FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So... A quick update on some VFTs I was having trouble with a month or two ago.

I got some more tips, and it turned out that yes, they're mineral burned. Perhaps I didn't wash the media or pot well enough. I sadly didn't have much time to try to treat it, due to travel reasons, so I bagged them and left them in a more-full-than-usual water tray.

Well... A week later, and...

THEY'RE GROWING! They look so much greener than before too! Not really a fan of the flower spikes, but I heard that happens when they're burned. I think I'll keep this up for another week, and maybe try to propagate the flower spikes if they grow tall enough).

Venus flytraps can be pretty resilient when given half a chance.

They're wilting again... All flowers didn't make it, and one flytrap that actually had a fighting chance of having leaves had the leaf in question wilt simply because I LIGHTLY TOUCHED IT while putting the humidity bag on it. Aside from watering them every now and then, I've pretty much left them alone. I don't know if it's the lack of bright sunlight (for a good two weeks it was almost nothing but cloudy and rainy outside). One of the bigger flytraps might not even make it, it's turned mostly brown and black and has no new growths.

I once again don't know what to do, and I'm starting to feel defeated. The last time I cared for flytraps, they weren't nearly this sensitive and wilting over the smallest inconveniences.

One of the flytraps croaked ;m;... The other two are still alive, but it's sad nonetheless. I did my best...

What do I do with the leftover LFSM? I gave it a good washing after removing the flytrap (which came out of the media concerningly easily, roots and all...) and at the moment it's just kinda... Sitting in the original pot and watering tray, just without the flytrap in it.

It was some fresh distilled water, and yeah, I'll take your advice on reusing the media ^^. I haven't put any water in the tray very often, and if I do it's about 1/4 inch if the soil starts to feel very dry, and the pot feels very light. The time where it was more than usual was out of travel reasons.

As for how they didn't do so well in the media, I'm honestly very confused about that. It seemed like the usual LFSM I use, and I even asked before buying it if the moss had any nutrients or not. To some extent I'm almost wondering if I didn't clean the pots well enough, because I'm keeping the smaller plant in a new pot, and aside from slow growing and one case of browning it's doing better than the rest. I'm thinking I'll leave them without the bag for a while, some of the media might be too wet either way.

Yeah, I thought keeping them bagged and left alone for a while would help more since that's how it worked last time... In retrospect I think just a week is fine before letting the pots dry out a little (especially after travel). The pots are relatively deep (5-6 in), though the one for the small flytrap is... Well... Smaller (4 in) for the moment (It will move to a bigger pot if/when it grows bigger).

As for touching the leaf, yeah, usually touching the leaves doesn't do much. Caused it to look a little sad for a bit maybe, but never up and made a leaf croak. I thought it was these particular plants being insanely sensitive, but they were "Insanely sensitive" for a reason. Also I never knew people massaged them after feeding, interesting!

I lost another one ;m;...

I thankfully have one more left, a younger one, still with mostly green leaves. There are the slightest signs of discoloring, but not nearly as many signs of withering. I think it got lucky seeing as even when bagged, the pot dried out relatively quickly compared to the other two. I will do my best to keep this one alive ;v;.