FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi Everyone! Did a long search for “black traps” etc. but haven’t found a post that show a similar issue to this. Here’s the info:

• I’ve had these plants for over a year.
• SE exposure, direct sunlight for about six hours.
• Potted in sphagnum moss and perlite, pots are are at least four inches deep.
• Distilled water from the tray in the morning, dries by the end of the day.
• Checked the rhizomes. They are green/white (no black).
• Flower stalks were cut before blooming.

So, the traps, themselves, turn black first, followed by the rest of the leaves. The plants continue to send up new traps but they never make it to full size and do not last more than a week. It looks superficially like crown rot, but the bases are fine and I make sure the soil is damp but not wet. (The surface of the soil may look dry, but it is only a very thin layer.) Any advice would be wonderful. I’ve been sticking with the inexpensive plants so that I can learn how to properly take care of them before I invest in better specimens!

Thanks,
Stefan

The symptoms make me think of mineral burn. Did you rinse your substrate before planting? New substrate will often need a few rounds of rinsing to lower the TDS and make it viable for the plant. If you don't have a TDS meter to check with, it might help to water from the top for a while and water it enough to let it run through the bottom. If you decide to get more plants, highly recommend a TDS meter! It'll definitely save you some headaches in the future.

Thank you, LazyDaisy. The plants have been in the same soil for almost a year, but no, I didn’t know about rinsing the medium until recently. I can definitely water from above to see if there is any change.

No problem! And yeah, soil that age has likely broken down a bit and has some build up, so some thorough top watering should help flush things out and make your plant happier! They seem to like their substrate replaced once a year for this reason. Hopefully it improves by fall and you can give it some fresh stuff after dormancy.

I picked up a TDS meter and checked the water. My source is 5ppm and after pouring it from the top, the collected water in the tray is 40ppm. Would this still be an indicator of mineral burn? Thanks!

40 ppm isn’t enough to cause mineral burn, so the issue causing the blackened traps is something else.

Very curious! I would still recommend top watering for now to see if it's something in the soil causing your leaves to turn that can be flushed out. What sort of pot is it planted in? What material is your tray made of?

Both are plastic.

Stefan wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2024 3:14 pm Thank you, LazyDaisy. The plants have been in the same soil for almost a year, but no, I didn’t know about rinsing the medium until recently. I can definitely water from above to see if there is any change.

I've been growing them for almost 20 years and have never rinsed regular peat moss and perlite. It's not needed IMHO. Just make sure they do not contain anything like fertilizers,etc.

Any signs of insects like mites, aphids?

Stefan wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 12:08 am I picked up a TDS meter and checked the water. My source is 5ppm and after pouring it from the top, the collected water in the tray is 40ppm. Would this still be an indicator of mineral burn? Thanks!

TDS = Total Dissolved Solids -- any solids, not just minerals. Bits of peat moss washing out of the soil are picked up by the meter. The runoff water always reads higher than the source water.

Hi Folks, thanks for checking in. Absolutely no insects on the plants. Also, I occasionally rinse out the tray to prevent build up of any materials with the same source of water.

I'm still a newbie so you can take my suggestions with a grain of salt, but it might not be a bad idea to get new substrate to plant it in if top watering doesn't solve the issue. Everything else you mentioned seems good so that has to be what is causing the problems. I think it'd be worth stressing your plant to assure the new growth doesn't keep dying.

I agree with repotting. Unpot, rinse roots well, repot in either a larger pot or get a larger tray(not deeper with a little pot like that). Even if your tray has been drying out at the end of the day the top should not have completely dry spots on it. This might be a media problem or its just not enough water. Rot can produce this but letting a plant get really dry accidentally a few times can as well.