FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi,

I have reason to believe my plant may be suffering from root rot (it's been getting brown spots appearing on many of the leaves and when I dug into the moss slightly I found a black piece that didn't look promising). As such I am attempting to repot it for the first time (removing the plant from the present media, checking the rhizome for rot, and then repotting afterward). I am a pretty inexperienced grower and have never done this before. I have done a fair bit of research and so I'm pretty sure I know the basics but I did have a couple questions and I'd appreciate the help a ton (especially since I'm worried my plant is actively rotting).

So I've got a white plastic pot that is a good depth. The only issue there is that it came from a farm and it has old soil in it. How do I wash this out? I don't want to introduce minerals or anything into it obviously but will distilled water alone be enough to clean it completely without any soap or anything? Also are the likes of sponges or paper towels safe with this process, or should it literally just be rinsing with distilled water? I'm just very conscious of the mineral issue and I don't want to do something that will end up harming it.

My next question is, when I remove my plant from its current pot (it's just in one of those small little grocery store flytrap pots, which it was in when I first purchased it last September time) and check for root rot, if I do find something bad (fingers crossed everything is fine) am I right in thinking I cut away the rotting parts before repotting? Even if there are parts of the rhizome that are rotting? Or would cutting pieces of the rhizome away do more harm than good? Do I immediately plant the flytrap after cutting pieces off of it? Information on this part of the process would be much appreciated because this feels like an especially high-risk portion of the overall process. (Maybe I'll take the flytrap out and there will be no rot after all, but very unfortunately I have the suspicion that I will find something and so I just wanted to have the knowledge of what to do ready in advance)

Lastly, I have already purchased peat moss and am going to go and get some perlite soon too, to create the new media mixture for my guy's new pot. But online I have seen some things that make me think it is better to have peat, perlite, AND silica sand too. Should I aim to get some silica too when I go out to get the perlite in a little bit? Or is the addition of silica not going to matter? (Also, if sand is beneficial to add to the mix as well, are there types of sand other than silica that also work well? Or is silica the only one to look for?)

God bless and thank you for any help you could provide (and if it could come ASAP that'd be great so I can save my fella from whatever may be happening as soon as possible!!)

1) Wash the White plastic pot with normal soap and water. Get all the old dirt and crust off. Rinse and dry it with paper towels. Plastic is nonabsorbent so it will not absorb minerals. If you want to be extra cautions, give it a final rinse with distilled water.

2) If you find parts of the rhizome that are rotting and slimy, go ahead and remove them. I try to remove the minimum amount that I can. Give the rhizome a rinse after trimming.

3) I'd mix the perlite and peatmoss and not bother about the sand. 1:1 or 2:1 peatmoss to perlite should be fine. Sometimes peat will not readily absorb water right away. If that happens, put the peatmoss and water in a 1 Gallon Ziploc storage bag. Close it and squeeze it until the peat absorbs water. It is similar to kneading bread.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out Matt's care and feeding info at www.flytrapcare.com.
I think he has a section in there about repotting.

As always, this is just my 02¢ worth.
Good growing,
Mike

Hello! I would listen to Shadowtski on this, I too am an inexperienced grower. Although I hope everything turns out well

@Shadowtski, Thanks a lot for the reply my friend. I went and got perlite but the only brand I found at the store was this:

https://www.rona.ca/en/product/pro-mix- ... 0-89455069

Are you aware whether this is a product that works with VFT's? I couldn't find anything saying it contained fertilizer or anything but I also am very inexperienced with plants or plant materials so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

I'm finally about to actually do the repotting now, but one other concern I had was damaging the roots when I pull away the moss it is currently sat in. Currently it is in long fiber peat and I heard that long fiber peat is tougher to remove while also keeping the roots safe. For example would it be better to get the moss quite wet? Or would it be safer to pull it away when the moss is dry?

Thanks again

Thanks everyone else for taking the time to reply as well, much appreciated.

Will 90 wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 3:20 am @Shadowtski, Thanks a lot for the reply my friend. I went and got perlite but the only brand I found at the store was this:

https://www.rona.ca/en/product/pro-mix- ... 0-89455069

Are you aware whether this is a product that works with VFT's? I couldn't find anything saying it contained fertilizer or anything but I also am very inexperienced with plants or plant materials so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

I'm finally about to actually do the repotting now, but one other concern I had was damaging the roots when I pull away the moss it is currently sat in. Currently it is in long fiber peat and I heard that long fiber peat is tougher to remove while also keeping the roots safe. For example would it be better to get the moss quite wet? Or would it be safer to pull it away when the moss is dry?

Thanks again

1) That Perlite looks fine..
2) Wetter is better to detangle roots from long fiber sphagnum moss.

@Shadowtski, Thank you sir I really appreciate the help. One more issue I just wanted to run by you if I may. So I cleaned out the pot that had the old soil in it. After I washed away the bulk of the soil I started trying to scrub away the old dried up specks of it that seemed to be covering the pot all over. I initially tried paper towel and it wasn't working at all, so I got this very firm brush and started scrubbing. I scrubbed it quite a bit. Nothing happened. Eventually, I realized that I was actually being a complete idiot, and that the pot was speckled So that's why nothing was happening.

It came to my attention, however, that some of these speckles, when held up to the light, were actually shiny. This made me think that the speckles are made up of some additional material of some kind that has obviously been added to the plastic when the pot was molded. I thought it was just paint but the shininess seems to suggest otherwise. I'm not sure if all my scrubbing caused some of the outer plastic coating to be removed in certain areas, exposing the other material, and that's why some of the speckles appear shiny but others do not.

But anyway, I was just wondering if you thought this pot is safe for the plant? If that is an extra material and I have exposed it by removing the plastic outer layer in certain areas (or even if my scrubbing had no effect, the fact that some of these spots are shiny and others aren't makes me feel that some of them are exposed somehow) could whatever the material is leach into the soil? I tried googling the brand to try and find information online about the pot's composition but it seems to be a very small company and unfortunately I can't see anything.

I attached some photos so you can see the shiny spots if it helps. There are three different instances of it in the photos but for two of the instances I included two photos each to highlight the difference between when the spots are directly in the light and when they aren't. For the third spot there is just one photo in which the light is directly on the specks and you can see the shine. In that one you can easily notice the difference between the specks that I circled in the photo (that are reflecting light) and the rest of the specks (which are not).

Thanks again mate

Sorry for some reason it looks like my photos didn't get added. Here they are again.
(Spot 1, no shine) (Spot 1, shine) (Spot 2, no shine) (Spot 2, shine) (Spot 3)

Is it made from recycled plastic?

Hi! In my opinion I think it would be fine, I mean it's just a pot. But I am not that much of an expert on pots myself, I hope all turns out well and good luck!