FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all!

Hope you can help me with an issue that I'm quite concerned about. About a month or so ago, I bought a pitcher plant and a VFT. I had to repot them myself (which was the first time repotting any plant ever).

The VFT has yet to produce traps. It's grown the flower bud twice now, which I've cut off. The leaves feel crispy/brittle to the touch, and the leaves have black edges around it, but also has red colouring, which I thought it would mean that it's getting enough sun? When I initially repotted it, I thought I did a good job, but then I found out that I didn't do it correctly as the plant was a bit loose and not packed in.

The plant gets around 6ish hours of direct sun a day, and I water it every other day. I have another VFT that I've longer, and it's producing new traps now, so I don't think it could be the environment. The only thing I think I may have done wrong, was not allowing it to acclimatise to its new environment? I straight away repotted it and then left it outside on my balcony. It's currently spring here, so I'd think it would be growing something!

I've attached the photo, so hopefully it's clear enough to see. Any suggestions, help, or tips would be greatly appreciated.

It does not look good, that is for sure. What type/brand of soil are you using and what type of water? Also, remember that it will start going dormant soon.

Not sure about the brand, but I bought it from a nursery who specialises in growing carnivorous plants. I believe it's a mixture of sphagnum moss and perlite. Water... well, I did use tap water (there's so many different suggestions that I've read; tap water is okay if you can drink from it, distilled water, rainwater) but I have been buying reversed osmosis bottled water, as I don't have access to my own distillery.

Oh, it's spring here in Australia (September - November). We just came out of the winter/dormancy period.

How much did you water it with the tap water. You shouldn't use tap water unless you can test it and it have less than 50 parts per million (ppm) of total dissolved solids (tds). You can pick one up for under $15 online. Thus is very important for flytraps. Less so for sarrs or nepenthes. You may need to flush it with distilled water if you used a lot of tap water.

I have mainly used tap water although I've started getting bottles of distilled water from the stores and have started watering them instead

The photo looks like it is behind a window, is the plant inside? The Super wide leaves could be a sign of light starvation.

Sorry if the photo isn't that well depicted! The plant is outside, and the leaves were like that when I received them from a carnivorous plant nursery via mail/post

I wonder if I packed the plant in too tight with the soil? A flower bud grew from the plant (for the second time - the first time it already had it when I received it), so I don't know if that suggests anything like if it's still growing or not...

Since it's spring for you and it's just coming out of dormancy, those wide leaves form the nursery are probably just because they did dormancy in a low light condition. They're probably browning a bit after being exposed to outside light and humidity. It honestly should be fine and is completely expected.

Watering with tap water a couple times shouldn't kill the plant, it's only if you do it for like a whole growing season. If you're really worried you can probably just flush the pot with distilled water.

If your sure the nursery is reputable, then they probably have the soil right. I wouldn't touch it and just give it time. It will only be a problem if any new leaves start dying.

I'd snip the flower buds though, the plant doesn't really look as prepared for a flowering yet.

Z_Y is completely correct, I would only add that as you've just repotted it, it will take a couple of weeks or more to settle down, so topwater it in with your RO water and leave it alone to settle in. The red could easily be sunburn if its come from growing indoors in a nursery.
Cheers
Steve

Cool, thanks for all the tips everyone, I'll give it a bit more time... I'm just worried that it's not growing/I did something wrong! It's one thing to read as much as you can about it, but another to grow it from scratch...

And they are definitely reputable. They grow various carnivorous plants to other botanical gardens, as well as do the retail stuff too.

I'll continue to just use the distilled water I bought and just keep an eye on it!