FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey! I'd be very grateful for some advice from the indoor growers with my dionaeas. The ones outside are doing great. These, alongside the little sarracenias, not so much. On the other hand the purpureas just beside them are much prettier in the tent than the outdoor ones.
The average temps are ~28C and 50% relative humidity with the light and fan on and ~23C and 70% humidity in off times. Only distilled water. Peat + perlite as the medium. 12/12h cycle. No fertilization but the occasional bug.
There's new growth at all times but they're much worse than the same divisions that were left outside. Not only that but the new growth is wilting before they even open. They were much, much lusher just some weeks ago. What am I missing?

Thanks for any answers or participation!
Stay safe!

Type of light? Brand / model? How far away from the VFT?

are you tray method watering them, or is the tray they just to collect water? Meaning do they sit in water all the time?

Some close up shots so we can see the level they sit in the grow media would be helpful.

The light is a Mars Hydro SP150 and the tent a Mars Hydro 70x70x160cm. The light is 65 cm above the dionaeas.

The pots are 13cm in height. The water tray they are in is 5.5cm high. The tray is constantly filled distilled water.

If the first photo is insufficient, I can add a closer photo. But as you can see in the current photos, the growth is dense enough to obscure any level comparison. They were replanted in the winter to a depth that the rosette was not completely buried and slightly protruding.

The plants were very lush and green after this winter and started to wither in august.

Has anyone grown these plants in a grow tent with long term success?

I believe flytraps are generally claustrophobic lol but on the serious side i believe their stomata are designed for the outdoors fluctuations. A stable environment like grow tents will cause the guard cell to malfunction since they cannot close to regulate transpiration, which means the leaf constantly loses water and may result in transpiration malfunctioning for no rest allowed. The guard cells are sensitive to light intensity, temperature, wind, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentrations. When you screw up stomata regulations the plant will have a nightmare regulating its water intake. The pores must open to allow CO2 intake/cooling the plant through evaporation, but at the same time they must be allowed to close by environment stimulation to prevent plant overdoing it and dehydrates itself.

Thank you!
A fascinating hypothesis. I've since put them outside with the thought that they either die inside or outside - and inside has proved to be worse. Might have been a tyrant in my previous life.
What I find odd is that the purpureas which are also temperate and grow in much similar conditions in the wild are thriving in the tent.

Hmm not sure about the exact difference on somata but guessing pitcher plants better at dealing with constant moisture for their water holding abilities/waxy inner side vs a more active mechanism/structure like vft. Vft also dehydrates fast which likely indicates high transpiration rate but not sure what percentage goes for xylem water transport and digestion, but would imagine its quite active for trap also relies on osmosis to shut.

I think having them constantly sit in water, especially indoors, is way too much water. Your plants look similar to mine when I was growing them under a covered balcony so they were only getting 2 to 3 hours of direct sunlight per day. I had them potted in peat and perlite mix and I constantly watered them. My plants looked like yours at the end of the growing season. When I re-potted, I discovered that on all of my plants (I only had 3 at that time), half of each rhizomes had rotted and turned slimy.

Right now, my indoor plants only get watered once the top of the media is almost dry.