FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I repotted my B52 Venus flytrap yesterday for the first time in 4 years.

Please bear in mind that I’m not very experienced with this sort of stuff. Think of me as a “noob” when it comes to growing carnivores plants.

I started by carefully turning the pot upside down and breaking off clumps of soil from around the edges. The very top of the soil was annoying to break apart because it was so compacted from the 4 years of touching & pressing on it to see if it needed watering. But once I removed all the soil and exposed the rhizome, I noticed that for some reason, the top of it was at least 2 cm below the top of the soil. I know for a fact that I didn’t plant it that deep originally, so I’m not sure why it grew so far down overtime. I think that the deep rhizome and compacted soil is what caused the next thing I saw. My plant seemed to have 2 halves to its rhizome, it had a healthy looking (in my opinion) part with just some dead leaves still attached and an unhealthy yellowish brown part with no foliage growing out of it. It definitely looked like crown rot to me, and so I made a decision and tore it off of the heather part of the plant. It was not attached very well so it took very little strength to do. Roots came off with the rotting part of the rhizome and so though I knew it probably wouldn’t work, I planted the rotting part of the rhizome in a separate container to see if it would miraculously survive and start to grow. So back to the healthier plant, I cut off most of the dead stuff and put it in its new pot with about a 50/50 mix of pre moistened peat to perlite. I planted it so the top of the rhizome is just barely below the very surface of the soil (maybe 1 mm below) and watered it to settle the soil.

Just a side note is that my VFT was producing some new traps, but all the new growth died when the plant started making a flower stalk. I cut off the flower stalk when it was about 2 inches tall and plan on doing the same with the second flower stalk you can see in the pictures. The dying new growth is what made me finally decide to repot my VFT.

I have a few questions but I’ll list how I currently care for my VFT below first:

- I water my VFT with distilled water.
- I keep the soil most but not wet.
- I water my VFT from the top.
- I keep my VFT under a grow light indoors.
- I do give my VFT a winter dormancy.
- I don’t use MiracleGrow or any fertilizers.

So now for my questions:

- Do you think I did the right thing by ripping off the dying part of the rhizome? Or would you have left it on?
- Did I plant the rhizome at the correct depth when repotting?
- Do you think there’s any chance that the rotting part of the rhizome will recover and start to grow a new plant?
- And lastly, do you have any tips on how to reduce or minimize the transplant shock?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

StrongManPeen wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 1:34 am - Do you think I did the right thing by ripping off the dying part of the rhizome? Or would you have left it on?
- Did I plant the rhizome at the correct depth when repotting?
- Do you think there’s any chance that the rotting part of the rhizome will recover and start to grow a new plant?
- And lastly, do you have any tips on how to reduce or minimize the transplant shock?

In order (and in my opinion):

• I would probably have left it on, but I doubt it hurt the plant to remove it. I've heard people say it's a good idea to remove the old end of the rhizome anyway.
• I think the rhizome would like to be a little deeper, but it doesn't look too bad. The flytrap will likely adjust to the situation if you leave it.
• I don't think the old part of the rhizome was actually rotting. It looks to me like it still had living energy stores, connected to the dead ends of long-gone traps. Since it had roots, if I'm right about that, it's basically guaranteed to grow a new plant if you care for it - It has lots of energy stores and it already has roots, so there's not much standing in the way of it regrowing as a division of the original plant.
• The best way to minimize transplant shock is to do it just before the plant comes out of dormancy, so it sleeps through the transplant and just wakes up in a new place. Obviously you can't rewind time and do that... But don't worry about it. Just give the plant light and water and it'll adjust and spring back.

It's also worth noting, if you haven't missed the chance already, that you should be planting those cut flower stalks! They'll also yield clones of the flytrap if kept alive.

Thanks for the detailed response and for taking the time to write it all out, this is very helpful and much appreciated. I did end up planting the flower stalk to try to propagate it. I’ll post pictures if/when I see any growth from the flower stalk or the other piece of the rhizome.

And thanks @optique for the feedback too, your VFTs look super healthy. I hope to have a big pot of them like that someday.