FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone!

I had a question about traps. My vft has 2 quarter sized leaves that it had when I got it. It's growing leaves like crazy, but they're significantly smaller than the two big ones. Some of them are teeny tiny ones but most of them are the size of half a dime. Is there anything I can do to help it grow bigger leaves? Maybe they're smaller because there's so many? Right now it has 8 fully formed traps with about 5 more growing. I see new leaves starting all the time.

Your VFT is starting to divide. The small traps could be the new offshoot. Congrats!

hb

Really? That is incredibly cool!I did notice that the very smallest one (smaller than a seed from a watermelon) is growing out of a different direction the the rest of the leaves. Now I'm excited. So, what do I do? Just leave it be then repot it next year and possibly split the plants?

Congratulations on the dividing of your plant!

vanillaXtiffy wrote:So, what do I do? Just leave it be then repot it next year and possibly split the plants?

Yep, that's what I'd recommend doing. Repot sometime in February or March and divide it then.

If the new leaves are not coming from the same growing crown (center of the main rosette) as the larger leaves, then as others have mentioned, your plant is probably producing offshoots. If growing from the same growing point as the other leaves, then something else may be happening. A photo would help everyone to examine the situation and offer better comments.

You can't tell in the picture, but the smallest trap is growing from behind one of the biggest leaves and it's growing towards the plant. I think everyone might be right. The smallest one is probably a division because of the way it's growing, but the rest could be from another cause since they're coming from the main plant.

Thanks for posting the photo. Yes, it looks like your plant is dividing, a natural occurrence in a healthy plant (and even some that are not so healthy). Is there a stub of a cut flower stalk visible in the crown of the plant? Flytraps often begin a new growing center offset from the old center (where the stalk emerged), and frequently little Flytraps will grow from the tissue around the base of the flower stalk if the stalk is cut and the plant is in a robust growing phase. That tissue at the bottom of the flower stalk sometimes forms into large lumps or tissue masses that are visible above the surface of the growing medium from which several or many baby Flytraps form.
Steve

Actually, it hasn't grown a flower stalk. At one point I thought it was, but they turned out to be new traps. What you see there in the center is just a bunch of new traps that are growing. I have 8 traps and nine more coming in. 4 medium sized ones on the main plant and 5 small ones growing from the side of the plant. Should I be worried that it hasn't grown a flower stalk?

vanillaXtiffy wrote:Should I be worried that it hasn't grown a flower stalk?

No, don't be worried at all. It won't hurt the plant not to flower, and it saves the plant from using stored food reserve to flower and set seed. Your plant looks like it's dividing, as others have said. If the new traps growing from the main center of the plant are fairly small, that sometimes happens when a plant is recovering from being transplanted or some other shock, or when it has lost some roots or something. But your plant looks healthy to me. You aren't keeping it too wet all the time, right? Moist, not soggy? I don't think there's any reason to worry, and you will have nice divisions to pot separately next year.

Okay thank you. I'm keeping it in a saucer of water which also has glass pebbles in it to elevate the pot. I put water in the saucer every few days. The moss is moist. I think perhaps the twol arger leaves might have been part of some process or another they used to make it look appealing to customers? When I got it, it had the two big traps and 2 of the medium sized ones shown in the picture. This was a few months ago of course. It's grown considerably since I bought it.

The offshoot can divide itself if you wait.