Venus fly trap turning black

Venus fly trap turning black#325307

By Erik Pottas -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:46 am
Posts:  100
Joined:  Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:13 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:46 am #325307

I have a venus fly trap and its turning black. After feeding it! And some will die with them (not all of them)
It has enough light (definitly) Not over feeding it! And also im giving it enough water! What else could it be, it did close randomly (probably water drops) So is it too much energie used?! It is almost fully grown. And hasnt eaten too much,it has eaten 2 times its intire life so....thats not the problem, what could it be? Im feeding it bloodworms. And it does digest it but before it opens it dies? Please help

Carnivorous Plants eats flies

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325308

By Cross -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:56 am
Posts:  1849
Joined:  Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:25 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:56 am #325308

How big are the chunks of worms? Is it in a dormancy state? How much water are you giving it?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325309

By Erik Pottas -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:05 am
Posts:  100
Joined:  Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:13 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:05 am #325309

Its not yet dormancy. Its standing in 5 cm water. And I did feed one to big of a worm but why would the others die?

Carnivorous Plants eats flies

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325310

By Cross -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:08 am
Posts:  1849
Joined:  Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:25 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:08 am #325310

You have it standing in water? Im still fairly new to vfts, but they need to be moist, not sopping. The traps will turn black if you over water.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325311

By Erik Pottas -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:24 am
Posts:  100
Joined:  Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:13 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:24 am #325311

It may be over feeding? Because right after one opens I feed another. Is that overfeeding?

Carnivorous Plants eats flies

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325312

By Cross -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:44 am
Posts:  1849
Joined:  Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:25 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:44 am #325312

Erik Pottas wrote:It may be over feeding? Because right after one opens I feed another. Is that overfeeding?

Possible, but I doubt it. I feed about three traps on my larger ones. Are you sure you're not over watering, that will kill them quick.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325313

By CarnivorousChick -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:50 am
Posts:  100
Joined:  Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:57 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:50 am #325313

Erik Pottas wrote:It may be over feeding? Because right after one opens I feed another. Is that overfeeding?

Yes that's overfeeding. Fly traps can go a long time without "eating". They just need the proper light source to keep their vigor.
Do you have it inside? Because if it is outside, there is no need at all to feed your plant... it'll catch enough on its own. If you do prefer to feed it, if it's an inside plant, only once a month will do. Don't feed it anything the trap can't fully close around.
Also I agree on the standing water thing. Fly traps shouldn't be kept in standing water. The only time that varies, is if you live somewhere with extreme heat and your soil medium is drying out from morning to afternoon. Then it's ok for it to stand in a little water during the heat of the day.
Traps just naturally die and turn black. It's a Fly Traps natural process. Clip them off and keep going.

Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325320

By Erik Pottas -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 3:00 pm
Posts:  100
Joined:  Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:13 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 3:00 pm #325320

Thanks but how often should I water my plant,daily? Also I grow them indoors.

Carnivorous Plants eats flies

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325323

By Doublebass1985 -  Mon Nov 19, 2018 5:28 pm
Posts:  293
Joined:  Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:36 pm

- Mon Nov 19, 2018 5:28 pm #325323

Erik Pottas wrote:Thanks but how often should I water my plant,daily? Also I grow them indoors.

It depends everyone's situation is different when someone might need to water once a day someone else might need to water once every 3 days. Just keep the media damp and if it does happen to dry out just try to catch it before it's been dried out for too long cuz that will start to kill off your plant. Your the only one who knows the answer to your question. How long does your plant stay moist until it starts drying up? Then you know how often you need to water.

https://m.youtube.com/user/doublebass1985

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325371

By Fieldofscreams -  Tue Nov 20, 2018 11:40 am
Posts:  1315
Joined:  Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:14 am

- Tue Nov 20, 2018 11:40 am #325371

The only thing I don't agree with is the "over feeding", you cant over feed these plants. In nature who stops the plant from "over feeding"? If it was detrimental these plants wouldn't exist in nature.

