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New leaves blacken and die

F

flytrapmom

Guest
On the advice of those here, I transplanted my 6 year old's VFT into a 6 inch pot of 50% Canadian Sphagnum and 50% washed perlite.
For those of you not familiar with this ongoing saga, the VFT came home with my son from a museum class on carnivorous plants. It had been in the bottom of a two liter soda bottle, planted in mostly sphagnum peat. The plant looked much happier after transplant and began sending up many green shoots from the center--all of which have blackened and died before getting to be "full grown". Some only get to be a half inch high or so. There's one that's gotten larger than the others, with the bud of a trap starting to form, but even that is looking a little wilty this morning. What could be wrong? The plant is sitting in a tray with about 1/2 inch of R.O. water, and it spends it's days under a tree in the backyard. I thought filtered sunlight might stop the new shoots from burning, but it hasn't. Nights have been getting cooler here, so I bring it in at night. I live in Wi, could the plant be getting ready to go dormant? It doesn't seem likely, as there are so many new shoots coming up. I'm down to one green leaf on the plant, and as I said, it's not looking good.
Any suggestions?
Thanks once again to all of you experts!
Cj
 
It's sounds like it needs more light to me. Everything else sounds right so I would suggest slowly putting it into as much direct sunlight as possible. Not sudden though because it sounds like it doesn't need any more shock. Shauntell
 
Hi,

I'm not familiar with the weather in WI. Is the air dry or wet there?

If and when you expose it to more direct sunlight...consider misting if the air indeed is too dry.
 
im in ill. so we are practically neighbors, i have a friend with a 140 acre ranch out in wisconsin, and i know right around this time, the nights start getting colder, wisconsin has drastic weather changes, think about doing a terrarium, with sunshine flour. tubes, and a glass tank cover, i think your weather is whats shocking them, going from 80-90 degrees to 50-70 at night, thats a big weather change, is either shocking them, or i say early dormancy, but id go with the first choice, shock. also, your humidity is pretty erratic out there too, sometimes very high humidity, sometimes not hardly any at all, i just ordered an electronic humidifier for my plants, tells the current humiidity, and you can set it to the humidity you want. with the tank setup, my VFT is already eating, popped 4 flies in one day! ive had my plants for about a week now, and im gonna be moving them shortly to a 125 gal tank terrarium for winter, the 10 gal im gonna use for my winter tank
smile.gif
hope ive been able to help a lil

                     ccrider

P.S. also, before the plant came home, did they fertilize it? that may be your prob, rinse the plant and its sphagnum around the roots with distilled water might be fertilizer burning it up, not the sun.
 
Thanks! I've been bringing it in at night because the nights are getting cool, but apparently that's not enough. Yesterday I noticed a little bit of white stuff around the base of the plant, I hope it doesn't have root rot or something equally nasty.
CJ
 
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