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Ask questions about how to grow and care for Venus Flytraps

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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#383665
Hey everyone, first post here. I've done a lot of searching on this and I'm not exactly sure what's going on, and would love some help!

Basically, I bought one of those venus flytraps that comes in a tiny plastic container from Lowes, and it was in pretty horrible condition. Tiny pot packed full of moss of some sort, and some of the traps were turning black already.

I brought it home and put it outside on my south facing patio. I immediately replanted it into a much bigger pot (I think like 6 inches or so) with 50/50 mix of sphagnum peat moss/perilite (I soaked it in distilled water first to get it all moist). While I was replanting it, the rhizome was nice and white and didn't look rotten or anything.

I've had the plant about a month now, and all the original leaves and traps have turned black and died off, which I guess is the result of it being an indoor plant and not being "hardened" to the outside and the sun.

It's been growing like crazy and all these new thick leaves are popping out of the center of the plant, which I think is a good sign, but now all the little buds on the end of the leaves that are supposed to grow into traps are turning black.

Is this normal and I should just let it keep on growing, or am I doing something wrong?

Some more info:

1. I keep the flytrap and a pitcher plant both in the same tray of distilled water. It's a black tray. The pitcher plant is planted in sphagnum moss, and I think it sometimes gets into the water.
2. I live in Georgia so it's always 50% humidity and around 80-90 degrees outside right now. I have access to plenty of sun every day on my patio.
3. I put in about an inch of water into the tray of water, and only refill it after the water runs out. The soil seems to be moist all the time.
4. It's been raining a lot recently, but I kept the plant inside the tray and it keeps filling up with water

Pictures

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By MaxVft
Location: 
Posts:  1214
Joined:  Sat May 08, 2021 4:17 am
#383669
Yeah, that is definitely a (pretty bad)case of sunburn. The way I know this is because the leaves are a darkish red brown, which is a sign of no acclimation period and too much heat/sun at once, especially since they were sitting in neglect on those dark Lowe's shelves. The only thing you can do now is wait for the new(er) growth to come in, and see If it is properly acclimated.
Just my opinion,
Max
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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#383675
Got it, thanks for the advice!

I read way too many guides when I first got the plant that talked a lot about putting the plants in as much sun as possible, and hadn't yet known about the importance of acclimation. Definitely know what to do in the future now! Just wanted to make sure it wasn't something else like overwatering or the like. :D
MaxVft liked this
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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#384814
Update on my VFT after a few more weeks!

I removed the spaghnum moss that I was using to cover the soil so I could better monitor the soil conditions, and I lowered the soil line until the crown of the VFT was poking out a bit more. I originally had the rhizome buried a bit too low, so I figured I'd dig a little bit to expose more of the crown, without replanting it of course.

Still no traps, unfortunately. It's been popping out a LOT of new growth, but none of them seem to get really big, and all of the traps keep turning black when they're still nubs. Leaves are REALLY thick and waxy compared to the original super fragile looking leaves that the plant came with in its deathcube.

However there's a big, red sprout coming out now with a sizable nub on the end of it, that I hope will turn into a real trap!

Still keeping the plants outside in my south-facing deck on a table, sitting in a tray of distilled water that I only refill when it completely drains to nothing.

Included some update images below.

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By Panman
Location: 
Posts:  6309
Joined:  Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:41 pm
#384821
It still looks too deep and too wet to me, but that is just my opinion. How much water does it sit in and how deep is the pot?
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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#384823
I dug it up a little and shifted it upwards just now, and the white rhizome part is just a little bit under the soil now. I noticed that the roots are really long and lovely now compared to when I first got the plant.

The pot is 4.5 inches deep, and I usually have it sitting in around an inch of water. It's super wet right now because it's been raining the past few days. Been trying to keep the tray not too full of water after each rainstorm.

Here's what it looks like now that I've shifted it up further yet again:

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After I dug it up I found that It has this weird growth here on the other side that was under the dirt where several old leaves grew out of that I trimmed off when they turned black. It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but its like a lump if you touch it, near the base of the plant.

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By MaxVft
Location: 
Posts:  1214
Joined:  Sat May 08, 2021 4:17 am
#384825
Yeah,
The soil is definitely WAY too wet as @Panman mentioned, almost waterlogged-looking. Maybe try bringing the water down to a half inch, maybe even 1/3 of an inch? The way you will know it is perfect is because it should be an almost damp kind of moist.
As @Panman also mentioned,
The plant was planted WAY too deep. The part where the rhizome turns white should be flush with the surface of the soil.
I think this might be root and/or crown rot due to the intensely wet soil, as the symptoms are similar.
https://www.flytrapcare.com has some great info on the symptoms of your plant. Do your research, even in several sites if needed, and update us after you have the correct conditions :D
Thanks and good growing
Max
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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#384830
Sounds good, I appreciate your help guys!

It originally came as a really tiny plant from Lowes and was soooo small I couldn't really see where the parts are, so that's why I think I planted it too low. It's now properly seated, with the white rhizome part jusssst under the soil line now.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for the water level from here on out. It's just been raining and drizzling nonstop lately, but I definitely feel like I didn't let the water dry up enough and let the dirt dry out. I'll try emptying out the water tray and letting the peat moss have some time to recover and dry up a bit before putting more water in.

It's so funny, I felt like I did a lot of research on the VFT before and after I bought it, but there's just so much more I didn't catch. Nothing like real experience!
MaxVft liked this
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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#384835
Ok I uprooted my VFT to give it a look and see what's happening properly. I washed it off with some distilled water, and here's what I found:

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It definitely looked look there was some kind of weird rot going on for one very specific part of the plant, the beforementioned weird tumor part. I took a pair of scissors and carefully cut it off.

Here's what it looks like now:

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I've repotted it now, hopefully it does better now. Definitely this time I'll make sure not to over water it! Is there any wait to tell that the peat moss is just damp instead of too wet? First time really working with peat moss, so I'm guessing as long as its just slightly wet, it's considered moist?

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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#385366
Quick update on my VFT. After cutting off the rotting looking part on the crown, it's grown out the largest looking leaf yet. I'm not sure if the trap on the end will end up opening up, but it's nice to see it actually grow out a huge leaf for once instead of those weird little stumps with nothing on them.

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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#385629
Update: I'm so excited, trap looks like it's getting ready to open! It's even forming the cilia!

One side is kind of weird and it has like a notch in it like it got chipped or something or didn't grow out properly, but I'm just excited that my bald child is finally growing an actual trap!

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By Nikson
Posts:  418
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#385968
Update: Great news, everyone! The trap fully developed and opened up, and it's way larger than I thought it was going to be! Super red inside the mouth too, I'm so surprised at how it turned out! It has a weird fold on one side of the trap, but it gives it a distinct character.

Looks like a second and third trap are shooting up and developing as well, I'm excited to see what happens. It still has a few aborted short leaves with black ends to them, but I guess if it's pumping out health traps that are opening up, I'm all good now.

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