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How is my vft doing?

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I guess it looks okay in this picture, but what about if about 1/3 of the traps were in the process of turning black...for no apparent reason. I havent changed anything except pehaps the fact that as summer nears the light is getting more and more intense...but the plant hasn't turned red either.

Thanks!
 
i wouldn't worry much about the dying traps. as long as there is new growth in the center, you should be good to go. not all vft's will turn red in bright light, while others will turn totally red. the red coloration is very variable in different plants. maybe you have one that won't turn very red. maybe you just need to embarrass it!

tech...
 
Yeah, a few of my VFT's traps are dying but its also producing 2 new growth shoots, so maybe it has to save energy by not supporting so many leaves, just so that it can grow. (That was something of a random guess, but it sounds sensible enough!)
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Embarrass it?
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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]...maybe you just need to embarrass it!
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I could just be me, or your VFTs' variety, but the leaf-bases on your traps look a little 'leggy' and spindly, Nflytrap. Perhaps it's down to a lack of sunlight, which will remedy itself as summer draws in, as you say. This would account for the lack of red colouration, but as tech says, that could be down to variety, too.

Mind you, I could be talking nonsense and your plant could just be growing its longer spring-summer leaves, which I believe it does to outgrow the local competition in its native part of the world.

The awesome Barry Rice goes into detail about it here on his site, which to date has pretty much saved me from committing every fatal newbie mistake in the book on my VFTs to date.
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Heck yes i'll embarrass it!
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I found that site before I got this guy, I managed to avoid using tap water and killing it.

What about trap size? The traps can just fit pillbugs now. Will they get bigger? The plant seems to prefer putting up small traps, with a sudden burst of big ones. Those ones are the ones that are dying off.

When I got him in a cup in September, he had some large traps with the same leggy look. Of course there were a few ground crawling ones though.

In CA, would full sun be too much light? I fryed over the course of this week a nep and a dew. I think it was more of the oven effect rather than light though...

BTw, does not using a trap do any harm to the plant? I like to let the small ones eat bugs because the big ones are just to gorgeous when open to stick bugs in them. Would feeding the bigger traps encourage more growth?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]What about trap size? The traps can just fit pillbugs now. Will they get bigger? The plant seems to prefer putting up small traps, with a sudden burst of big ones. Those ones are the ones that are dying off.
Just another guess, but it could be that the smaller traps are  from a side-shoot coming off the root system, such as I have with one of my VFTs at the moment. Mind you, I can't think why it prefers keeping those smaller ones alive to the main parent's bigger traps, if I've guessed right about what's happening. Perhaps the parent plant is old(?)

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]In CA, would full sun be too much light? I fryed over the course of this week a nep and a dew. I think it was more of the oven effect rather than light though...
Can't help you, mate. I live in the South West of England, so all I know about California, I see on the TV. Having said that, if it's the oven effect rather than direct sun damage that killed your other CPs, perhaps it might me an idea to shift your VFTs outdoors, where they aren't so likely to get cooked. Lack of humidity could be problem then, though. Hmm.

Any Californian growers in the house?

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]BTw, does not using a trap do any harm to the plant? I like to let the small ones eat bugs because the big ones are just to gorgeous when open to stick bugs in them. Would feeding the bigger traps encourage more growth?
I can never resist stuffing a bug into a trap the moment it's ready to feed...  
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Thing is, the larger traps can eat larger prey; larger prey means more nutrients; more nutrients means more plant. I wouldn't say you're exactly starving your plant by only feeding its smaller traps, but he's not in any danger of getting overweight.  
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (Nflytrap @ May 10 2004,9:08)]In CA, would full sun be too much light?
Generally speaking VFTs like to get as much direct sunlight as you can give them.  It's best to gradually introduce them into direct light over a period of 10 to 14 days so the leaves have a chance to toughend up.  If you do it too fast, the leaves get fried.  My plants sit the porch on the east side of my house.  They get direct light from about 7:30am to 1:30pm and are in the shade of my roof for the rest of the day.

You may be able to give your plants more direct light than this or you may have to give them less.  It will vary day to day and week to week, depending on cloudiness, temps, and humidity.  Just be sure to keep a little water in the tray at all times to avoid having it turned into dried compost.

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BCK
 
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