FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

heathenpriest wrote:Just to be contrary

That sounds like a motto.

"Taking the road less traveled," exploring the alternatives, seeing what you can find in places others don't or won't look, etc. I've been a rebel and renegade in ways in my life, sometimes contrary just for the sake of being contrary, and that's why I said that I guess, just recognizing the same characteristic in myself. Anyway, great to read your comments, Tim--

I don't go by a certain motto. I just go with the flow.

yeah, u should trim a only dead trap as soon as possible to avoid mold growth. If the leaf base are remain their green or white color and still crisp , i recommend for not cutting the leaf base in case the trap a turn black, as the leaf base still function a bit for photosyntesis , just cut off only dead trap. good luck

Matt wrote:

sirre90 wrote:if the traps have turned black do i need to cut just the trap off the trap has turned black and the stem or leaf is still green?

It's not mandatory to immediately trim off dead foliage. I usually let the leaves dry out completely to the point where they come off with a gentle tug. But if it the leaf is completely black, you can trim it off if you'd like

And welcome to FlytrapCare

hey as mat sad just wait till they are black and very lose i thought i was the only one that did that but am not

Everyone should do it no matter what.

heathenpriest wrote:Just to be contrary, I think I'm going to stop trimming my dead leaves and traps. (Nobody's trimming them off in the pine barrens, right?) Besides, I think they add to the generally wicked appearance of the plant. I've left them for a good while before, and haven't had any problems with mold. I've occasionally seen a dead leaf get moldy, but it hasn't spread into the soil, so it wasn't a problem. But then my plants are usually outdoors in the sun and wind, which seems to keep mold to a minimum, and they've also been growing in pure peat moss, which I personally believe also inhibits mold, so it might be more important to trim them if yours are indoors or in a different media.

I just noticed, by the way, that in my soil experiment pots, one of the pure sawdust pots has a clump of mold growing in it. Might be a bad sign, or maybe sawdust just needs to be aged a longer time. (Mine was out in the weather most of last year.)

A note from growing other sorts of plants. Wood products in general promote mold and fungus. It would be a bad idea to add any sort of wood product to such a moist soil.