FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone!
I really need some advice from people who know better than me, please!
Background info : we bought Venus about 1.5 years ago. We've been keeping it mostly indoors, because the leaves go saggy and yellow as soon as we take it out on the balcony. We sometimes take it out in the evening, so it can catch some dinner.
This winter we were unable to offer it proper dormancy. We have made the arrangements for next year.
It's obvious that it is not very happy indoors; it survives but it could do better.
I think it's about the light it receives, but like I said, it seems to be dying after a few hours in the sun / heat.
The temperature outisde right now is somewhere around 30-35 degrees Celsius during the day.
Is the difference between indoors and outdoors too big? Will it adapt eventually if we leave it outside?
Is there anything else I should look out for? It has the original soil and I water it with distilled water.
Please help me save my dear Venus!

Thank you for taking your time!

You will definitely want to repot if its the same medium for 1.5 years. Also, just leave it outside. Some will say acclimate it to the sun or whatever but I say give it tough love. It will be rough at first but will reward u later. If its really hot/sunny and you won't be around to check water level, place pot in a tray of distilled water until night. Do not skip dormancy this autumn.

After dormancy, repot, and some real sun, you will have a whole new plant.

P.S. we love pictures here

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Thank you!
I will do so.

Here are some pictures of Venus earlier today :

I'm afraid those links didn't work...try uploading directly from your phones gallery. Tapatalk helps tons with this forum. Keeps u logged in too, hopefully you'll be around still either way!

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Nevermind the pics just loaded, my bad

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I second what Magic Mutt said about putting them in fresh carnivorous plant soil. A simple soil mix is 1 part sphagnum peat moss and 1 part of perlite or coarse sand. If the garden centers where you live sell Miracle-Gro products, don't use them; that company sprays fertilizer on everything. It's best to repot flytraps while they're dormant, but you certainly can do it during the summer. I recommend putting yours in fresh soil as soon as possible. Here is a good video that explains how to do this.

The petioles (stalks with "wings") are very wide. That is a sign of insufficient light. After you have repotted them, slowly acclimate the plants to full sun: 1 hour of morning sun per day for the 1st week, 2 hours of morning sun per day for the 2nd week, and so on until they're getting at least 5 hours of sun every day. If possible, morning through mid-afternoon sun is best; the late-afternoon sun can be very hot.

Your temperatures are fine. I live just 65 kilometers west of the Venus flytrap's native range, and I am seeing those daytime highs, too. Make sure the plants stay damp: water them every 2-3 days, let it drain into the saucer until they're sitting in a centimeter or two of water, water again after the saucer has run dry.

Some people say that Venus flytraps don't need a winter dormancy, but I don't agree with that opinion. I know what their native climate is like, and it gets cool there. For 3-4 months, the temperatures range from 2-10 C. My flytraps spend almost all year outdoors, and during the winter, they go dormant: the traps stop closing (i.e., they don't eat bugs during the winter), the leaves grow very slowly, and they survive by photosynthesis like a regular plant. I've found that a cool rest period encourages my plants to grow much better in the spring and summer.

A repot is definitely in order. As MikeB noticed, they are severely light-deprived as well.

Repot, keep the soil damper than ideal and acclimate to full sun and they should be good to go for the rest of the year!

Also agree with MikeB about dormancy. Give the plants the rest they get in their natural habitat and they always do better the following growing season.

Hello everyone! We did follow your advice and I am happy to tell you that our venus is taking a nap right now
So first of all I want to thank everyone for the answers.
Second, I have another question. I apologize if I should ask in a different thread.
The question is: we accidentally put a little too much water to our dormant venus and the soil hasn't gone dry in over 2 weeks now. Haven't added any water since. The dead leaves started getting moldy so I trimmed them off. Is the plant in danger because of the constantly wet soil? Should we repot do drier soil?

Thank you!

It's on an unheated glazed balcony. I am super afraid to use any chemicals on it and unfortunately, where I live I might have a hard time finding something suitable.

The soil for Venus flytraps should never go completely dry, so it is good that it is still damp. But keeping it soaking wet for too long can lead to problems too. If you don't have it sitting in a tray of water and it is out of the rain, it should get to the point where it is evenly moist eventually. I wouldn't recommend repotting it.

If you're already seeing mold, I'd recommend washing it off thoroughly and trying to manually remove as much mold as you can. Then spray it with your preferred fungicide (sulfur-based) or disease control spray.

Matt, do you have a preferred fungicide? What is your go to fungicide? Thanks

I like chlorothalonil:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorothalonil

This is the product I buy that contains chlorothalonil as an active ingredient:
https://www.amazon.com/Ortho-Concentrat ... B001ACPOBW

You can see me apply it to some of my Sarracenia here: