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Folair feeding my Venus flytrap

How do I go about folair feeding my Venus flytraps, what fertilizer to use, and how to mix the fertilizer, so that it does not hurt my plants.
 
Very very dilute is the way to go apparently. The risk is you'll drip into the soil though and it's a gamble. Insects are much safer, more fun and more effective.
 
I've heard diluted technique, which kind of foliar fertilizer should I use 10-10-10, 20-20-20, 30-30-30, and how much should I dilute with a gallon of water.
 
I had bought my plants from steins garden center about two months ago they have very little traps left they had them in the humidity cup I'm trying to give my plants a boost so that they can recover from removing them from the humidity cup they are growing very very slow I don't know what else try I have tried everything, from the potting them, with long fiber moss, and no luck yet. I suspect that the plants are weak and need some type of boost once they are healthy again I planned on letting them eat on their own. Any help would be greatly appreciated I do not want to lose my plants.
 
What you're flytrap is missing is patience. These plants do things in their own time. It sometimes takes several weeks for a plant to get used to low humidity and often it isn't until a new set of leaves is growing that they are fully adapted to the changes in their habitat. If you want to give your plant a boost, put it outside in as bright a light as it can take and let it catch bugs. Fertilizing a VFT is a gamble on getting it just right and not too much. Not to mention being a fiddly way of doing what the plant can do itself catching bugs.
 
Thanks for the info I will be patient My plants is outside it gets between 10 to 12 hours of full sun everyday, and all the traps have wilted away, there is new Grothe , and I will try to be patient I just hope that they don't die, these are the things that I do with my plants ,I tray water them, and let them eat on their own, they are in a 12 in. plastic bog, with long fiber sponge moss /perlite, once a month I take the planter out of the tray and poor a gallon of desteeled water in the planter and let it drain, to aggregate the soil.------ is this OK. Any info from a pro like your self is cool I really want to learn or recommend a very good book for me read, but I have had done a lot of reading it's got me this far so now I started talking to people like yourself and others, any other opinions are suggestions are welcome please let me know thanks flytrap455.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Flytrap455 @ July 08 2006,3:55)]Any info from a pro like your self ...
Who me?? About the time I think of myself as a pro I do something stupid and kill some plants. For instance, I can't even guess at how many of my VFTs were killed because I didn't get them inside or mulched heavy enough to keep them from becoming icicles during the winter. Now if being pro means I have had more experience at killing VFTs than you have, I'll probably have to plead guilty.

A good starter book for learning about CPs and how to grow them would be "The Savage Garden" by Peter D'Amato. There are some inaccuracies in the book but it is a good book none the less.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I tray water them, and let them eat on their own, they are in a 12 in. plastic bog, with long fiber sponge moss /perlite, once a month I take the planter out of the tray and poor a gallon of desteeled water in the planter and let it drain, to aggregate the soil.
Sounds good. Flushing the soil occaionally with distilled water is a good idea. It will help remove salts and minerals that build up in the soil over time and as you say it also aerates the soil some as the water drains through. After a hard rain washes the dirt off the roof, I like to set my plants under the down spout as the rain lightly drizzles so that a trickle of the water runs into the pot. I let that drain through until the water looks clear coming out the bottom of the pot. You need to be careful when doing this though, in case it starts raining hard again as it will "Jimscott" your plants. It also will help if you just place your plants out in a light rain. Also avoid setting the pots directly on the ground where earth worms can get into them through the drain holes. I made the mistake of setting several pots of Utricularia on my sidewalk without water trays under them last year to drain after flushing them. I did this several different times. This last winter my Utricularia started to slowly die away for no apparent reason. I finally decided to repot them in fresh peat and discovered small worms had gotten into all my Utric pots. They had been slowly poisoning my plants by enriching the soil all winter.

So, yeah, if I'm a pro it just means that I have had more practice at killing my plants.
 
I guess making mistakes is how we all learn and practice makes perfect, and as far as being a pro to me there is actually no pros there is only learning from mistakes in sharing it with other people like ourselves, me I'm going to experiment on one of my plants with blood meal that is what they like is blood and protein so I'm going to be dipping some flies into blood meal of very very diluted tea will see if this inspires this sickly little plant of mine to grow I will let you know thanks for all the help.
 
