FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello beautiful people! I have tried everything as far as feeding it is concerned but I fail in every attempt. Does this look like a healthy Flytrap? Any tips or suggestions welcome. TIA

Love and Light,
PlantMom84

I'm not an expert, but it looks okay to me. It looks like it's producing new traps and the ones dying are just old. Here are some questions that might help us to pinpoint it health:

Are its traps dying right after they open or before catching a fly?
Is it kept in a terrarium?
Are you watering it with distilled water?
Is it sitting in a tray filled with water?
Is it in a ceramic pot?
Are you giving it nutrients of any kind beside insects?
and, what soil are you using?

No, the traps are staying alive after eating. I have it in a terrarium in the brightest area of the house. Only use distilled water. It isn't sitting in a tray of water. The pot is plastic. Was using carnivorous plants food there for awhile before trying insects. The soil is peat, sphagnum, and perlite

Usually opens after a day after eating. Don't know if I am even successfully feeding it

PlantMom84 wrote: I have it in a terrarium in the brightest area of the house.

That's a scary place for a VFT, it could work out, but it has a lot of downsides. Here's a care article for terrarium growing to learn more about it and to make sure you are doing the right things if you decide to keep it in the terrarium https://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-flytr ... m-growing/
Otherwise, it looks okay, but before doing anything you might want to wait on a second opinion since I've only been growing (successfully at least) for a few.

Thank you so much! Been thinking about replanting it for awhile but afraid I will cause it to go into shock

No problem!!

Keeping VFTs in terrariums are very hard and I wouldn’t recommend them for beginners. With a terrarium you can’t leave it in direct sun as it will cook the plant. But these plants need a lot of direct sunlight. Also the humidity is very high and the air is stagnant. With these conditions mild can grew and kill the plant. Also the water is stagnant and it can also cause bacterial infections, rot and kill the plant. Also minerals from the water will build up over time and make the plant weaker and you will see the leaves turning yellow very fast and it will eventually die. So the best option for now is to replant it in a pot (15 cm deep is fine) that has holes at the bottom and it is plastic. Unglazed clay pots can leach minerals in the soil so they aren’t very good. Then you will have to put it in a ziplock bag and out of direct sunlight with the bag open. After a few days you will remove the bag for a few hours a day and each day the hours without bag will increase. In this way the plant will get acclimated to lower humidity. Then you will place it outside somewhere with direct sunlight for an hour. Each day you will increase the hours in which it gets direct sun. Then the plant will acclimate to it without getting burned. Also the water and media (soil) should have a reading of 50ppm or less when you check with a TDS meter. To check the soil you have to pour low tds water over it until it drains through the bottom of a pot with holes or a pasta draining thing or something like that. Lastly VFTs need 3 - 5 months of dormancy. They will grow very slowly or not at all and the traps will be smaller and uglier. They go dormant from late autumn until spring. Then when spring comes they start growing nicely again. With all this you will have a happy plant.

Replanted it and already seeing improvement. Thanks everyone