FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi,

To start, I'll say that I have never done dormancy before.

For the last 6-8 weeks, my flytrap had been living partially, and then eventually fully, indoors. I did this because I thought it was getting too cold too soon for the plant.

A couple days ago, I finally put my plant back outside, in an attempt to properly begin dormancy. I had thought that my location (Vancouver Island, BC, Canada) would be appropriate for the flytrap to be outside, and also that I didn't need to worry about acclimatizing the plant to the cold after having kept it inside for a while (based on what I'd been told by someone on this forum). So I just put the plant outside. At the time, it was around 3 or 4 degrees Celsius I believe. When I came back from work and checked on the plant many hours later, I was rather shocked to see that it had turned significantly darker green, and, upon further inspection, it was actually quite floppy and even slightly TRANSLUCENT. What happened??? I then thought the cold must've been too much for it right now, so I took the plant inside and placed it in my garage, which is cold, but a fair bit warmer than outside obviously. It has remained in the garage for about an additional 48hrs now. The plant has largely returned to its solid colors (rather than that bizarre translucency), however it still is much darker, and also is just much worse looking in many ways... I'll let the photos do the talking.

I was hoping this was all just part of the dormancy process given my temperatures but after watching a YouTube video just now, I fear that something really bad has happened. I have brought the flytrap inside back into the warm now to be safe, while I wait to see what thoughts any of you might have.

Attached are a few images from about one month ago (the plant looked similar to that up until just a few days ago) as well as a few pictures of the plant right now. Please let me know what I should do!! (There are some black traps in the older photos, but that was just because I had gotten lazy with the pruning. I have cleaned it all up now out of fear of mold with the cold temperatures.

All the best

"So I just put the plant outside. At the time, it was around 3 or 4 degrees Celsius I believe."

What was the temperature when you returned home from work? How windy was it? How accurate is your thermometer? To me it looks like they've been frozen or frostbit. Windchill affects plants, too.

It looks ok to me. The traps are probably going to look ugly but it will grow new ones in the spring.
I live in Michigan so mine has to come indoors but I wait until it gets quite cold first. It had been in the 20s at night (-6 c) when I first tried to bring it in and the bog was frozen solid so I had to wait for warmer weather to thaw it enough to dig out. I cut off the traps that turned black.

Intheswamp wrote: ↑Fri Dec 02, 2022 1:39 pm "So I just put the plant outside. At the time, it was around 3 or 4 degrees Celsius I believe."

What was the temperature when you returned home from work? How windy was it? How accurate is your thermometer? To me it looks like they've been frozen or frostbit. Windchill affects plants, too.

Oh no what should I do?? Should I keep the plant in a windowsill inside? Or would it be ok out in the garage? How do I get it to recover from the freeze if that is indeed what's happened here? For now I've kept it inside on a south facing windowsill.

I'm not exactly sure what the temperature was when I got home that night but I'm very confident it wasn't lower than a few degrees below zero. I'd say around -4 degrees Celsius is the coldest it could've been. As far as wind I couldn't honestly say although we don't get a ton of wind so I don't think it would've been to bad. And I don't have a thermometer, I just pull up the weather on my phone.

Bug_cemetery wrote: ↑Fri Dec 02, 2022 3:15 pm It looks ok to me. The traps are probably going to look ugly but it will grow new ones in the spring.
I live in Michigan so mine has to come indoors but I wait until it gets quite cold first. It had been in the 20s at night (-6 c) when I first tried to bring it in and the bog was frozen solid so I had to wait for warmer weather to thaw it enough to dig out. I cut off the traps that turned black.

Hi thanks for the reply. I see that mine looks a lot worse than yours do in your photos. Have yours ever looked like how mine looks? I really hope it isn't dying

Will 90 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:36 am

Intheswamp wrote: ↑Fri Dec 02, 2022 1:39 pm "So I just put the plant outside. At the time, it was around 3 or 4 degrees Celsius I believe."

What was the temperature when you returned home from work? How windy was it? How accurate is your thermometer? To me it looks like they've been frozen or frostbit. Windchill affects plants, too.

Oh no what should I do?? Should I keep the plant in a windowsill inside? Or would it be ok out in the garage? How do I get it to recover from the freeze if that is indeed what's happened here? For now I've kept it inside on a south facing windowsill.

I'm not exactly sure what the temperature was when I got home that night but I'm very confident it wasn't lower than a few degrees below zero. I'd say around -4 degrees Celsius is the coldest it could've been. As far as wind I couldn't honestly say although we don't get a ton of wind so I don't think it would've been to bad. And I don't have a thermometer, I just pull up the weather on my phone.

-4C would be pretty tough. As long as the rhizome below the surface didn't freeze you should be ok. I don't think those leaves/traps will make it (the part that does the "trapping". The petioles (the part between the traps and rhizome) look in better shape. If the traps are looking more yellowish/brownish and still will the translucent look...possibly going to "mushy" then I would go ahead and prune them off.

I'm a newbie, too, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Flytraps can go without sunlight during dormancy, though it is thought that even during dormancy that the bit of photosynthesis that they do during the winter helps store energy for spring growth. Anyhow, you don't have to worry a lot about giving it good light...some light is ok, no light is ok, etc.,. In the wild they still get some light during the day...they take their dormancy key from "photoperiod" also (maybe predominantly?) It seems that the rough range of temperature that's best is from the upper 30F/s to the mid-40F's. Some flytraps die all the way back during dormancy, some just kinda lay down against the soil surface and look like they're dying...sickly-looking.

At this point definitely don't keep the plant wet. You would want it only moist...and not *too* most. The rhizome isn't using much water right now as there is little to no transpiration going on involving the leaves. The rhizome can't be allowed to dry out or it will die, but if it's too wet it will rot. During this time I wouldn't let it stand in water and you'll find frequent watering isn't required...BUT, frequent checks are still needed! Weekly, maybe.

If your garage stays above freezing I would think it would be fine for the plant. A potted plant can't handle freezing like a plant in the ground can.

To me, the traps look like goners but the petioles still look like there's life in them. Don't write it off, yet!