How to Troubleshoot a Venus Fly Trap
The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant native only to boggy areas in eastern North Carolina and South Carolina. A healthy Venus flytrap is 6 inches to 1 foot large at maturity, although juvenile Venus flytraps will be smaller. The leaves of the Venus flytrap are stalks with a "trap" at the end of the leaf. The trap is green with bright pink or red on the inside. A plant that is unusually small, turning brown or that has rotting traps is not thriving in its environment. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Planter, with drainage holes
- Peat moss
- Sand
- Garden spade
- Bucket
- Aquarium, with lid and light fixture
Instructions
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Fill a planter, just slightly bigger than the one the Venus flytrap is in now, with 2 parts peat moss and 1 part sand. Mix the peat and sand together with a small garden spade. Hold your Venus flytrap in one hand and dig out the roots with the garden spade. The Venus flytrap does not have a large root system, so it will come out of the soil easily. Dig a small hole, just large enough for the plant's roots, in the new pot and place the Venus fly trap in the new planter. This is the first step in improving the health of your Venus flytrap. Soil is a large factor in the growth of a Venus flytrap. The problem may be that the Venus flytrap is in regular potting soil or that the peat is old. They can not survive in regular potting soil; they need an acidic planting medium such as peat. Peat moss breaks down after a couple of years and shrinks.
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Place a bucket outside in the yard to catch rainwater. Use this to water the Venus flytrap. The chemicals and chlorine found in tap water are toxic to Venus flytraps. Place a drip pan under the planter. Water the Venus flytrap until water runs through the drainage holes and into the drip pan. Allow the water to stay in the drip pan. Water the plant again when the drip pan is dry. A straggly Venus flytrap may not be getting enough water, or tap water may be poisoning it.
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Move the Venus flytrap into a 10-gallon aquarium. Venus flytraps need an environment with a lot of humidity. The average house does not have this much humidity in the air. Place a Plexiglas aquarium top, with a hinged lid and light, on top of the aquarium. Open the front part of the lid to avoid heat damage to the plant.
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Place a fluorescent light in the top of the aquarium lid. A fluorescent bulb will provide adequate light without giving the plant too much heat. Leave the light on for 14-16 hours per day from May through September. The Venus flytrap should have red veins, and the inside of the trap needs to be red. If it is not red, the plant is not getting enough light.
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Feed the plant a small living insect every 10 days. Place the insect inside the trap and touch two of the trigger hairs around the trap. The trap will shut on the insect. Do not feed the Venus flytrap hamburger. This will cause the trap and leaf to rot. If only one trap is turning brown, it may be natural. A single trap will digest only about four insects before a new one grows to take its place.
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Allow the plant to go dormant between the months of October and April. Gradually decrease the light by one hour every day until the plant is receiving only eight hours per day. Give the Venus flytrap that much light per day until April, when you can increase the light by an hour each day to bring it out of dormancy. A weak or pale-looking plant may need a dormancy period.
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Tips & Warnings
Never fertilize a Venus flytrap; they get all their nutrients from insects.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
