FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

ive had these traps for about a week and they have been outside on my balcony except for when there was a really bad story i didnt want them blowing off/over. ive been giving them walmart distilled water and ive noticed im betting some dieing leaves. heres a link to some pics
http://imgur.com/a/QKXfC

Looks like you got your plants from Joel! They look quite healthy to me (notice all of the new leaves emerging from the center of the rosettes). Some leaf loss is normal when plants are adjusting to a new environment. And this time of year, plants lose most of their leaves that they've retained from last growing season.

One recommendation I'd have though is to replant them in a different media. Long-fibered sphagnum moss tends to either be wet or dry with little time in between. This isn't ideal for flytraps, which prefer their soil moist, but not too wet and never dry. A peat-based mix with silica sand and perlite will provide healthier growing conditions for your flytraps.

Matt wrote:Looks like you got your plants from Joel! They look quite healthy to me (notice all of the new leaves emerging from the center of the rosettes). Some leaf loss is normal when plants are adjusting to a new environment. And this time of year, plants lose most of their leaves that they've retained from last growing season.

One recommendation I'd have though is to replant them in a different media. Long-fibered sphagnum moss tends to either be wet or dry with little time in between. This isn't ideal for flytraps, which prefer their soil moist, but not too wet and never dry. A peat-based mix with silica sand and perlite will provide healthier growing conditions for your flytraps.

would you say they would be safe in that for a week? i cant run out and get stuff until probably friday.

edit: and yes i got them from him. i just ordered 2 sundews from him because i just found out about them on this site and they look badass

gnuworldorder wrote:would you say they would be safe in that for a week? i cant run out and get stuff until probably friday.

Oh, I didn't mean to say that they will die in the current growing medium. They could live indefinitely in it without any serious problems. In my experience, they'll just grow better in a medium that holds moisture but isn't completely saturated, which is next to impossible to achieve with long-fibered sphagnum.

gnuworldorder wrote:i just ordered 2 sundews from him because i just found out about them on this site and they look badass

Sundews are awesome carnivorous plants. Congrats on your growing addiction to the CP hobby

If your location is not very humid and has occasional breezes or strong winds, the long-fiber sphagnum moss in which the Flytraps are potted, espeically with a plastic mesh pot that has slits in the sides, can dry out quickly and turn from wet to bone dry in a matter of hours, whereas a typical medium in a standard, light colored plastic or styrofoam pot (a styrofoam beverage container with a hole punched in the bottom) can take several days to dry out.

The slower drying time acts as insurance against sudden drying and the death of the plants. If you are away for a day and your Venus Flytrap is outside in direct sunlight and a light breeze, in that pot and in only long-fiber sphagnum moss, the plant could possibly dry to the point of irreversible damage or death, unless it's sitting in a tray of water to keep it saturated, which is also not a good idea (saturated growing medium can encourage fungal infection).

In addition, with such a light medium and light pot, a strong gust of wind might blow the pot over, or might blow it out of the tray of water it sits in, causing it to immediately begin to dry at too fast a rate.

So, repotting into a deeper pot with no slits in the side, and using a standard carnivorous plant growing medium such as 50% sphagnum peat moss (not long-fiber sphagnum) and 50% perlite or silica sand, would probably be a good idea. Good luck.

Heh, I got my D. Spatulata from Joel as well. Nice guy and produced a quite healthy plant.

i just came back from lowes and homedepot and the only sphagnum peat moss and perlite they had had miracle grow in it i guess they are staying they way they are for a while. but i did notice more leaves dying and some traps getting bigger. i cut off the dead leaves. at what point should i be concerned?

gnuworldorder wrote:i just came back from lowes and homedepot and the only sphagnum peat moss and perlite they had had miracle grow in it

Typically Lowes and Home Depot only sell sphagnum moss in large bales (I think I bought 3 cubic feet of Sunshine brand from Home Depot). The nice thing is the big bales are pretty cheap. Check outside in the gardening center to see if they have any on some pallets.

I was also never able to find perilite at the large home improvement shops. If you go to a smaller garden shop they should have some that will fit your needs. I personally found Black Gold brand perilite at a smaller local place.

You could get silica sand instead of perlite ( i prefer sand over perlite because sand makes the pot heavy to withstand winds, and unlike perlite, it doesn't float to the top). I get some pool filter sand called HTH, and the pool filter sand is pure silica, so it is safe for flytraps. You can probably find silica sand at your local hardware store