FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just bought this VFT on Saturday from a local nursery. I tried doing my research ahead of time:

Took the dome off.
Set in a shallow water dish filled with a cm or two of purified water (not pictured).
Set in partial sunny eastern window, then moved to sunny western window in afternoons. (I have no outdoors, I am in a dorm room).

A lot of its leaves and traps are beginning to turn black.
(Please note, the plant does not stay here. I simply set it here in order to take pictures).


I thought maybe they were just old and it was just their time, but now even the baby ones.



Did I shock it by giving it so much sun so suddenly?
I poked in the potting material a bit today to investigate the base of the plant, which appears to be a healthy whiteish color. But I did not actually dig down to examine the rhizome.
Is there any hope for this plant?

Please help me!

That plant seems fine to me, the small ones are just a division of the mother plant. Blackening leaves are perfectly normal for a Venus flytrap, even mine that are Very happy and healthy sometimes get black traps, just let it settle in its new home.



Omar,

Even baby traps that are blackening is normal?

Does this mean those small traps will most likely just die off too?
I'm really quite paranoid about this plant. lol I realize how tempermental these things are, especially being indoors.

I'm guessing it may be dry where you live? How do your plants fare with the humidity in your area?
I am in the dry Midwest. Would you suggest doing anything to adjust the humidity for the plant?

Hmm, well thank you for your input and the surprising good news!

I will certainly try to not worry and just let it adjust.

kiiks52 wrote:Even baby traps that are blackening is normal?

Does this mean those small traps will most likely just die off too?
I'm really quite paranoid about this plant. lol I realize how tempermental these things are, especially being indoors.

I'm guessing it may be dry where you live? How do your plants fare with the humidity in your area?
I am in the dry Midwest. Would you suggest doing anything to adjust the humidity for the plant?

Hmm, well thank you for your input and the surprising good news!

I will certainly try to not worry and just let it adjust.

like i said, it perfectly normal for trap to blacken, not everything lives forever, those dead traps will be replaced with more traps. VFT's are really easy to grow, i live in practically a desert and i grow some of my plants outside (i said some because i also own tropical carnivore plants) VFT really do better in lower humidity then in higher.

remember to give your plant ONLY distilled water or water form a RO filter, NO TAP WATER. also, VFT's love the sun, try to give as much direct sunlight as you possibly can.

I agree with Omar. That plant looks fine right now. When they come out of their "death cubes" that they're shipped in, it can take them quite a while to adjust to the new environment and they'll not look good for a while.

It sounds like you're doing everything right and if you continue to do so, that plant will grow and look really good next year. It's so late in the growing season now that it might not look really good again this year, but don't give up on it!

Thanks for your input. There weren't any black spots when I first bought the plant, but perhaps it's sort of been a delayed reaction? Plus adjusting to sunlight, etc.

I am noticing that probably half the leaves and traps have at least some black on them. But I suppose all I can do is just keep trying to give it the best care that I can and hope for the best.

perhaps it's just adjusting to it's new environment. These guys know better than I do though so if they say don't sweat it then I wouldn't worry about it.

I actually had 2 VFT's loose every single leaf but I planted it anyway in hopes I could save it and wouldn't ya know I have all new little sprouts coming up so what I'm trying to say is yours looks great!

I do want to eventually repot this thing. I have heard differing opinions on when is the best time. Would it be best to just wait for it to adjust to its new home first? By then we will be well into winter... And I have no idea whether this plant will want to go into dormancy in a couple of months. The conditions (especially near my window) would make it fairly easy, but I don't want to force it. I'm assuming the leaves would begin to blacken? But they already are... lol.