FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Newly into gardening and I’ve always wanted a Venus Flytrap and I managed to find one at Lowe’s recently and chose the one that looked healthiest to me. I transplanted it after feeding it once. Peat moss, although it is enhanced and been watering with bottled water not tap. It only got tap water once. Lots of rain here this season. Has been in the sun pretty consistently from dawn to dusk. Has eaten three times so far, nothing on the list of harmful insects. A couple traps did close on some peat moss during transplanting. One has turned black the other remains closed.
The whole thing started out bright green.



Now I’m seeing reddish streaks and it got more intense in a short span of time and I’m hoping it’s not a bad sign.
The only issues we have had in the rest of the garden are Japanese beetles but they’ve only gone after the roses and basil. So I’m not sure what could be wrong, if anything.

Hi there! Welcome to the forum!

You have a classic case of mineral burn there. Here's why:

Bottled water is enhanced with minerals, so it's not good. I use my tap water only because it has less than 50ppm of impurities/minerals. Get a TDS meter to measure your water to see if it's okay. If not, stick with rain and distilled water only.

The peat moss you need can't be enhanced because the enhanced stuff has added minerals and plant food put into it. I get the big sack of Premeir peat at the part of the garden center where the big bags of mulch and manure are at Lowe's. That stuff is 100% sphagnum peat moss, nothing else added.

Fix these issues and your plant should recover.

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Ah I thought the bottles would be safer because we have so much chlorine in the tap water (I can always smell it). It’s the kind you get delivered for offices and such. Natural spring water. But I can pick up distilled.

Is there anything I can add in that I may have sitting around the house until I can get that? I think I saw something about silica- that wasn’t those silica gel packets they put in leather goods is it?

Thanks for your help!

A lot of people here recommend pool filter sand. Don't use silica packets that come in other things because they are designed to absorb moisture.

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I was finally able to get plain peat moss (well, it has yucca extract in it but no fertilizers or additives). I also got distilled water and tried to flush it through with half a gallon today since I didn’t have time to repot it yet.
There’s only one trap that turned black and the rest only show spots and I’m hoping it will recover once it’s repotted in the right stuff.

My coworker has a bunch of them and suggested I buy blood worms from the fish food section and soak them in water if they don’t get enough flies, but she said the traps will then black and fall off after eating those. From what I’ve read it’s supposed to take a few meals before that happens.

Right now though I’m trying to focus on recovery from the mineral burn so if anyone has tips on accelerating that process I’d appreciate it!

Gonna stick with the distilled water from now on too!