Spring time stall?

[Fryster]

All my VFT’s (various cultivars) have come to a Springtime stand-still in my growrack.

Photoperiod of 16 hours under my T5’s.

The winter leaves are pretty much all gone and now the early spring leaves are starting to turn yellow and brown. And yet I see very little new growth arriving. I should add that almost all of my VFT’s sent up flower stalks this year, which I quickly severed.

I don’t recall this “stall” happening last year at this time. Half the plants I re-potted in March and half I left as they were. Yet, all are stalling in their late-spring growth, both young plants and adult plants. (I’ve checked for disease and critters; nothing.)

Is anyone else with a growrack or terrarium experiencing this phenomenon with their VFT’s??

 

[Not a Number]

Feed 'em.

The caveat "You don't have to feed carnivorous plants" only applies to plants that have an available food source and can feed themselves. They need the minerals that they get from insects to grow. Photosynthesis does not supply these minerals.

 

[mmlr38]

I noticed something similar with my flytraps this spring that I had under grow lights. I fed them a couple of bugs each and put took them out of the terrarium. It is too soon to say for sure what is going to happen, but they aren't getting any more yellow or more brown.

I am trying to gradually introduce them to the sunlight here now. Hoping that they will be able to be outside full time in the next couple of weeks without getting burned.

 

[Fryster]

Hmmm............

Feed 'em eh?

That is something I haven't done yet. I just assumed they would be full of starch-energy after their winter dormancy and wouldn't need insects just yet.

I'm gonna have to purchase feeding crickets from the pet store. But it seems like they always cause a trap to rot & die.



*Has anyone else noticed a "shortage" of bugs this spring? It sounds crazy but I'm not seeing very many ants, bees, beetles etc outside this year. It might just be Michigan, I don't know........

 

[Alexis]

They won't stall from lack of food.

Sitting there, waiting for some food would mean the plant would die once the current traps were finished.

A photo would be useful. If they're all suffering at the same time, it's the environment or the media.

 

[Fryster]

Here's some pics that I have just taken:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a321/fryster/Plants/tired_and_sickly.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a321/fryster/Plants/bulbs.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a321/fryster/Plants/normal_looking.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a321/fryster/Plants/green_mold.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a321/fryster/Plants/green_mold2.jpg

The bulb photo shows two typical VFT bulbs as looking fairly healthy, perhaps a bit yellow though. And note the green mold on the surface of two of the pots, while one pot looks normal. The green mold is only on the surface; could IT be the culprit however??

I fed a few feeder crickets to the few traps large enough to take them; they barely moved to capture them. Could my VFT's have re-entered dormancy?

I'm stumped here............

 

[growergray]

*Has anyone else noticed a "shortage" of bugs this spring? It sounds crazy but I'm not seeing very many ants, bees, beetles etc outside this year. It might just be Michigan, I don't know........

Ya know, I have noticed this(I live in Texas). There's a plethora of tiny flying insects (like gnats) and, to a lesser extent, spiders, but where's everything else? My pitcher plants are hungry!

 

[Nitecrawler]

That's how the ones I ordered from Andy look right now too...

They are in the same conditions as my others and the others are fine..

 

[cmm889]

the yellowness is kind of scary, I've never seen that before on my vft's.
it really sounds like an enviromental problem, I would've said the lighting but your lights are more than acceptable, the green slime isn't a good thing but you can scrape it off... I'd check the soil... maybe try a different location on the rack ? maybe some kind of tribal offering? like a goats blood?

 

[Fryster]

I'm even wondering if there is too much light.

I slowly acclimated them to the T5's after taking them from the windowsill (for dormancy).

8 hours for a week, 10 hours for a week, 12 hours for a week, 14 hours for a week and now 16 hours a week.

I suspect the green mold/slime. But beneath the soil surface everything looks fine. Bulbs look fairly healthy (as in the photo).

Early April all my VFT's had a fast and healthy growth spurt; and now they're "tired out". If it stays warm enough this holiday weekend I will set a few outdoors in the sun and see how they do. :-(

 

[Alexis]

I'm wondering if they're rotting through not enough air circulation and a media that's too wet.

 

[DrWurm]

I'm wondering if they're rotting through not enough air circulation and a media that's too wet.

This sounds like the best explanation to me. That green mold looks like algae to me.
Cut down on your water a bit.

 

[cmm889]

that actually sounds like your best bet... I thought the goats blood could be worth a shot though but ya know what works for one doesnt always work for another...

 

[Fryster]

Thanks all.

I keep a few VFT's quite on the dry side and they too developed surface mold. The exhaust fan in my growrack runs in half-hour intervals all day. It's actually dryer in the rack than I would like it. At least my Neps and Helis survive the 30% to 40% humidity.

Anyway, I pretty much re-potted all my stalled VFT's yesterday. WHEW! What a choir! I cut away ALL dead and rotting material and soaked all bulbs in a weak SuperThrive solution for an hour.

And for the other ones I didn't re-pot (some small Sarrs that had no spring-time stall) I scraped the surface soil off and added fresh CP mix with a little milled LFS mixed in. (BTW, did you know that a tongue scraper works well as a soil scraper too? ) I also gave them a shot of Neem oil to combat any future mold development.

I noticed that many of my VFT typicals and cultivars had dug themselves in pretty deep in their pots. I think this might have had something to do with the stall too. (too wet down there and new leaf shoots having trouble reaching the surface.)

Man, I hope this fixes the problem. Now they all have to get over transport shock. I tried to be gentle. I'll let everyone know how it goes. Thanx!

 

[Flytrapdude92]

doesn't green slime signal an excess of wetness and that is possibly what is stalling the plants (start of root rot)?? whoops just read the above post and saw that it has already been said. At least I had the right Idea!

 

[Nitecrawler]

Fryster - I found out what my problem was...and it looked just like yours. Spider mites.

 

[Fryster]

WHERE did you discover them?

Under the soil (near the roots) or on the leaves?

I have seen one (ONE!!) crawling on a plastic pot and that was it. I looked and looked and looked and even searched some more; no more mites.

After I re-potted I sprayed Neem oil on the new soil surface and on the leaves. I wonder if this is sufficient??

 

[kruegersc4]

One of my Big Mouths stopped growing this spring too. I repotted it, and it's just starting to grow again. The peat mixture I had it in smelled really bad, and I think that was the problem, but it might have been a pest too.

 

[Fryster]

getting better...............

Some of my VFT's have come back a bit.

They're no longer under the T5's and are now under cooler T12's. It's odd though, they thrived last year at this time under the T5's. <go figure>

I'm mostly concerned about my once-beautiful 'B52', 'Bigmouth' and 'Vigorous' cultivars. I hope they resurrect. Otherwise I've wasted a lot of dough and time on these bad-boys.

I'm still striking back at the molds with Neem oil and other fungicides. I also noticed that I had quite a few fungus-gnats in my VFT pots. I set several pings next to the VFT's to combat the gnats... Seems to be working well.

 

[maneatingmoo]

I fed a few feeder crickets to the few traps large enough to take them; they barely moved to capture them. Could my VFT's have re-entered dormancy?

I'm stumped here............

Yeah, my VFT's traps hardly move at all either, and the ones that do move are really really slow to close. Why would this happen? I don't think mine are re-entering dormancy, it's July.