- Thu May 19, 2022 4:36 pm
#411525
Hi there
My father gifted me Venus flytraps for my birthday a little over a month ago, and I’m a first timer raising the plant. Honestly, I’m pretty new to plants in general; I have almost no experience. I currently have 5 traps.
[For additional info, I do not know which seller he purchased them from. They came from Amazon]
That being said, a few days ago I had some sort of animal dig up and chew on a few of my plants. Two were pretty severely damaged from the attack.
I’m now finding strange grey rocks in my pots—along with smaller, white grains. I believe it was deposited by the animal as when I had potted them, I hadn’t ever seen them.
[From what I’ve read, the mixture I used had 10% sand, 60% peat moss, and 30% perlite. It is branded as carnivorous soil, listing itself as being non-treated]
I’m worried about minerals, should I repot all of them? Would further stress harm the chewed ones?
With my lack of experience, I find that I’m being very much of a worry wort. I now am suspecting the pots I’m using are not safe. I picked them up at Walmart, though it does not list what the material is made of. I can find similar-looking pots on their website, however, and those are listed as ceramic.
[I’ll specify that I do not know the brand, therefore I cannot confirm if it’s the same pots]
Here’s the really embarrassing question, forgive me— if it’s listed as just ceramic, does that mean it’s unglazed? Or is it considered glazed? I tried answering my own question by comparing images of glazed/unglazed ceramic pottery, but it made me more unsure. [Other then that, here’s some more information in case there’s any other advice or any concerns.
- To water my plants, I use rain water I collected myself, or pure distilled water. I water around the edges, enough that a layer of water forms [[but drains into the soil still]] and I do this every few days. Still figuring out a good watering schedule, but I make sure they don’t dry up.
- They are outside, located on the railing of the porch where they get direct sunlight. [[I did at one point put them closer to the ground, but put them back after the animal attack.]]
- I live in Southern Pines NC, about 2 hours from their native range. [[Just to get an idea of the environment they’re in]]
- They do catch plenty of bugs on their own, despite how high up they are.
- I did make a mistake when I initially got them in the mail over a month ago. I put them outside without acclimating them, and I believe it sunburned them. I wasn’t aware of the idea of acclimation until I stumbled onto this site a few weeks ago.
- I am slightly concerned about small strings of webbing that I find on my plants. It’s just one strand or two across, however. And when I check underside of traps or stems/leaves, I see nothing.
- There does seem to be a few species of springtail hanging around. Under and on the pots there are a grey ones; I do not know of the species. They seem to avoid the soil? Or, at the least, I haven’t seen any in it. They like the moisture under the pots though, for obvious reasons, and reproduce rapidly around there. On the pots themselves and on the soil, I have spotted a few springtails of a different species. I believe globular, as it is very tiny with a dome shape, and two white dots on said dome.
- I believe I also had a predatory mite hanging around, I do not recall species name. But it is the kind that leaves a red mark if you squish it, and they tend to be very quick. However, what small population there was has now disappeared. Unsure if that is good or bad.]
Last question, should I be straining my rain water?
I’m surrounded by pine trees, and I find that when I go to collect rain water, there is often bits of plant material. I pick out the larger bits that I can, then funnel the water into an empty jug. However, it does leave some plant residue. Would this be harmful to my flytraps?
Thank you!
Sorry for the long post, I’m not sure if the formatting is alright. I’m very new to forums.
My father gifted me Venus flytraps for my birthday a little over a month ago, and I’m a first timer raising the plant. Honestly, I’m pretty new to plants in general; I have almost no experience. I currently have 5 traps.
[For additional info, I do not know which seller he purchased them from. They came from Amazon]
That being said, a few days ago I had some sort of animal dig up and chew on a few of my plants. Two were pretty severely damaged from the attack.
I’m now finding strange grey rocks in my pots—along with smaller, white grains. I believe it was deposited by the animal as when I had potted them, I hadn’t ever seen them.
[From what I’ve read, the mixture I used had 10% sand, 60% peat moss, and 30% perlite. It is branded as carnivorous soil, listing itself as being non-treated]
I’m worried about minerals, should I repot all of them? Would further stress harm the chewed ones?
With my lack of experience, I find that I’m being very much of a worry wort. I now am suspecting the pots I’m using are not safe. I picked them up at Walmart, though it does not list what the material is made of. I can find similar-looking pots on their website, however, and those are listed as ceramic.
[I’ll specify that I do not know the brand, therefore I cannot confirm if it’s the same pots]
Here’s the really embarrassing question, forgive me— if it’s listed as just ceramic, does that mean it’s unglazed? Or is it considered glazed? I tried answering my own question by comparing images of glazed/unglazed ceramic pottery, but it made me more unsure. [Other then that, here’s some more information in case there’s any other advice or any concerns.
- To water my plants, I use rain water I collected myself, or pure distilled water. I water around the edges, enough that a layer of water forms [[but drains into the soil still]] and I do this every few days. Still figuring out a good watering schedule, but I make sure they don’t dry up.
- They are outside, located on the railing of the porch where they get direct sunlight. [[I did at one point put them closer to the ground, but put them back after the animal attack.]]
- I live in Southern Pines NC, about 2 hours from their native range. [[Just to get an idea of the environment they’re in]]
- They do catch plenty of bugs on their own, despite how high up they are.
- I did make a mistake when I initially got them in the mail over a month ago. I put them outside without acclimating them, and I believe it sunburned them. I wasn’t aware of the idea of acclimation until I stumbled onto this site a few weeks ago.
- I am slightly concerned about small strings of webbing that I find on my plants. It’s just one strand or two across, however. And when I check underside of traps or stems/leaves, I see nothing.
- There does seem to be a few species of springtail hanging around. Under and on the pots there are a grey ones; I do not know of the species. They seem to avoid the soil? Or, at the least, I haven’t seen any in it. They like the moisture under the pots though, for obvious reasons, and reproduce rapidly around there. On the pots themselves and on the soil, I have spotted a few springtails of a different species. I believe globular, as it is very tiny with a dome shape, and two white dots on said dome.
- I believe I also had a predatory mite hanging around, I do not recall species name. But it is the kind that leaves a red mark if you squish it, and they tend to be very quick. However, what small population there was has now disappeared. Unsure if that is good or bad.]
Last question, should I be straining my rain water?
I’m surrounded by pine trees, and I find that when I go to collect rain water, there is often bits of plant material. I pick out the larger bits that I can, then funnel the water into an empty jug. However, it does leave some plant residue. Would this be harmful to my flytraps?
Thank you!
Sorry for the long post, I’m not sure if the formatting is alright. I’m very new to forums.