FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Sadly I've had this thing in its small, original pot for months, but I was too scared to move it out until yesterday. Until then they've actually done quite well. It's grown a lot of big, beautiful leaves, and it was actually the first of my flytraps I was successfully able to feed!

The last time I repot my VFTs it was, to put it shortly, a disaster. They somehow got mineral burned and even after they started to show signs of promise I managed to overwater them in the end. I made sure to pretty much double rinse my plastic soil-mixing vessel of choice (and my gloves) with distilled water before getting to work, and after a day... They're thankfully still all green. I know they're under a lot of stress, and I'm expecting some of the leaves to wilt, but here I am seeing even the smallest signs of new wilt (especially this wrinkly wilt that one of the leaves is doing) and starting to panic that I burned them again...

Pictures are worth a 1000 words.

What media did you pot it in. Specifics please brand name etc.

I put it in a peat moss, perlite, and sphagnum moss mixture that was made in house from where I got the VFTs from (granted they still had them in the cubes), but has worked well for repotting my VFTs before (At least the sphagnum has, either way I did ask if the peat moss/perlite had any nutrients and the people I bought it from said no, and when I tried to propagate a VFT flower in it, it didn't seem to burn, just wither away naturally).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hZD52pyeVH3J4fBw5 I can't seem to save the images to my particular device right now, but here's a Google Photos link to what's happening to two of the leaves. I want to say it's the usual wither, but "the usual wither" happens slower and darker than this. Looking at photos of the mineral burn my last VFTs faced it looks maybe a little too similar for comfort...

If it is mineral burn... I genuinely don't know what to do when repotting going forward considering I went overboard in trying to prevent mineral burn this time. What sort of gloves do you guys use if any? What do you mix the media in? How clean does everything have to be?

As previously requested brands please. Some perlite has additives not suitable for cps

Cant see how deep the rhizome is. If it is covered, it needs to be visible.

wcrosman wrote:As previously requested brands please. Some perlite has additives not suitable for cps

Again, it doesn't exactly have a brand. It's labeled as Interior Foliage Mix made by the Garden Center it bought it from, and branded as such. I would mention it, though I'm not comfortable with it, as it's from a Garden Center that is exclusive to one state and one country, and I don't want to borderline doxx myself, apologies. I do know that the sphagnum moss they make is fine.

Also, oh shoot I didn't know that perlite fact. Good to know. Though, about the photo (I'll post the photo itself here as I'm able to do that now so it's a little easier to access, I don't entirely know how Google Photos does link accessibility), I'm not sure if it's mineral burn or if I'm just scaring myself silly. I was looking at some other posts involving wilting flytraps (from dormancy, not mineral burn), and the wilting looks somewhat similar. Also, looking at more old photos, the mineral burn seems to be more... Crinkly and splotchy compared to this, but it feels too soon to tell.

andynorth wrote:Cant see how deep the rhizome is. If it is covered, it needs to be visible.

The rhizome is thankfully visible, if hard to see under all the giant leaves :p. Apologies for not including it in the picture.

Aqua521 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 05, 2024 10:00 pm

wcrosman wrote:As previously requested brands please. Some perlite has additives not suitable for cps

Again, it doesn't exactly have a brand. It's labeled as Interior Foliage Mix made by the Garden Center it bought it from, and branded as such.

And there's the problem. Venus flytraps are very sensitive to minerals in their soil, and that "Interior Foliage Mix" was the wrong thing to use. Carnivorous plants need a very specific soil mix to avoid mineral poisoning. You need to use peat moss and perlite that has no fertilizer or limestone added. This means that all Miracle-Gro products are off the list. This post has a list of products that are safe to use.

Shooooooot... I won't be able to get new media for another week... I only have a small container of sphagnum left over (I have more under Supermoss, but I used that last time and the VFTs did NOT seem to like it, which is strange because after they got burned I didn't see a thing about additives). I'll contact the company that made the potting mix and ask if the perlite they added has any of those additives just in case.

Another thing, I still haven't received an answer about the picture, though all the responses otherwise may or may not have answered that already. Is that mineral burn in the picture or not? What do I do if I'm unable to find good media for it until next week?

Aqua521 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 05, 2024 10:40 pm I'll contact the company that made the potting mix and ask if the perlite they added has any of those additives just in case.

It's not just the perlite; the other soil ingredients contain minerals. That mix is fine for regular houseplants but horrible for carnivorous plants in general.

To my knowledge it's just peat moss and perlite, and is intended for terrariums. This stuff is thankfully (though to my knowledge) not Miracle-Gro. Either way I did contact the Garden Center to ask what exactly goes into that potting mix, because I don't want to go into panic mode just yet. I still don't entirely know if it's mineral burn (and no one has told me straight-up with the photos ^^;), and if the soil is a certain no-no, I'll have to go back and get new media that I know it can grow in.

The Foliage Mix came in a plastic container that sadly doesn't have an ingredients list (which I admittedly should have clarified, apologies), thus why I contacted the Garden Center it came from. Also, while I do have some good Sphagnum moss, it's not much, and I have a pretty big flytrap.

Another thing, I still haven't received an answer about is the picture I posted. Is that Mineral Burn or not?

Aqua521 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2024 3:13 pm The Foliage Mix came in a plastic container that sadly doesn't have an ingredients list (which I admittedly should have clarified, apologies), thus why I contacted the Garden Center it came from. Also, while I do have some good Sphagnum moss, it's not much, and I have a pretty big flytrap.

Another thing, I still haven't received an answer about is the picture I posted. Is that Mineral Burn or not?

The reason no reply on your photo is because it's not definitive. Could be burn; could be going dormat.