FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi guys, I've had my Red Dragon for about 3 months now, but it has never grown a good number of traps, as they keep dying off quite quickly. It seems almost that for every new one that grows, an old one dies off. There is currently 4 traps on it (plus a new one emerging), of which 2 seem to be on their way out (teeth going brown). It is grown in a good soil mix (peat moss plus some perlite and sand) on a sunny window sill and watered and looked after carefully, same as my other cp's, which are all thriving.
Am I doing something wrong, or are Red Dragons just like this?

Your Red Dragon should not require any special treatment, essentially it is the same other VFT - except for the color. If your plant is getting plenty of natural light and clean water it should be thriving.
If the pot and roots are getting too hot this can stunt growth. If you could post some photos it may help us to diagnose the problem.

Is there anything that you've done differently with that plant, compared to the others?

Different soil mix, different batch of something in the soil mix, different pot, different location...?

I've had a tough time with some of my Red Dragons too. Last year mine did something similar to what yours are doing. I gave them excellent care, the same as the rest of my plants, and they seemed to just not grow very well.

I've noticed that they seem much more susceptible to those little red spider mites. Have you looked for those? I had no idea why mine weren't growing very well and then I looked very closely and I could see little red dots (mites) on their leaves. I got some Ortho Orthenex and gave them a spray down. This year they've looked awesome! But the mites keep coming back, so I have to watch for them and treat them when I notice them.

Personally, I don't think your doing anything wrong. My red dragon and royal red only grow about six traps at most before the oldest one dies. Some vfts don't grow more than that number sometimes, can you tell me what size the dragon is, mine is a medium size, but it has 3 division, I'm sure next year they will get alot more traps as they age. Of course that's just my opinion, but from what you've said this seems like a logical conclusion

This is a photo of the plant that I am having the problems with.

Thanks to all of you for the replies I would say that the plant hasn't been treated any differently from my others, although something did occur to me today whilst taking the photo - I placed a crystal in the pot for decoration, and I'm wondering if it could be leaching minerals into the soil? Some of my other plants have crystals in their pots too (quartz and amethyst, and no probs with those plants), but this is a blue one that I don't know the name of off-hand.
Matt, I haven't noticed any spider-mites, but I will have a closer inspection of it tomorrow.
Budukai, the longest leaf is about 8cm, if that helps.

Jack_70 wrote:I placed a crystal in the pot for decoration, and I'm wondering if it could be leaching minerals into the soil? Some of my other plants have crystals in their pots too (quartz and amethyst

Quartz is silicon dioxide (also known as silica), and I know that's safe. I don't know what a blue crystal is composed of, so that could be it.

yea thats the exact same situation im in!