted to see if it works, however it will not close due to its size,having no trigger hairs. Actually I’m pretty sure if it did have trigger hairs they’d probably touch the opposite sides of the trap.

Have you ever seen anything like this before? Is it something I’m doing wrong. The plant gets enough food, water and sunlight and is otherwise healthy, but the tiny trap really does stand out to me like a sore thumb. I’ve put a picture on so you can see.

What does the overall plant look like?

Sometimes they just produce weird traps for no real reason.

Fieldofscreams wrote:What does the overall plant look like?

Sometimes they just produce weird traps for no real reason.

Thanks for the reply!
The traps looks overal to be healthy. A few traps are dying but they’re growing back at the same rate. The other healthy traps are all green and perfectly formed. I think you’re right to say it’s just a weird spinoff. When I looked underneath the trap you can see in the picture I saw another ridiculously small trap, about 2mm long. Also, I probably should have mentioned that the new growth point also sent up small leaves with no traps on them. Or perhaps the traps were so small they just didn’t form. I don’t know. But thanks very much for the reply.

This can also be caused by not enough light.

What are your growing conditions?

Fieldofscreams wrote:This can also be caused by not enough light.

What are your growing conditions?

It’s planted in sphagnum, moss, gets plenty of pure rainwater whenever needed and sits on a sunny south-facing windowsill. It’s gets all it needs.

If it's being grown inside then there is a high probability that the small traps+wide leafs are caused by not enough light.

Windowsills really can't give the plant enough light.

Fieldofscreams wrote:If it's being grown inside then there is a high probability that the small traps+wide leafs are caused by not enough light.

Windowsills really can't give the plant enough light.

It gets several hours of direct sun on a good day, and all of its traps are a healthy green colour, it gets enough sunlight. I know growing indoors can hinder development, but in the UK we don’t have the nicest weather so growing it indoors is usually the best course of action.
Thanks for the tips though!

It's not getting any direct sunlight, that's the problem. Direct sunlight means that it is getting direct light from the sun with nothing blocking it. The window filters an incredible amount of light, far more than you can imagine. The plant would get more light outside even on a overcast/cloudy day than it will ever get behind a window.

It really needs to be outside. Being in the UK isn't a good excuse either, I know the weather there and it's not much different than most states in the US. Have you ever heard of the cpuk forums? All those guys grow outside.