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I need help!!!!

Ok so i ordered a Dentate trap from flytrapshop and it came in on saturday (yesterday) In pretty sad shape. All of the plants leaves were drooping and i went to feed it later that day (as i noticed all of its traps were open and i wasnt sure when it was last fed) And its trap closed very slowly. I know this is probably due to shock but here comes the real problem. There was a dark red/black fungus growing on the rhizome. I never had seen anything like this. I quickly took the plant up and removed all the red and black fungus parts of the plants by hand and had to remove 2 leaves and about a fifth or sixth of its rhizome. Im growing it in a window cill, well watered using the tray method, and recieves plenty of sun light, in a peat moss and perlite sand medium. i had left the container cup it came with that was over top it (the cup that perserves humidity) on and im using the bottom watering method. I think maybe the the plant got too humid, as water droplets had formed on the cup. I was going to slowly raise it off, but when i noticed the rhizome rotting i quickly took it off to give the plant less humidity but it seems like this fungus had been growing before i got it, i doubt it grew 1/5th of the rhizome overnight. Has anyone ever had this happen before? Any praticular reason why this might happen? i found a picture of what that part of my rhizome had been looking like.
http://hortchat.com/images/iris-borer3.jpg

So in short, red mold/fungus/disease. I removed it. and im growing it in fairly normal conditions. My roomate said i was probably keeping the plant too wet and that it was root rot, but i was careful to keep the medium moist but not saturated. any help would be appreatiated.
 
That is just the dead old parts of the rhizome. No fungus that I can see. The plant was also dormant all winter, the leaves shouldn't be in the best shape because they are old fall leaves and should look better when it was new spring growth. Also the plant closes faster when it is warm.
 
God

Now my face is red. The rhizome naturally dies off that color? how wierd, i was positive my plant was dieing hahaha. Sorry this is my first CP so id be really mad if it just up and died.
 
Is there a reason why your flytrap is inside? Generaly windowsills aren't great. I've gotten a flytrap to survive a season on a windowsill but they do best outside where the seasons change and the sunlight is much stronger.
 
its true, I tried windowsill VFT's when I first started and its just not really a good idea...

there are ways to grow em indoors if thats absolutely necessary but it requires more than a windowsill unfortunately..

VFT's are super hardy and as long as theirs living rhizome the ability to recover is always there...but its going to need much stronger light ...

best of luck
Chris
 
you dont know, maybe where he lives its still cold???
 
Halt regaurdless of whether he lives in a cold region or not he's more than likely not going to be able to grow that vft on windowsill light alone.
 
I think he meant it is still to cold to put it on the porch for the moment.
 
It gets Alot of light in my window cill The sun rises and lights the plant at 8am and it is lit till about 7;30 pm with multiple hours of direct of sunlight mid day, also i have a flourescent light shining on the other side of the plant ("Daylight" 60 Watt). Do you think between those two its getting enough light? Id leave it outside - but i dont wanna have to go out there each time i look at it lol.
 
  • #10
Hello, sorry to have missed this but if you think you have a problem it would probably be best you contact me directly (here or through the store). That being said, it sounds like everything is normal. The "drooping leaves" is because it is dormant, they are starting to wake up and flower, but really new summer leaves have not started yet. So you'll have those smaller ground hugging leaves until the plant decides to get its butt in gear. ;)
Slow trap movement is also a sign of a dormant plant, and expected at this stage. I really can't see anything in that photo, but from your description I'd agree that it's just the old parts of the plant and not any type of mold/fungus/disease...
The media of which it is planted is just 50:50 peat: perlite (unless you've repotted it) there is no sand in the mix.
The cup on the plant is just to protect it from shipping and should be removed (as well as the plastic on the media) as soon as it is received. Not only can it provide too high of a humidity level with no air movement, in any sun at all it can also cook the plant in no time. It really shouldn't need any type of acclimation as long as you have close to appropriate conditions.
For light, they really do like lots! I grow them in a greenhouse so they're pretty used to a good amount of stront light, I would guess what you have would "work" but probably wouldn't be best. Make sure that 60w fluorescent is within inches of the plant, otherwise it's pretty much useless.

Feel free to contact me directly if you have any other concerns :bigthumpup: And welcome to TerraForums!!

Andrew
 
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