FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Dear users,

we got out of dormancy all right. I've grown VFTs for some time now, 8 years give or take. I had to move last year and some conditions have changed as a result and I believe my VFTs will do fine, there's just something I'm a bit concerned about and it is visible damage on NEW leaves. Could you take a look please and post some thoughts?

Mine are sooooo much worse after dormancy.

My pots freeze solid quit a few times during dormancy. Last year almost all the top growth completely died down to below soil level. Pots looked like I had nothing in them but soil.

Yet they come back as if nothing happened.

In other words, your fine, your plants will come right back without issue.

I noticed on my plants when they came out of dormancy that the traps where really small and quickly turned black. Each new trap has been larger than the last one so far. The last 3 or so actually fully formed and opened before going black and dying. I think it is just the plant throwing leafs to get some light and then replacing them with better ones. All of this is just a guess as this is my second growing season and I am just coming out of dormancy for the first time. My DC XL flowered 4 times I cut them all the Alien I have threw up one flower that I cut. Both of them where purchased at the end of the summer as starters from FTS so I want to let them get better established before flowering. I also have a regular D. Capensis and a P. Moranensis that are both flowering. Neither of the Sarracenia that I have flowered.

When was the last time they were repotted? Maybe the soil is a bit stagnant and promoting some rot. I’ve noticed all mine do better in long fiber sphagnum also, so you may want to consider switching the substrate with a repotting as well.

Alderas- you have a different situation. If new growth is constantly dying you have something going on that shouldn't be.

Fieldofscreams - thank you for your comment. The reason why they don't look so bad is that in my environment, we get temperatures way down below zero so I created a 'dormancy box' in which I keep constant temperature between 5 and 10 °C during winter. You can take a look here: The box on the right is used as a dormancy box for winter and germinating box in spring (not just for VFTs). I put up an artificial light as seen on the left because I only get sunlight from dawn to 12am.

Alderas - traps turning black early on is a sign of something, maybe light or medium?

SundewWolf - that's actually a good point, I repotted two VFTs this year and the rest last year, however, the symptoms I'm observing are found on each, I'll see how they develop. Long fiber sphagnum - thank you for the tip, I'll think about it. I've had good results with classic peat moss mixed with perlite and I also tried putting in coconut fiber in some so I'll see how that goes.

Thank you to everyone for your comments.

They are only turning black after new ones that are larger grow in and basically cover them. I am not having light issues I have them in the window ATM with a Platinum LED P-300 hooked up to the astrological timer sunrise is about 6:15 AM and sets at about 10:30 PM right now. Medium is 100% LFSM. I will take some photos of my setup and plants when I get home and post them.

Alderas - good for you, looking forward to some pics. Btw, I looked Platinum LED P-300 up and as it turns out I can't get it in my country.

Here are the photos.
As you can see from the background I got snow in the yard last night. Still waiting to move them outside but they are getting enough light to come out of dormancy. If you see anything wrong with what I am doing please let me know.

Honestly, I can see nothing wrong anywhere. Impressive! The light seems so red, is that the pic or is it how it's supposed to be. I thought more white and blue bands of the spectrum are great for growing and yellow and red bands for flowering.

I also thought this but it turns out that it’s not really true. The “purple” LEDs (mix of red and blue diodes) seems to be optimal for vegetative growth. Makes sense if you look at which part of the spectrum the chlorophyll alpha and chlorophyll beta absorb.

https://youtu.be/sfihE4IuFuU

“Green light” is also useful but the LED technology doesn’t seem to be ready to make an efficient green diode yet. To get around this, a combination of the red and blue LEd and a fluorescent “green spectrum” light seems to be optimal (or at least the most optimal other than just putting them in full sun). My main point was that the red light is not just for flowering.

SundewWolf - thank you for the explanation, how simple is this right? I loooked up the chlorophyll a+b and watched the video - very helpful. However, you mentioned green light is optimal too, I can't get my head around this since leaves are green because they sort of bounce off green right? and absorb blue and red...

SundewWolf - I got the answer by watching more videos made by Al Gracian. That guy rocks!