FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Ok, so I made a post about a month ago lamenting that, on my first VFT which I just purchased from the store, I thought my traps were dying off and that I had let the flower stalk grow too large.

Turns out, all the old traps died off, but they were replaced with newer, larger, healthier traps. When I got it from the store, it had about 8 traps and now it has close to 30!

But now I have noticed 2 things that seem to be peculiar, given what I've read on here:

1) So, on top of the flower stalk, tiny traps have appeared, like on the actual flower part. What's going on?
2) A 2nd stalk has started to shoot up. I thought it's only supposed to have 1 stalk... I've read multiple times that once the flower blooms, the VFT is pretty much done growing for the season. Is that just BS?

The thing where the traps are growing on the actual part where flowers should be is called a False Vivipray, its pretty cool and happens with venus flytraps and drosera. A venus flytrap doesnt stop growing after it sends up a flower stalk, it just slows its growth A LOT because it takes tons of energy to make a flower stalk. I suggest cutting off the flower stalk that has the false Vivipray and putting it in some soil, it should take root and grow into another venusflytrap.

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I was going to ask for a picture of the false vivipray (I don't know anything about them but it sounded interesting) but google images already has a bunch of examples and yeah... they're pretty great.

Followup question for DeadlyCarnivore: I've been wondering how to reconcile the information that flower stalks waste energy with the general rule that anything green photosynthesizes and adds energy to the plant. My tallest growth (by far, towers over everything) gave up at the point where it had its chin up and was about to turn semicircular and grow teeth. Instead it just stopped right there. So it's tall and green like a flower stalk and I don't know if it's helping or wasting energy.

trapperkeeper69 wrote:I was going to ask for a picture of the false vivipray (I don't know anything about them but it sounded interesting) but google images already has a bunch of examples and yeah... they're pretty great.

Followup question for DeadlyCarnivore: I've been wondering how to reconcile the information that flower stalks waste energy with the general rule that anything green photosynthesizes and adds energy to the plant. My tallest growth (by far, towers over everything) gave up at the point where it had its chin up and was about to turn semicircular and grow teeth. Instead it just stopped right there. So it's tall and green like a flower stalk and I don't know if it's helping or wasting energy.

Show me a picture? If its a trap but it has stopped growing you can cut it if you want. Whats the point of a trap that stopped growing before it could fully form? I would think that if it stopped growing it isnt using any more energy, but could now just be absorbing light and making more energy...

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That sounds pretty reasonable, that it's not using energy if it's not still growing. I'll let it keep doing what it's doing. You can actually watch the trap develop and look really promising but then not finish. I posted a time lapse video.

time-lapse-video-of-plants-clawing-thei ... 39199.html

trapperkeeper69 wrote:That sounds pretty reasonable, that it's not using energy if it's not still growing. I'll let it keep doing what it's doing. You can actually watch the trap develop and look really promising but then not finish. I posted a time lapse video.

time-lapse-video-of-plants-clawing-thei ... 39199.html

The plant that has the big undeveloped trap looks kind of light starved to me... When I first started out with growing venus flytraps, I wasnt giving them enough light (im still not, but I finally have one that is growing pretty well now) and they looked like the venus flytrap you have in the back there... If the plant is still forming leaves with no traps, try and give it more light? If not, it should be fine.

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There are 5+ other traps by now. And while it's still disappointing that none of them are nearly as big as that guy was looking to be, there are a multitude of reasons why it could have failed even beyond sunlight, such as that it was growing up in the time when I had it in a bad brand of peat moss/perlite. (All the living traps are newer than that.)