Need advice quick or my vft is a gonner

[ssgrock]

This is my second try growing a VFT. As happend with my first one, after a couple of days the edges of the traps are turning black and the slowly wither and die. Here is what I have, any advice would be greatly appreciated its so hard to stand by helplessy and watch this magnificent creation of mother nature waste away.

I bought it a Wal-Mart (big mistake I know) but it looked very healthy, vibrant and green.

I put it in a medium vase, I took the plant out of its small container and placed it in the vase with some cactus potting mix, but I left the plant in the moss that it was originally in from the store and surrounded it with the cactus potting mix.

I have not fed it any insects yet.

I have had it for almost two weeks.

It is outside uncovered in the full sun, soil is very moist, and I keep it so.

I don't know what to do.

Thanks.

 

[Lord Humungus]

When the plants die quickly, I found that people have used tap water to feed them. The soil you have put them in may already be to rich in minerals. They can not tolerate any fertilizer either. Perlite and sphagnum is best because it lacks nutrients. Perlite is basicly volcanic glass that holds water. Feed them only flies until you feel they can handle experimenting. Some bugs can hurt them.
I have heard some people say VFT's are hard to keep alive. I have had no trouble. I just keep the soil wet with rain and distiled water. I also use two floresent aquarium lights for 14 hours a day on a timer. Hope this is some help. Good growing ssgrock.

 

[Clint]

well a Dionaea isn't a cactus so......

 

[Bugweed]

Cactus potting mix?? Are you nuts? Put your plant in straight sphagnum peat moss, and keep it wet with distilled/rain/RO water. put it in full sun, leave it alone except for watering, let it feed itself, and watch it grow. Cactus Mix?? Omigawd. Maybe you should have read about its requirements before you helped it to a slow agonizing death.

 

[Kirkscoastalcarnivores]

I have to go with bugweed and JLAP here it would be best to adjust the soil, quick! I use Peat mixed with a little perlite for most of my cps even some exotics. But sphgnum is good to, I recently bought a VFT from wal mart to and repotted it, it is growing nicely and in the peat mixture, also here in Colorado the water is low enough in minerals that I can use tap Water, but you may have to use distilled water, In florida the water was high in minerals so I simply used hose water

 

[Lord Humungus]

Quote[/b] (Bugweed @ June 18 2005,1:02)]Cactus potting mix?? Are you nuts? Put your plant in straight sphagnum peat moss, and keep it wet with distilled/rain/RO water. put it in full sun, leave it alone except for watering, let it feed itself, and watch it grow. Cactus Mix?? Omigawd. Maybe you should have read about its requirements before you helped it to a slow agonizing death.

Geess Bug! ease up. He is new. I guess the therapy is not working.

I live in Florida and the water is so hard I have had to repair my water heater twice in 4 years. Rain water is best. Distiled will do.

P.S. Just kidding, right Bug?

 

[Alvin Meister]

Quote[/b] ]Cactus potting mix?? Are you nuts? Put your plant in straight sphagnum peat moss, and keep it wet with distilled/rain/RO water. put it in full sun, leave it alone except for watering, let it feed itself, and watch it grow. Cactus Mix?? Omigawd. Maybe you should have read about its requirements before you helped it to a slow agonizing death.

Yes, as Bugweed tactfully put, VFTs need to live in sphagnum moss peat. They cannot tolerate rich soils as they have evolved to catch insects to gain the nutrients they can't get from the poor peaty sandy soils they live in, in North Carolina.

So you need to get hold of some peat (not sedge peat - the bag should say 'Moss Peat' or 'Sphagnum Peat'). You can use perlite for a bit of aeration, but it's not compulsory.

Your other plant may have suffered as it was living in dark Walmart and was then put in the sun. A few traps might burn, but the plant will recover in a couple of weeks.

Don't worry about feeding. VFTs survive by photosynthesis like any other plant and just use bugs as 'fertiliser'. Let it catch its own, or feed it twice a month with a live insect.

Also, welcome to the forums!

 

[Bugweed]

My Lord Humungous, heck no I am not kidding! With the wealth of information available to everyone now (not like it was when I started growing), there should be little reason to mess it up with a VFT. My oldest plant is 31 years old now, and Bob Z has older plants than that. One of the very first things I did learn was to put them in peat moss, and let nature take her course. Angry I am not, frustrated that no research was done--well, there ya go! We do have to get this fellow up to speed so he can enjoy his babies. REPOT! QUICK!!!!!!! Straight Sphagnum peat moss is the thing, pure water the next, and loads of sunlight. And read! Absorb all you can and help out others who need it. The shock to my sysem motivated my response. Reminds me of walking into a nursery full of darlingtonia where they recommended African Violet Mix! NOOOOOOO! I thought I would die!

