Venus fly trap brown
Hey guys, so I literally just got this Venus fly trap,nuts still a baby and there are so many dead leaves, I don't know if I can touch it or not.
Do I pluck them out? I don't know if it's dead or not and the soil looks very moist. I'm going to set it next to all my other plants and I hope it can get better. I would love to have more information about this plant as well! #happyplants #plantsmakepeoplehappy #propagationstation #plantaddict
Do I pluck them out? I don't know if it's dead or not and the soil looks very moist. I'm going to set it next to all my other plants and I hope it can get better. I would love to have more information about this plant as well! #happyplants #plantsmakepeoplehappy #propagationstation #plantaddict
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@izzyandsugar Hi Isabella! Welcome to Greg! You can touch it to care for it, just keep the touch to a minimum- make sure you only water it with distilled water! Tap water will kill it quicker than you would think! I recently got myself two baby traps as well! Si ce they are inside you will need to buy them some carnivorous plant food. This is what I got for them. If you get those dried worms that they sell, they don’t do well with them at all! So get this stuff and just cut off tiny pieces and lay them in a couple of traps every other week or so. You will need to trip the trap so it will close which is really easy. With the tweezers set a small piece of the clear food into the trap and VERY genome sure you hit the trip hairs on the inside of the trap a couple times and it will close up for you! Mist them with distilled water as well a couple times a day and never allow them to dry out completely! They need to stay moist! Good Luck🪴🌸🌺
You can very carefully trim off any dead traps using sharp scissors sterilized with isopropyl alcohol. VFT's have very specific care requirements different from other plants. The most important distinctions:
- Always bottom water using distilled or rain water only. Place pot in a saucer or dish a few inches deep and fill with water whenever you notice it's dry.
- They do best in full, direct sunlight, a minimum of 6 hours a day. They get most of their energy from the sun, not insects. Bugs are more of a bonus 😛
- In their native habitat (bogs on the coast of NC and SC) they grow in substrate devoid of nutrients, so they should never be potted in regular potting soil or given fertilizer. The best substrate is either straight sphagnum moss, a mix of sphagnum moss and perlite, or a special carnivorous plant mix.
The website California Carnivores has excellent care guides on these unique plants. Check out their VFT guide:
https://www.californiacarnivores.com/pages/venus-flytrap-care
- Always bottom water using distilled or rain water only. Place pot in a saucer or dish a few inches deep and fill with water whenever you notice it's dry.
- They do best in full, direct sunlight, a minimum of 6 hours a day. They get most of their energy from the sun, not insects. Bugs are more of a bonus 😛
- In their native habitat (bogs on the coast of NC and SC) they grow in substrate devoid of nutrients, so they should never be potted in regular potting soil or given fertilizer. The best substrate is either straight sphagnum moss, a mix of sphagnum moss and perlite, or a special carnivorous plant mix.
The website California Carnivores has excellent care guides on these unique plants. Check out their VFT guide:
https://www.californiacarnivores.com/pages/venus-flytrap-care
@stephongreg OH! Live ones would probably work! It was the dried one that I killed my last one with😔
@Ponytailmom they might be too big for very small traps, but as long as the trap can close enough that they don't flop out I imagine it's fine. They're kind of creepy and gross, used to hate watching my pet rats get ahold of one lol. But they LOVED mealworms. Did the dry ones not work because they didn't move enough to trigger the traps? Or they just didn't dissolve them?
Thanks @Ponytailmom and @stephongreg!
I fed the open ones some alive cut up mealworms from my lizard (that sadly passed away a month ago) but they didn't close so I just left them in. I don't know if it's just shocked that it feels vibration and it got scared, so it closed up or if it's dead. Some healthy ones looked like it was open too but it didn't close. The water also looks like it is soaked so idk what to do with it.
I fed the open ones some alive cut up mealworms from my lizard (that sadly passed away a month ago) but they didn't close so I just left them in. I don't know if it's just shocked that it feels vibration and it got scared, so it closed up or if it's dead. Some healthy ones looked like it was open too but it didn't close. The water also looks like it is soaked so idk what to do with it.
@stephongreg it was weird. They couldn’t dissolve it, they turned the trap dark brown and then it would die! They couldn’t manage them at all! 😣
@izzyandsugar You have to rub the tiny hairs on the inside of the trap! If you don’t touch 2 of the@ within 20 seconds of each touch they won’t close-
@Ponytailmom and @stephonhreg
So I tried moving the worms around and it still never closed. I think it's dead because when I got it, all the leaves were closed and most of them still are. Some are yellowish brown, I took some off and I see babies growing but it isn't taking the worms. I don't know if they are too big or not but I'm also going to try flightless fruitflies.
So I tried moving the worms around and it still never closed. I think it's dead because when I got it, all the leaves were closed and most of them still are. Some are yellowish brown, I took some off and I see babies growing but it isn't taking the worms. I don't know if they are too big or not but I'm also going to try flightless fruitflies.