As far as watering its my opinion that most growers over water them. You want the soil barely moist and never wet. You have to experiment to figure out what works for you in your climate to achieve that.

How I do it is I wait until the pots are so light that when I pick them up they feel almost empty, like there is nothing in the pot at all. I then put them in a big tray and pour in water. I wait until the pots cant suck in anymore water and then I remove them from the tray and start the process over letting them almost completely dry out.

By keeping the soil almost dry, 10-12 hours of direct sun, using only NZLFSM, using only white pots and them having a prey item in every trap almost 24/7 this is what happens:

Mistakes were made

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325382

By _-SphagnumFromHell-_ -  Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:19 pm
Location:  Central California
Posts:  702
Joined:  Mon May 28, 2018 5:02 pm

- Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:19 pm #325382

Fieldofscreams wrote:The only thing I don't agree with is the "over feeding", you cant over feed these plants. In nature who stops the plant from "over feeding"? If it was detrimental these plants wouldn't exist in nature.

I don't know, maybe the population of the insects available? Maybe Venus Flytraps in the wild wouldn't always have access to a large amount of insects all the time and would eventually evolve to only tolerate a certain amount of insects?

But that's just a possible line of reasoning, your plants seem to get a lot of food and don't seem to suffer. I've even had some of my plants catch things in almost every singe trap and the most that would happen to them is a black leaf. They never seem to get significantly setback by any amount of food.

However, I believe that excessive feeding to a flytrap that was say, unhealthy or adjusting to it's current conditions could be detrimental. As the plant doesn't have the energy to digest a lot of insects or is instead investing that energy into growing in accordance to it's new environment. Erik, if you have just recently purchased your plant this may be the case. Wait a little while (a couple of weeks at least), focus on giving your plants the best conditions it has, and feed it again. You should see it digesting the insects no problem.

Growlist and wants: sphagnum-from-hell-s-grow-list-t39874.html

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP_Nin ... Rig/videos

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325384

By Erik Pottas -  Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:45 pm
Posts:  100
Joined:  Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:13 pm

- Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:45 pm #325384

Thx for all the help guys, really appreciate it!!! Btw its almost christmas hope youre all treating youre plants for christmas

Carnivorous Plants eats flies

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325385

By Fieldofscreams -  Tue Nov 20, 2018 6:01 pm
Posts:  1315
Joined:  Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:14 am

- Tue Nov 20, 2018 6:01 pm #325385

_-SphagnumFromHell-_ wrote:I don't know, maybe the population of the insects available? Maybe Venus Flytraps in the wild wouldn't always have access to a large amount of insects all the time and would eventually evolve to only tolerate a certain amount of insects?

That would make sense if you could find a peer reviewed study showing Wilmington North Carolina being massively insect deficient compared to other parts of the world. Then you could logically say that over feeding is possible but even then there would be too many variables to even make an educated guess let alone a statement of fact.

My plants traps are closed 24/7 during the growing season. It makes taking pictures incredibly difficult when all the traps are closed constantly, doesn't make for good pictures. I always have to watch for that small moment when most traps are open and that doesn't last long so I have to act fast and get some pics. So far that has been the only negative.

I see this "over feeding" thing talked about often and yet not one shred of evidence to support it.

Mistakes were made

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325527

By Ella -  Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:00 am
Posts:  41
Joined:  Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:42 am

- Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:00 am #325527

Really? Here's some evidence for you then
vft-overfeeding-experiment-t3276.html
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2540.html

Re: Venus fly trap turning black#325538

By Cross -  Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:01 am
Posts:  1849
Joined:  Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:25 pm

- Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:01 am #325538

But you can't point that as proof either. Is it possible that because his plant was deprived of food, that it tainted the results? Perhaps it did not get as much light as needed, and it finally burned through the energy in the rhizome. As mentioned above, a few of us 'overfeed' our traps and they grow great. I can see if a plant is unhealthy. It wouldn't be able to properly produce to digest the insect. So, in that case I can see it killing them. But not in a normal, healthy plant.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums