FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Good evening.
Thanks for reading.
I live in the UK near London.
I have a problem with my Vft. It seems to be growing strange mutated traps/leaves. I first thought it was a pest and submerged it in rainwater for 25 hours. This seemed to help a little at first and the plant grew some better/ more normal looking traps and leaves. However it seems to be recurring and I'm getting mutated/deformed traps and the leaves are growing as if they have been nibbled with dark tinges around the edges. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could cause this and how to remedy it? Thanks in advance.
I will add photos when I figure out how.
Alex.

Hopefully I've done this correctly and you can see a photo here. Good luck me.

Here is another picture. Go me.

Where do you have your plant at? On a windowsill? One issue could be that if you have it in a windowsill the plant might be getting a little too dry between waterings and this can result in cracks and tears in the leaves ,but it can also be just genetics too because occasionally you will get mutated traps every now and again thats normal. Its also possible there could be some little bugs residing in your potting media that are chewing on the leaves ,but I wanna believe it's from the plant drying out too much especially in a windowsill with hot stagnant dry air. If you want to eliminate both possible scenarios i would recommend changing out your media and providing the plant with a little more moisture more frequently. Also your plant lacks some red coloration in the traps which is a sign of inadequate lighting. You might want to invest in a grow bulb to help supplement the plant so it can aid the plant and nourish it back to a healthy plant again. Its maintaining growth ,but it would be cool to see it thriving again. Show us another pic or two in a couple weeks and hopefully it won't even look like the same plant again

If you can spend a few bucks like 5-10$ buy a LED grow bulb and place it in a desk lamp about 2-4 inches away from the top of the plant I will guarantee you you won't have to come back on this forum to ask questions about your plant, but you will be able to help other new people and share with them the experiences you've already dealt with. One last thing a rule of thumb you want the top of your potting media to be damp not soaking wet. If you have it in a windowsill where the temperatures can rise a bit higher you should be ok with watering it a little bit on the heavy side since the evaporation rate is greatly increased. Best of luck to you

Thank you both very much for your input. It is kept on a window sill and it's not south facing and is starting to get less sunshine as the season progresses. I have considered artificial light to give it a boost and will look into setting that up. I have also underestimated how dry the air is at home and can remedy that fairly easily . I'll come back with some pictures when I see some improvement. Thanks again.

Alex.