FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello, everyone. As a new user on the forum, I ask for your help. I've got a G16 flycatcher, ages 4 or 5. He just woke up from hibernation.Whoever bought the plant had already cut the flower stalk. I made a soil change and put it under a strong LED light.After about 3 weeks, there is still no progress. I use distilled water as water. There's no minerals or chemicals in it.And yet it still pulls out small traps, and those traps start to darken before they open. He gets 16 hours of artificial light a day and stays in the dark for eight hours.I water from the bottom, about 1-2 fingers thick as the water in the container runs out.The soil I use is a mixture of mineral and nitrogen-poor soil suitable for the plant.I apologize for my bad English, thank you for your help.

@Panman, First of all, thank you for your concern. My soil mixture is peat moss and perlite in a ratio of 1: 1. The first day I bought the plant three weeks ago, I did the soil change. The pot I use has a large number of holes and is 9 cm (3.90 inches) in height.

@Panman, If I don't see an improvement after a few more days of progress, I'm going to change the water I'm using. I intend to continue with water worth 30-40 PPM. I don't think there's anything wrong with 50 PPM. Is the use of water of these values objectionable? Can it cause problems such as mineral accumulation?

Are you dumping the water trey to help control TDS build up? 30 TDS water would build up fast if you are just topping off the trey.

@optique, I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean. I think you asked me if I cleaned the water bowl. I'm using pure water right now, but I'm thinking of changing water if my plant doesn't develop later. 35 If I want to clean the mineral accumulation caused by PPM water from the water container, what are the methods of this?

I'm new and don't know much. But I see you haven't got a response in a few days. Maybe remove the tray and top water to push oxygen in and built-up minerals out of the growing mix...letting the water wash through and not collect in the tray. Do this a few times over a time period of a week or two. Make sure the mix does not dry out completely in between waterings. My understandings is that fly traps grow in the top layer of the bogs and not really standing in the water, that they draw their moisture from the moss. If the root system has grown a good amount then at roughly 4 inches tall the pot can't keep the roots out of the water. So, you may want to let the water drain well rather than the roots/pot standing in water all of the time.

I don't have any experience, but it seems that something needs to change...my uneducated guess would be that the plant is staying too wet.

Best wishes!

The other plants are under the same light, correct? They look like they're doing good so lighting may not be an issue. You mentioned a "strong" LED light...make sure it isn't too strong or too close to the fly trap. And color temp (I think) should be in the 5000k to 6500k range.

@Intheswamp, Thank you for your concern. I continue to use pure water as water. And I'm constantly measuring the values of the water under the pot. For now, I'm not in trouble with mineral build-up. But I agree with you about the excess water. For the last 3 days, I've been letting the soil dry out a little bit more. In my previous experience, no matter how old the plant is, if it is small in size, they are usually more sensitive to water. Especially if the traps start to die before they open, it's usually caused by excess water. I remembered that by reading my notes from 3 years ago, The new traps look healthy for now.

@Intheswamp, Yes, the plants are under the same light. They're under 3200 Lumens 6500K light. The light doesn't seem to be doing any harm right now. The distance between it and the light is 35 CM (13.7 INCHES). That's how I get good yields.

Well I can't see the photos, but hopefully the plant doesn't experience what I like to call "star crossed snipping." I have experienced this with two plants where upon snipping the flower stalks the plant decides to halt all growth for nearly all season. Then either late summer/fall, the plant starts dividing itself into a bunch of little plantlets right before winter.

Edit: of course the photos load after this... it looks like it is pushing new growth out just fine

@WONE, I had this incident you mentioned four years ago in type B52. After cutting the flower stem, its growth stopped completely. It wasn't creating new traps. Like you said, he brought out a cub near winter. I think the reason for this problem is to cut the flower stem early. I have experienced that it is more useful to allow the flower stem to develop a little, and then cut it, especially if the plant is large in age and size. In some flycatchers, after cutting the flower stem for two years in a row, allowing it to grow for the third year in a row, I found that plants developed faster and healthier.