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By CaptainMalnacido
Posts:  11
Joined:  Wed May 19, 2021 2:09 am
#381527
Greetings i need help with some flytrap i had with overwatering issues. It all started like 2 months ago when i decided to put some extra water due a more than expected extreme spring heat seasson. I decided to increase the watering as such as i live on a relativelly heat place (Guadalajara Mexico).

Later i noticed newborn traps dying and weaker growth. I though at start it was due the heat but then last week i noticed fungus gnats larva and undestood ive been overwatering too much. Since i didnt had any insicticide for carnivorous plants i tried umpotting and drowning the plant so the gnat larva will drown and repotted with fresh soil (50/50 peat perlite) and applied hydrogen peroxyde in case of fungus. Also started to watering way less. This had good results until last sunday when i noticed a leave who started to die from the center of the crown and something who looks like some kind of orange fungus. I donw know if is still fungus gnat larva inside on the rhizome or any unknown threat or rare fungus, so i used more hydrogen peroxyde which i didnt like that much since i applied such chemical in a short time. I also removed some larva and some laying eggs or something behind the leaves (some kind of weird white to brown bubbles). I also ensured the top of the soil is dry enoug to avoid further plague.

For the growing enviroment the plant has been on direct sunligh since i have it (last year) and i use large 16oz styrfoam cups. When i overwatered i used around 2 to 3cm of daily water for around 2 hours, both on the base and top, now i use around less than 1cm of water until i notice some weight on the pot (around 15 min) daily or every other day. Here in my city we have an average of 32-35c (90 to 95f) on spring during the day and 16-18c (60-65f)during night. The plant recives around 13h of direct sunlight with such temperature. The water i use is "Garrafon water" which my local carnivorous plant nursery reccomended for watering since remote years, due the infamous tendency of being relatively low mineral water, even for humans, i didint had problems so far but might be a clue to the issue, as may be saline enough to harm flytraps, i dont have a ppm detector yet unfortunatelly but im planning to get one to check this. We will have summer soon which implies almost permanent cloud dappened sunlight and daily rain, dropping the daily temperatures to 22-26c (72-78f) which means i have only this month to solve the overwatering issue as the cold enviroment may get more difficult to get rid of the excess of water.

Unfortunatelly its been a time since i used this kind of web forum so i only have imgur links for my images: https://imgur.com/a/SFOtIUN
If you need more information about feel free to ask. Thanks for reading and sorry for the phrasing and gramar, english isnt my native language.
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By CPhunter101
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Posts:  593
Joined:  Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:30 pm
#381531
Since you overwatered, your plant may be suffering from root rot. Are the roots brown/stinky/mushy?
Secondly, Garrafon water is very suspicious. It may be high in minerals and killing your plant.
If you can, switch to watering with distilled water or collect rain water in a clean container.
Try not to water too much. When the water dries up, leave your flytrap to dry for a day or two before replacing the water.
I'm not an expert, but I think these may be some reasons why your flytrap is dying.
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By CaptainMalnacido
Posts:  11
Joined:  Wed May 19, 2021 2:09 am
#381533
I agree with the water, even when every carnivorous plant nursery on Mexico reccomends Garrafon water, which is purified water for human consume, unfortunatelly distlled water here is very expensive, i think 1l may cost as much as a couple of plants. For rain water i may need to wait untill summer rains to adquire it, which is why i will buy one of there ppm detectors. Wouldnt be suprised if its some kind of money scheme so you buy plants often.

Root rot is definitelly there i guess, altough im yet to determine any weird odour i found some weak roots shredding from the plant. I will do some lesser water this week
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By ChefDean
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Posts:  9235
Joined:  Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:44 am
#381549
Sadly, your plant has some severe mineral burn, likely caused by the water. While the water sold in the garrafones is fine for you to drink, it has added minerals for taste. The three most popular ones, Bonafont, Electropura, and Ciel all have calcium chloride, sodium sulfate, and sodium bicarbonate, which are all bad news for carnivorous plants.
You could try collecting air conditioning runoff, but a lot of those units have copper or copper alloys that the water vapor condenses onto, or copper drain pipes. As it runs off from there, it can take copper ions with it, which are also bad for plants.
Other than buying an RO unit, collecting rain water would be your best choice. But then you'd have to somehow store it all, and empty garrafones cost money. The plant is still alive, so there's a chance to save it once the rains come. For your sake, I hope the rains come early. However, I'm going to Puerto Vallarta next month, actually Nuevo Vallarta in Nayarit, so, for my sake, I hope the rains hold off a bit.
Good luck.
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By CaptainMalnacido
Posts:  11
Joined:  Wed May 19, 2021 2:09 am
#381555
Thanks for all the answers! i did some research and theres a small chance i may get distilled water from some big supermarket at decent price, however, before commiting to buy it id want some opinions about it. Were talking about this one: https://www.amazon.com/Arrowhead-Water- ... B00DD6FKBW Should be safe for my plants? Other than that the only thing left is rain water, which i may be lucky as is expected rain this weekend. Unfortunatelly RO units are rare here (never heard of someone with such device) as well as air conditioners (very few people have it here, myself not included) Thanks for all the help!
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By ChefDean
Location: 
Posts:  9235
Joined:  Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:44 am
#381556
Yes, the water you linked would be perfect. Distilled, so it will have zero, or almost zero, TDS, and your plant will love it.
The only thing you'll want to do is use it to flush the media a few times to get the minerals out that are left behind from the garrafones.
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By CaptainMalnacido
Posts:  11
Joined:  Wed May 19, 2021 2:09 am
#381578
It turns out, the mall i visit didnt had any distilled water, instead i found my local acuarium sells it at a very reasonable price which is very surprising and kinda infuriating. I will report results after a couple of weeks to see if it got better. Thank you so much for the help!
Panman liked this
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