  • #10
May have trouble getting the VFT trap to stay closed on the blood meal. They need continuous movement inside the trap after it closes to get it to seal and secret enzymes for digesting prey. It might work better on passive traps of pitcherplants, sundews, pings and Neps.
 
  • #11
The fly will still be alive I'm just going to dip it in the blood meal tea, it should have enough of the blood meal on it so that the fly is wet with blood meal in the fly should still be able to move around, I'm going to try this once the new growth on my plants open, I will let you know how this works
 
  • #12
Real help. A bottle of superthrive to revive the plants. It feeds the root, promotes root growth, and gives the plant a few needed vitamins. I use it twice a year on my 150 VFT's. They love it. Leave the rest to nature. Fool with them too much, and you can kiss them goodbye.
 
  • #13
OK bugweed I will try Superthrive, also I need to know is how you suggest I mix it with 1 gal. of water or is there another method that you suggest please reply as soon as you can. as you can tell I am just learning about carnivores plants, right-thinking about going to school to become a plant tollegest. Joining these forms I think that will make this my new home and learned here probably more than I will in school thanks for the tip. Like I said when you have time jot down the mixing directions for the superthrive per gallon of water.
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  • #14
Directions are on the bottle. They recommend one drop per gallon. I recommend 6 drops. If your plants are ok, it WILL give them a shot in the arm and perk them up. If something is wrong, it may take a while. A soil base of pure peat moss is just fine for them. Add sand if you want to, but, straight peat has worked for me for 40 years. Perlite = BAD. Don't use it unless you want it all over the place.
 
  • #15
Thank you bugweed I will be getting some picture plant's on the 16th wish me luck
 
  • #16
That would be PITCHER plants, Boss!
 
  • #17
I think I read on Barry rices page that the best treatment for a sick flytrap is the same as you would give a healthy flytrap, the right growing conditions.
Leaf damage never heals. The leaf is designed to live no more than a few months, so why would the plant spend energy to heal it. So all the damage that the plant has suffered while it was in the store is permanent. The leaf will die and new ones will take it's place. That's just how these plants operate. The only thing you will do by trying to fix it is to do more harm. The best thing to do what hasn't been done and that's treat it like a flytrap. Humidity above 60%, temps between 85 and 100, plenty of sunlight, and the right amount of water. Fresh air won't hurt either.
You said that you see new growth. That is the best you can hope for. The old leaves will and are going to die. There is nothing you can do to stop that. So just let it happen. Keep watching he new leaves, make sure they stay green. It sounds like to me that you're already doing the best thing for the plant. Flytraps are slow growing plants, nothing is going to speed up what nature has programed them to do.
If I were you I'd forget about the bloodmeal, fertilizer, and all the other stuff. There is no use in experimenting when you only have one. When you have 10 flytraps then you can stand to lose one or two if the experiments doesn't work.
I don't know where you live but I found that flytraps loves to be outside. They can survive outside almost in every part of the US without much effort.
As Bug mention Superthrive can help, but don't expect it to be overnight. Superthrive just gives it a boost of what the plant needs. It won't make it grow any faster or repair any damage.
The only thing that will help this plant is the right conditions and time. Give it both and it'll be ok.
 
  • #19
The only thing that I'm trying to do is give my plants a boost to help them recover I plan on letting nature do the rest I live in Milwaukee, and my plants are outside in full sun 10 to 12 hours. my wife went to Walgreens yesterday in the dollar section and pick up 15 Venus flytraps
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so I will have my hands full. I immediately repotted them with the other plants in the long fiber spung moss. This morning when I went out the leaves have all shriveled and died, just like my other plants did, so I cut off all the shriveled parts of the leaf one of them even had a flower stem still intact I will be taking some pitchers to let you see exactly what I have so that you guys can help me further, and if you see things that are wrong let me know. Hey bugweed by the way I already use perlite what mistake it does get all over the place, but for now I'm kinda stock I don't want to uproot the plants and change it until they are more healthier. As I inspected the bolbs for fungal, it is my guess that they are between three to seven years old the bulbs were huge, and most of them had a very nice whitish color to them, but one had a little pink in it, that's the one that was flowering.
 
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