FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello. I am writing an essay on Venus Flytraps. Can someone explain why people call carnivorous plant kits "death cubes"? Why do the flytraps in the kits look like they are dying? Thanks for your time.

Not all die. Give it some Tennessee lovin' and you go from deathcube to this in one year.
deathcube-repotting-t49032.html

Love Plant wrote: ↑Sun Mar 07, 2021 4:42 amCan someone give explain why people call carnivorous plant kits are called death cubes?

They're actually more rectangular than cubic, but that's close enough. They're convenient containers for selling flytraps (and prevent people from setting off the traps), but they aren't very nice for the plants inside.

• The plants never get water: a bad and a good thing, as the stores wouldn't use low-mineral water like they should.
• The plants get little or no sun: also a bad and a good thing, as hours of sunshine on the death cubes would heat up the air inside and bake the plants to death.
• The plants get no fresh air.

Love Plant wrote:Why do the flytraps in the kits look like they are dying?

Due to improper care; see all of the reasons above. Fortunately, flytraps can be very resilient given half a chance. I've bought sad-looking flytraps from the clearance table for $1 each, and they've all recovered nicely.

If you want more info, take a look at Matt's Venus flytrap care guide.

The packages for VFT sales at retailers are designed for the purpose of promoting an "impulse purchase" of a plant that has very particular growing requirements. Close the sale -- that's all.

So these "cubes" show off a few healthy traps which only last a few days in that package. But -- at $7.99 -- the markup is big enough that they don't have to sell that many!

The plants slowly die in the store, and the after-purchase survival rate of those plants is likely very low, since the average schmoe takes it home, pokes the traps closed with a pencil, feeds one a wad of ground beef, leaves it on the kitchen counter, and then wonders why all the traps have turned black a week later. "I had a Venus Flytrap once, but it died."

...but even near-death VFTs can be easily rescued because the plants are quite resilient and will recover and thrive once the particular growing requirements are met.

Requirement #1: TAKE IT OUT OF THE DEATH CUBE!

I'm old enough to remember the comic book ads that suggested feeding VFT's raw hamburger. Fun for the whole family! Just like Sea-Monkeys.

I remember Sea Monkeys! How disappointed was I when we sent away for them from an Archie comic book -- as an 8-year-old -- I realized they did NOT smile, wave, wear crowns, nor build castles. LOL... "pets".