FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I made a discovery when I went to repot one of my VFTs:

The top of my VFT's soil was completely green compared to my other VFT which was kinda wet brown. I didn't know if it was just a different kind of soil because I bought both of them at a nursery in NC about 6 days ago. But when I took the plant + soil out of the pot, only the top part (soil exposed to sun) was green and everything below it was kinda milky white. Also, the moss made the roots wrap around the plant in circles instead of going straight down and I discovered about 4 traps very small and dead black inside the moss as well. So, is this some sort of media packaging failure or did I overwater the plant?

I put both my VFTs in new pots (5 inch) with Sphagnum Moss and I untangled the roots and put them in straight down so hopefully it will help. I just want to know if I was accidentally choking my VFT.




Thanks!

Hello John,

The white part is the plant's rhizome. White is good!As for the sphagnum, you might want to take it away because if yoy wate too much the rhizome and/or the roots may rot due to the fact that sphagnum can absorb a lot of water. Traps die off naturally, but the plant is good as long as it grows more leaves back to replace the older ones.

Hope this helps.
~Eric

Seeing as you've put the FlyTrap roots straight down, you may have done more harm than good.

My FlyTraps roots are never perfect, bundles of them, curle dup sme are even rooting on each other, but it's only natural, if you experience shock, and stunted growth, don't be surprised, your plant wil possibly lose a few leaves.
As Eric has said, white on the rhizome is good, not bad, and a few dead traps under to moss, is perfectly normal.

I use Sphagnum all the time, and it's always been fine, i think it's one of the best mediums, the most likely moss tro strangle plant,s is sheet moss.

Anyway, that's enough from me

Thanks for the advice guys!


I meant that the peat moss was milky white around the plant and its roots, it was saturated with water...like, I could probably squeeze about 20 drops of water out of a small piece of the original medium.

Also, why would untangling the roots make it worse?

Root shock, When a plants root system is disturbed, it has to re adjustto the new way it is, that's why almost everyone prefers to repot their plants just before, during, or just after dormancy, to avoid shock during the growing season.

Im not by any means experienced yet; however, I have had a similar experience to yours. I live in a college dorm and decided it would be best to leave my traps at home since there are (hopefully) no bugs in the dorm. Only my family didnt take care of them and they kinda died except the rhizome still had some life left. The dirt was all dry and hard so I replanted them. I also noticed that the rhizome was completely surrounded by soggy white moss stuff. This worried me so I cleared it away and made sure none of that stuff was on it in its new home. The plants started growing much better, so I also assumed some kind of strangulation. I think repotting them and clearing away that moss was a good move, I hope this settles some of your worries.