FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, I'm new here! I have been keeping a VFT for exactly a year and it's really done well until this week!
I live in the southern Pacific area of Costa Rica at 5oo meters elevation. I have the plant housed in a plastic pot with an appropriate substrate, watering, etc. The plant has flowered twice, divided into several smaller plants, and has been catching plenty of small insects naturally in the Costa Rican sun for several hours of morning sun a day.
The problem is that the traps became paler pink and were emerging smaller due to the very rainy season we are having since April that will continue until December. We have had unusually cloudy skies. My plant has really deteriorated in the past couple of weeks and I do not know if it's in trouble or just going dormant.
We had some very bright sun for 2-3 hours five days ago and it's possible it became sunburned in the sun as it was not acclimated due to our weather. I don't understand why it would send up an inflorescence in July if it were going dormant in August. Here are photos showing how it looked in 5/14/22 , on 7/18/22 , and today 8/4/22 .
My urge is to cut off dead parts, cut back on water, and leave it alone, but I would appreciate any suggestions! Thanks for this forum! ¡Pura Vida! Gail

Thanks, I was considering that. I haven't changed the watering in the last year but maybe it's too wet for the amount of sun we've been getting. thanks again!

It is water logged. 2-3 hours of sunlight won’t be enough. It’s also used a lot of energy by flowering. Next time cut the flower stalk off or pinch of the bud if it tries to flower to preserve energy. During the rainy season you want to keep your plant under very strong lights inside. It should have peak photoperiod right around now 14+ hours under artificial light and slowly lower the photoperiod to allow it to go dormant in November. Keep your plant outside during the dry season Jan-May.

Thanks so much for your reply! I will look into getting a good light . It's not easy to find that here! Do you know if plants will weaken over time if they do not get a dormant period? I would suspect so.

Yes, they do.

Thanks, everyone, for your kind responses!