What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Plant Planter

The Most Uncreative Name in the History of Ever
Before I start this thread, I will inform you that this issue is not the infamous Curved-Leaf Syndrome.


This issue is not the infamous Curved-Leaf Syndrome.

Yes, indeed, it is I, Plant Planter, the one with the uncreative name, and my "Cupped Trap" plant is ailing.
Here's the deal. My lovely little "Cupped Trap" plant is making traps. That isn't the problem. The PROBLEM is that the traps don't mature. They don't grow. They stay a very bright red. They just open and die soon after. I know that "Cupped Trap" plants don't grow as large of traps as other plants do, but I can't possibly imagine what the problem might be. Here are the stats for my plant:

Light. Sixteen hours per day of artificial light or four to five hours per day of direct sun.
Humidity. Very low, no terrarium.
Water. Strictly distilled water and/or collected rainwater.
Media. 100% peat in a lining of Sphagnum.
Nutrition. None other than light.
Pests. No signs of aphids. There are springtails and a spider that weaves webs in the pot, but they don't hurt the plant.

I'm sure that this is not a characteristic of "Cupped Trap" plants. After all, crossing one of them with another makes seeds that don't have the cupped traps. Therefore they must be cloned to get cupped plants, and thereby all "Cupped Trap" plants in the world are identical, which would mean that all "Cupped Trap" plants in the world would experience this. Don't quote me on this. I only read that "Cupped Trap" plants that make seeds will not make seeds with the famous cupped traps.

I appreciate any tips, facts, opinions, or personal anecdotes about the (newly dubbed) Small-Leaf Syndrome!

(End of five-minute formality. :p)
 
Last edited:
I've never found this clone/cultivar to be a very strong grower to begin with. I've seen the exact symptoms occur at least half a dozen times. Sometimes repotting them helps. Sometimes it doesn't.

Many of the other growers will tell you to use a mix with sand. I find my flytraps do best in straight peat moss or straight live Sphagnum moss. There have been some writings that suggest that this species does better in more acidic conditions than most other species of Carnivorous Plants. When using straight peat moss I top water them daily and do not let them stand in water. One study found that the populations they looked at in North Carolina grew mainly in areas where the water level was just touching the bottom level of the roots. It also reported they were growing in almost pure sand with very little organic matter mixed in.

This cultivar is back in the catalog of one of the major tissue culture sources so it shouldn't be difficult to replace if it poops out completely.
 
Being a sad deformed VFT that cant live its life the way it was meant to, it wants to die..
you should let it.

Scot
 
Being a sad deformed VFT that cant live its life the way it was meant to, it wants to die..
you should let it.

Thank you for your motivation. :glare:
 
Some people just aren't fans of the aberrant novelties out there..... but 'Cupped Trap' can be a difficult one to keep alive and doing well; I've already managed to kill 2, though having them growing in hot dry CO weather may not help....
 
@Hacarlton-- It may not help ya much, but, I grow mine outside in So Cal and it isn't exactly humid here either. I keep mine in a tray with about half an inch of water for some humidity and mist them at night. Mine do well and produce large pitchers and are flowering. Like you said, keeping them in hot and dry CO weather may be your biggest problem.
 
Last edited:
Humidity is the issue? All my other flytraps do just fine in the low humidity. My typical flytrap is even flowering, ahead of my sundew that started flowering a month earlier.
 
I am quite fond of them, I think they grow OK- although I have come across one or two that just didn't want to go on, so they didn't. But for the most part, I've had luck when I treat them right. ;)

IMG_1197.JPG
 
That is the densest clump of Dionaea I have ever witnessed.

:0o: "I've never seen anything like that before."

Anyhow, it seems at least SOMEONE has luck with growing these. I'm afraid my plant's traps are dying and it isn't making any good replacements. Probably I'll take a leaf pulling or something.
 
  • #10
I am quite fond of them, I think they grow OK- although I have come across one or two that just didn't want to go on, so they didn't. But for the most part, I've had luck when I treat them right. ;)

IMG_1197.JPG


WOW !! I have to buy this VFT cultivar this summer... very nice

Andrew: i cannot find a single closed trap on the picture, theses plants are feeded ?
 
  • #11
I do not purposefully feed any plant in my g/h. Fertilizing or otherwise. Since they are in greenhouses bugs are limited but every now and then I'll find some bugs that have been eaten...
Andrew
 
  • #12
Being a sad deformed VFT that cant live its life the way it was meant to, it wants to die..
you should let it.

Scot

X2.. all the sickly looking, deformed "cultivars" need to just go away
 
  • #14
I'm pretty sure he was talking about how the plants form nice circles and not just tangled messes of traps. That's one of the things that I love about that picture I posted... They look like a VFT petiolaris complex plant.
 
  • #15
X2.. all the sickly looking, deformed "cultivars" need to just go away

Well, I already have one, and I think the plant agrees with you.
 
Back
Top