Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 3/16/2011

Question
Hi guys, at the end of last summer I was having a problem with my Venus fly traps.  I've been growing carnivorous plants for about four years now and I have over 20 different varieties.  Most are doing really well except my  fly traps.  I know that after a trap wears out it will turn black, but all of mine keep developing black spots which grow larger until the whole leaf dies.  Eventually the whole plant dies.  I have them growing in a 50/50 mixture of peat moss and perlite.  It is the same peat moss and perlite that I have most of my pitcher plants growing in.  They sit in distilled water about one inch deep, and during last summer they received full sun from 7am until about 8pm.  I don't feed them except what they catch on their own.  I have not fertilized them.  All seven Venus fly traps looked like they were dying.  They had looked sick the previous summer, so last spring I transplanted them.  They sprouted and grew for a few weeks, and then they started dying again.  Even the new "baby" leaves that are forming are turning black.  Please, if you can help me at all, I would greatly appreciate it.  I would like to get some new fly traps this summer, but I don’t want to go through this all again.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Mike,

This is very mysterious.  What is the source of your peat moss and perlite?  What brands are they?  This sounds very much like there is some mineral content or fertilizer in the soil.  That would be consistent with what you're seeing since Sarracenia are much more tolerant than flytraps.  By the time the fertilizer would be a problem for Sarracenia your distilled water would have leached most of it out.  Venus flytraps die quickly from exposure to fertilizer or minerals in hard water, and they don't usually recover from it even if they are transplanted.  Do you have any photos of the flytraps that died?

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com