 

[BobZ]

Well, Buggy, the poor fella is from Kansas, the land of Toto and Dorothy. At least he didn't plant it in that good red Oklahoma dirt.

 

[Bugweed]

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NJnewbie]

ssgrock,

Just one more bit of advice that may be helpful. You must remember that the plant has been indoors for lord knows how long, without any sunlight. You have to adjust the plant slowly to full direct sun. It's like you going out in the sun and getting sunburned. Start off with a few days of indirect sun, gradually increasing the time of direct sunlight.
Good luck!

 

[jimscott]

Welcome to the forums!

Water: rain, store-bought distilled, reverse osmosis, and deionized. Most likely the distilled water will be most accessible.

Soil media: Home Depot & Lowes sell sphagnum peat, probably the Canadian peat. Also purchase LFS, which is the dried long fibred sphagnum sold in rectangular bags. Sand is another media, but i would go to a typical pool filter supply place and get a bag of their sand. I wouldn't recommend the various play sand being offered. What I do is mix sand and peat and top off with the LFS. All soil media must be rinsed well of whatever. Many people use a big bucket. Just add media and water and then knead it. Dump the water when thoroughly saturated. Do it again. Some people also microwave the media.

The advice directly above me is dead-on correct. It nay have been too much too fast. Gradual acclimation is the way to go with these plants, especially when from a garden center.

VFT's do very well when outside and kept moist. Don't cover the plant, as that will create a mini-greenhouse effect and that will also cause blackened traps and death.

Then there's dormancy....

 

[ssgrock]

I repotted my VFT in a plastic container with drain holes, I have replaced the cactus potting mix with 1/3 perlite and 2/3 peat moss. Started using botteld water as well. Also placed it in an area where it will get a little bit of shade during the day, I put the plastic container in a base plate filled with water too. And just for good measure I fed it a wood louse to see if the nutrients would pep it up. So far so good.

Bugweed, gimme a break bucko. I did something compulsive and bought the thing at Wal-Mart with no research....guilty as charged. But I do want the freakin thing to live, or I wouldn't have taken the time to register on this DB. I have since I posted asking about how to care for my VFT read quite a bit about the care of VFTs, and I'm confident that my VFT will flourish. I do have quite a green thumb, I can grow anything, but a cp is something I'd had no previous experience with. Look forward to posting pics in the future of this VFT that was brought back from the brink of death only to become the biggest, baddest VFT in Kansas.

 

[Dyflam]

Quote[/b] (ssgrock @ June 20 2005,9:55)]Started using botteld water as well.

Not necessarily a good thing. Make sure you get distilled bottled water. Regular drinking water and spring water are high in minerals... not good. The best thing to do is collect rain water.

Oh... and welcome!

 

[Nflytrap]

Yeah. Distilled water would be best. CP's are actually pretty easy if you just keep that in mind.

 

[ssgrock]

What about filling a container with tap water and letting it age? I heard somewhere that the chemicals rise to the top and evaporate out. But just in case, I'll pick up some distilled water today.

 

[elarwhis]

nope, that won't work. Leaving water to set out won't get rid of the minerals in it. They don't evaporate(as I'm sure you're aware), but the water does, so you'd essentially be making the water /worse/ for use in CP cultivation.....

 

[BobZ]

Quote[/b] (ssgrock @ June 20 2005,11:52)]What about filling a container with tap water and letting it age? I heard somewhere that the chemicals rise to the top and evaporate out. But just in case, I'll pick up some distilled water today.

Letting tap water sit in an open container will allow chlorine to gas-out, but it has no effect on disolved minerals. I live in an area where the dissolved minerals in my tap water is very low and I have used it on my CPs for 30 years. In many areas (and perhaps Kansas), the water is hard and not suitable for CPs. You can probably get a water quality report from your local water utility that will tell you the concentration of dissolved minerals. In the meantime, distilled or rain water is your best bet.

 

[jimscott]

I'm sure Walmart or any typical grocery store will have gallon jugs of distilled water, for ~50 cents a gallon.

 

[Mannex17]

Yes, that's where I buy all of my distilled. A good website for reading about VFT's is http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html. That place is chock full of info, but the author makes it seem tougher than it is to keep a VFT. Maybe it's to scare the newbies into paying attention! Good luck with your new little buddy. I hope he gets well soon.