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Carnivorous Plants/FLytrap problems
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Question
I live way out here in Grand Island Nebraska (USDA zone 5).i have a Venus flytrap, and my little friend lived inside during the early months of the year. Around April, I repotted it and put it outside. It got a lot of sunlight every day and the days were warm to mild. the only problem was the nights. It seemed that the nights were too cold for them still. I moved them into the garage and kept a 60 watt incandescent grow lamp on them for the day. But the leaves turned soft and yellow, it almost stopped growing, and the traps wont close when i feed them. What did i do wrong??? (sorry i dont have a photo)
Hi Joseph,
I checked your weather. I'm not sure why you think it's too cold at night in your region. We grow our flytraps strictly outdoors, and for the past month, we've had low temperatures in the 40s. Flytraps will take a frost. Your low temperatures are in the 50s and 60s, so right now, our region is cooler than yours.
The problem you're witnessing is due to the incandescent lights. Under no circumstance do we recommend using incandescent lights for any carnivorous plant. The light spectrum is not optimal for plants, and it produces too much heat. Even those so-called incandescent grow lights do not produce enough UV for sun-loving plants, such as flytraps.
We also don't recommend indoor growing of flytraps. Again, we grow our plants strictly outdoors throughout the year. While we're not as cold as Nebraska (we're zone 8), we still have very chilly winters. We even experienced a record low of 8°F in December.
I strongly recommend moving your plant outdoors in sunlight. You will, however, see some leaf damage as your plant acclimates from the poor lighting to strong sunlight. This damage is unavoidable. Just look for new growth. From that point on, all new growth will be acclimated to outdoor growing.
I also recommend that you watch our video podcast. You can see how we grow our flytraps:
http://www.cobraplant.com/videos
Good growing!
Jacob Farin
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Answers by Expert:
Sarracenia Northwest
Expertise
If your plant is showing poor growth, discoloration, abnormal leaves or possible infestation, the growers at Sarracenia Northwest can help! Carnivorous plant experts Jeff Dallas and Jacob Farin will help you diagnose the problem and get your plants on the right track. Their no nonsense approach has helped thousands of growers all over the world. They can help you too!
Experience
With over 40 years of combined experience, Jeff and Jacob has definitely taken a straight forward approach to growing carnivorous plants. They have encountered many types of diseases, abnormal growth and infestations related to carnivorous plants, and they know what it takes to get plants looking beautiful and healthy again.
Education/Credentials
Authors of Secrets to Growing Beautiful Carnivorous Plants for Your Home and Garden and producers of the Grow Carnivorous Plants! DVD Series. They also produce a monthly video podcast to illustrate how plants cycle through the seasons.
No terrariums. No myths. No nonsense.
Just the straight facts from guys who grow and propagate
thousands of carnivorous plants each year.
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PLEASE READ BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR QUESTION: We no longer answer how-to questions (i.e. How do I propagate...?; How do I grow...?). Instead, we help growers by diagnosing a specific plant problem and offering solutions (i.e. Why is my sundew not producing dew?; Is now a good time to divide my Sarracenia?; Why are the traps turning black?; What's a good substitute for perlite?; Why didn't my seeds germinate?; Can you identify this carnivorous plant for me?) For general plant care, please read our care sheets on our main website: http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets For business questions: http://www.cobraplant.com/contact |
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