Need advice quick or my vft is a gonner

[zappafan]

Do you allow your plants to dry out just a little?

 

[nrbelex]

Sounds normal to me so long as all the traps aren't dying and new growth is visible in the center. How many traps are there/were there and how many are there now? As someone else said, the plant may finally coming out of shock. Just keep watering the plant and following the care sheets people provided earlier and the plant should grow as large as it can. Good Luck!

~ Brett

 

[LauraZ5]

My son has quite a few VFTs and shortly after he he received them he transplanted them into pots And numerous traps turned black on every plant. He removed them. A few weeks after that, they began generating new growth. Just over a month ago, he transplanted them outside in a bog. Traps began turning black again so he removed them. Two weeks ago, we noticed every VFT had new growth again. Based on our experiences, black traps would be normal in recently transplanted CPs as all of Nick's VFTs seem to start shooting out new growth within a few weeks after transplant. And no, Nick's VFTs are never allowed to dry out. One thing we do with VFTs is to remove every flower stalk. We aren't allowing any VFTs to flower. I'm not saying this is right and I'm not saying this is wrong, this is just what we choose to do. We feel the plants are too stressed after being transplanted to be allowed to expend energy flowering and setting seed.

 

[jimscott]

Sounds like the blackened traps were a reaction to a sighnificant enough change in environment, but not too significant, as to cause death. I know... a no-brainer.

 

[ssgrock]

I have stopped watering my VFT every other day, and have decided to let it dry out more bewteen waterings. Now, I just check the soil for moisture, if it feels dry, I give it some distilled water, I do keep the base plate filled though.
Currently, there is only one mature trap with two smaller ones visibly sprouting from the center, and one other stalk is growing but I don't see a trap forming on it yet. I'm hoping the plant is just beginning to recover from the shock that I put it through, having it in the wrong soil medium and what not. I did notice the mature trap has the remains of a fly stuck in it, I haven't removed it, I don't want to touch it anymore than neccessary, so it must have caught a fly by itself.

 

[ssgrock]

A quick update. My VFT is fourishing! It is now a nice bright solid green color with three mature traps and more growing. I think that the traps turn black due to transplanting stress. One other thing that I think helped was that I stopped watering everyday. I let the soil dry out a bit, if it feels somewhat dry to the touch I give it just a shot of distilled water. But more importantly, I firmly beleive that moving it out of the direct sun did wonders. Of course I suppose that technique will depend on how hot it is where you live, here in Kansas it has been pretty hot, mid ninties, and the past week we have hit the century mark. So, I think thats a little too much to leave them out in that kind of hot sun all day long.
Thanks again for the advise guys, me and my VFT are doing great now, and it growing at a nice steady pace and things are looking good. It even caught a fly all by itself, I notice one of the traps was closed and when it opened a few days later, there was a fly corpse stuck in it.