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i think my vft is sick

  • Thread starter Heads
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my vft might be sick because its not looking to good. its all brown and sad looking.whats really worrying me is that its not growing.i haven't seen any new nubs in the midle of the plant.im giving as mutch light as i possibly can.i live in Oregon so there is not that mutch light.
 
I'm no expert but as much light as you can give it is vital, make sure you're watering it with rain/distilled/reverse osmosised water, not tap water. Don't feed the traps too frequently, catching insects is not vital for it's survival and it should catch enough by itself anyhow. Lack of growth suggests to me not enough light, flytraps are generally kept outside where they can get 12+ hours of sunlight. Hope that helps, but again I'm fairly new to CPs myself, happy growing! :D
 
I also live in oregon.
Did you get the plant from a store like walmart or lowes?
Did you put the plant in full sun?

If so I'm guessing the plants are sunburned.
As long as there conditions are ideal they'll recover.

I recently bought some plants from a carnivorous plant vendor without knowing they had been growing under fluorescent lights. I put them outdoors in full sun and they turned red, then brown. It took about a month and a half to two months for them to recover. Now they have nice green leaves.
 
Often too, if they are "rescues" from Lowe's or Home Despot, they've been grown in the cheapest grade-Z compost, probably only a hash-mark away from spent, spat chewing tobacco. Give it as much sun as possible and when feasible, transplant it into a nice peat-sand mix . . .
 
I'd have to second that transplating idea especially to take pics and observe how the plant "naked" is looking.

On a side note, I am becoming more interested in using sand and I live on Long Island. Beaches are to my north and south. Do I have easy pickins when it comes to acquiring sand or should I be looking for store bought stuff??
 
1. Where did you buy it?
2. When?
3. Have you transplanted it into fresh peat?
4. What kind of water are you using?
5. Where is it growing? indoors or out?
6. If indoors, it needs to go outdoors.
7. If already outdoors, how much direct sun does it get a day?

Scot
 
(scottychaos)-1.i bought it on the internet
2.some months ago
3.(yes) but in a glazed pot, i know i sound like an idiot but i put it in that pot because i thought it
looked pretty.
4.distilled
5.indoors (on my window sill) but the little baby flytraps seem to like the window sill
6.it actually cant go outside because i live in a really ghetto neighborhood
I MEAN REALLY GHETTO!
7.even if i put it outside the sky is constantly gray im at the end of June and its still not sunny!
 
If the inside of the pot is glazed it is probably ok. If you don't think you can grow them outdoors they'll probably need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight on your windowsill during the summer. If they can't get that much sunlight you'll have to go with artificial lighting. Dormancy will be your biggest challenge. How you handle that depends on if you are able to provide temperatures in the mid/low 50sF or lower during the winter.
 
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(scottychaos)-1.i bought it on the internet
2.some months ago
3.(yes) but in a glazed pot, i know i sound like an idiot but i put it in that pot because i thought it
looked pretty.
4.distilled
5.indoors (on my window sill) but the little baby flytraps seem to like the window sill
6.it actually cant go outside because i live in a really ghetto neighborhood
I MEAN REALLY GHETTO!
7.even if i put it outside the sky is constantly gray im at the end of June and its still not sunny!


Everything is ok except for:

6.it actually cant go outside because i live in a really ghetto neighborhood
I MEAN REALLY GHETTO!


Realistically, if you cant grow VFT's outdoors, then you cant grow VFT's..
its about 90% likely they will die within 2 years..
about all you can do is buy new plants every Spring as old plants die off..
Or maybe you can develope a system for getting them sucessfully through dormancy, but thats tricky, even for experienced growers, and sucess is unlikely.

but the little baby flytraps seem to like the window sill

they dont really..they might look ok in the short term, but they wont look good long-term.

7.even if i put it outside the sky is constantly gray im at the end of June and its still not sunny

Its not *constantly* grey..even a cloudy day outdoors is better than a sunny day indoors.

Sorry, but its unlikely your VFT's will survive long-term indoors..
they simply are not good indoor house plants.

Scot
 
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  • #10
Hmmm, in 1967 I bought my first VFT. It was potted in live Sphagnum moss with a bit of perlite on the bottom of the pot. It lived in the same pot in a covered 1 gallon glass jar on NE facing windowsill of my parents kitchen in Los Angeles for the next 12 years. I watered it with Sparkletts' "Spring" water and maybe fed it flies or a tiny bit of ham 3 or 4 times a year. It flowered regularly even producing seed and seedlings (which seldom survived getting overrun by the moss). I left it in my parents care when I went away for graduate school only to find it dried out and dead when I came home during a winter break.

You'll have a difficult time persuading me that VFTs cannot be grown indoors long term.

And the last time someone that didn't want to grow them outdoors for the same reasons was convinced VFTs could only be grown outdoors the plants were promptly stolen. And not a word of apology from the "you can't grow VFTs indoors" crowd.
 
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  • #11
I too grew them inside as a kid, along with a few common Drosera , at a South-facing window for some years, without any real issue -- and watered it with a bit of the distilled water my mother used for her iron. Occasionally, it was fed crawling insects from outside or caught things on the fly. When it rained or was especially sunny outside, it spent time in a side yard and was well-fed.

Even now, I have a rotating number of them on my windowsill, though they remain outside for the most part. The humidity -- I'm less than a half a mile from the beach -- does wonders; and i haven't had t o spray them or keep them covered in years . . .
 
  • #12
My first VFT survived for a year on my windowsill. The traps were small, but it divided like nuts, probably being at least 20 separable plants. It died when I tried to put it into dormancy after being convinced that it was so important. Later, I started using distilled and rain water which was such a pain to deal with (being convinced it was so important), I don't anymore, and my plants are fine. I think if you have an okay amount of light, your plants won't be perfect, but they certainty won't die on the spot either.
 
  • #13
they don't really..they might look ok in the short term, but they wont look good in the long-
term

so what do i do to save the little vfts?
 
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