FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone, I have a VFT and in the absence of sphagnum moss or in any case an optimal substrate for the latter, I found myself having to make do with easily available materials at home. In fact, I saw a video on Youtube in which a VFT grower used sponge or in any case sponge and foam shavings as a substrate for VFTs. I am having various problems with the growth, it is very slow despite staying indoors and getting as much light as possible 16 to 18 hours a day of 6500K light, I have continued to feed the plants artificially, however the plant produces roughly a trap per week. I have come up with various hypotheses but I assume that the nutrients that the plant absorbs are absorbed too slowly. I could also be wrong. I don't know how the exchange of nutrients inside the VFTs works, I don't know if the pH of the water influences the absorption of nutrients from the prey it catches, I would be very happy to find some answers

A picture would help. Also my flytraps produce one trap every week and they are totally fine?

I had typical venus flytraps in the past but they seemed to grow faster than this one.

I don’t think sponges are a good substrate but if you want to experiment then go for it. The worst thing that can happen is to lose the plant. Also the plant is flowering and you might want to cut off the stem. Does the pot have holes at the bottom? If not then try and make some because the water at the bottom will get anaerobic and your plant can rot and die. Also without holes you can’t check how much minerals are in the substrate. The sponges might be leeching minerals that are bad for the plant. You should check how many dissolved minerals are in the substrate with a TDS meter. First you water from the top until water comes out of the holes. Then you collect that water and then measure it with a TDS meter. If it measures above 50 ppm then you will need to pour water from the top until it gets below 50 ppm. I don’t know what ph sponges have but the plant needs needs neutral or acidic ph.

Thanks for the very interesting answer. I also thought that this substrate is not exactly the best, in fact I am gonna replacing it with pure dry sphagnum moss. When I published the post I had already cut the floral stem. The vase has holes underneath but the problem with this foam is that it is not a material that absorbs water and retains it, if you were to remove the water from the sponge it would in fact dry in an instant, so I assume that the fact that the plant grows so slowly it is due to the absence of oxygen in the substrate, and as if the roots were immersed directly in the water. having said that, is it possible that in conditions in which the roots are submerged in water, the plant is unable to grow as fast as a normal substrate? As far as water is concerned, I think there are no problems, I use reverse osmosis demineralised water, but to be safe, I'm already proceeding to buy a TDS meter. My doubt was due to the fact that I've always read that Dionaea grow well only in acidic substrates, I didn't know they could stay in a neutral pH. However, as you have been able to observe, the problem may not be the pH but the fact that the roots receive little oxygen in this type of substrate.

I heard that sphagnum moss has neutral ph an VFTs grow very well in it. But I am not sure if it’s true that sphagnum has neutral ph as I don’t have a ph meter. Also you are right about the sponge absorbing water and then it can’t hold it. Because of this you have to let the plant in water all the time and that’s not good. Fortunately you now have proper substrate for the plant. I like these kinds of experiments so we can see what substrates are good and what aren’t. In the future I will try and rinse a (probably) peat based soil that has over 300 ppm and try to get it below 50 ppm permanently and then try and grow CPs in it. But I probably need a ph meter because most CPs grow in acidic soil.

I tried to do a very risky thing, but it doesn't seem to have harmed the plant in any way. I squeezed the juice of half a lemon into the Dionaea water to increase the acidity of the water, the Dionaea was not damaged (because I was very careful not to let the lemon juice come into direct contact with the leaves).

Furthermore, I forgot to point out that the same water is treated with an azoxystrobin solution (approximately 0.05 g/L of azoxystrobin), I used it both to eliminate the mold particles present on the blackened traps and because thanks to this forum I found that azoxystrobin could enhance the growth of VFTs under good lighting conditions.

Since I administered the lemon (the same day I published the post) the plant does not seem to have experienced any damage, among other things I notice that the leaves have become slightly greener, not if it is caused by azoxystrobin, since the scientific research carried out seems to slow down the blackening process of the traps and make the plants greener, but maybe I'm wrong and it has nothing to do with it.

Anyway, I ordered online a pH meter and a TDS meter as well as dry sphagnum moss, as soon as I get to grips with it I will update the post and let you know both the pH of the sponge substrate and the pH of the substrate composed only of sphagnum moss.

Mmm… the lemon thing is interesting.