Expert: Christopher Littrell - 5/15/2009

Question
I have been growing my traps for about 5 or 6 years now completely outside. My plants are transplanted once a year into new mix of one part peat to one part perlite and are kept wet by setting my big containers in trays of water. Until this year my plants have done beautifully. This year as  my  new traps have begun to form they are all twisted and knarled and some don't even open. What could be the problem? I haven't changed a thing as far as culture is concerned. My plants get at least 6 hours of direct sun a day. Any help will be greatly appreciated.


Answer
Hello Andrew,

Two things could be affecting your plants. The first that comes to mind would be pests. Aphids and scale insects an such can get to your Flytraps outside and damage them by sucking the juice out of their young traps before they open. This creates deformed traps like you are noticing. You can use pyrethrins and neem oil products to control the tiny pests. You can also set the plants in buckets of water and immerse them completely for 24 hours, take them out and immerse them again for another 24 hours then take them out to grow normally again. That drowns out the pests and kills any that come back next day at least for a while.

The other thing that might be affecting your plants is hard water. Venus Flytraps will tend to produce deformed traps in slightly hard water. If the water you rpovide them is a little over 50 ppm in mineral hardness it might be damaging the plants. Check the water source and try some other source that has softer water. Make sure the water softening method does not incorporate salt or addition of minerals after the distillation or reverse osmosis phases or the water will be unusable by your plants.

Christopher