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WHY?!?

So i bought some big mouth VFts from a reliable source about 1 month ago and planted them in a 8 inch deep pot with a mixture of one part mosser lee milled LFS and one part schultz perlite. I have been giving them either rainwater or RO water and they have been getting full sunlight all day long. They started off with big traps but not they are forming little traps that are like 1/4 of an inch long. I also ordered a B52 (bareroot) (maybe you saw the pics) which was doing great but now all of the traps that were starting to form have turned black and fallen off. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong so if anyone can help me out that would be great. And ill try to put some pictures on later today.
 
adjusting. most likely. seen many of my VFTs do this before recovering.
and your best bet would be peat. i dont like planting VFTs in LFS....too soggy
 
I think adjusting too.

Personally, I've found that my VFTs in mixes that have chopped LFS in them do very well and seem to form extra plants/self propagate faster than the ones in my Peat/sand mixes.

I would try to feed the small 1/4 inch traps fruitflies, or very small house flies. Some people think I'm insane, but on plants I like to get nice and showy I feed every single trap a fly once a week. Yeah, most of the traps will turn black, but I get a HUGE surge in growth and a plant with just enormous traps by late summer. About 2 to 3 weeks before showing the plant I'll lay off feeding, and trim off all the dead parts.

Now you might want to check the Perlite bag.... I've noticed many companies have started to include fertilizer in many gardening products. I've seen it included with orchid bark, perlite, garden soil, etc.
 
Yeah, isn't schultz one of the companies that has ferts in everything? I'd check that immediately.

xvart.
 
Probably too much sun too quickly. Nothing to be done about that now. Make sure the perlite is fertilizer free.

The "Big Mouths" should recover in a few weeks.

Give the 'B52' up to six weeks to recover then check the rhizome. If the rhizome is mush or black it's probably a goner.

Treat the 'B52' as if it is dormant and cut back on the watering until active growth resumes.
 
I use peat/chopped dry LFS/perlite/sand mix for all my VFTs, i always comb thru everything befour wetting it and after making sure there are no fertalizer beads in it, i have used alot of Schultz peat and perlite befour and have noticed some fert beads in the perlite, its not listed on the bag i think it just happens to get in there, after making sure there is no fert beads in perlite i also wash it real well with distilled water befour using it. Alot of CP's do go thru a big ajustment after being shipped. VFTs can look awful for awhile, losing leafs/traps but then after they settle in will grow very nicely. WildBill is correct i have also noticed a HUGE growth spurt after the traps have eatin, on the VFTs that i see each day that have traps full with bugs within a week i notice lots of new growth. Ive got one VFT that i got in a week ago befour it was shipped to me it was out in a bad storm and it came in looking like crap and still does but it has new leafs/traps already comming out, then case sinario i had a Big Vig come in that was in a box in limbo being shipped that took 2 weeks for me to get it, looked awful as well and it lost 3 of its leafs/traps and now after 2 weeks has settled in and has new growth, not all VFTs always look perffect all the time. I keep mine groomed as well, trimming black leafs/traps off once there completely black so the plant looks nice. I gota agree give it time and they will do well and look good.

SirKristoff, i agree with you on that mine have always done much better in the mix i use, also i dont keep mine sitting in a inch of water i just make sure there very moist each day. But if i have to go away for more than a day thats when i make sure there sitting in a inch or so of water and i always have someone to tend to my CPs if im gone..
 
I just went outside and took a look at my typicals and they are doing better than my other plants even though they were bought from Lowes vs a good carnivorous plant dealer. I wonder why they look so much better?

And here are some pictures of my Bigmouths and B52.
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Xvart and WildBill: I looked on the bag and it only said that the contents contained perlite and nothing else but I was a bit concerned about the fertilizer situation when I bought the bag. So how would I check if there is any fertilizer before its too late?

Also is it unusual for it to take over a month for them to adjust to new conditions???

Thanks
 
i use schultz perlite, but the stuff i get never has any neutrients and if it does, its such a small amount that it washes away and doesnt harm my plants. i dont even bother rinsing it really. i micro the peat for a few seconds to nuke any parisites and fungi, but thats it
 
Yeah, I use Shultz peat and perlite and I haven't found either one of them to contain any fertilizers, etc.
Plus, it says it's fertilizer free on the bag.
 
  • #10
I've bought bags of peat moss that said "100% Sphagnum Peat Moss" on the back and opened it up to find a layer of fertilizer pellets poured on top. Sh*t happens.

The smaller bags usually have a wetting agent (i.e. soap) added too. Ever wonder why the stuff in the bag is still moist after several months even though there are vent holes poked in the bag? Compare to rinsed stuff that dries into a hard crusty brick in a few days.

According to flytraplady5 nuking peat causes it to break down. Sterilize it with a 10% bleach solution and rinse well. Her many year tenure as Chief Propagator for a well known CP nursery as well as years of growing experience of her own is not to be discounted.
 
  • #11
The only advice i can give about getting the correct media is to purchase it along with your plants from the carnivorous plant grower your buying from.

I do this and it takes away all the problems of trying to find the right stuff in shops as most of the stuff found in shops is problematic as the above posts clearly show.

I was getting so frustrated at not being able to find the correct peat to use that i almost gave up growing these plants-the next time i ordered some vfts through mail order i made a point of getting some peat aswell and trust me it's so much easier on you as you know if the plant starts to decline in health it's not because of it's growing medium.

Soap as a wetting agent-whoa that sounds really bad for vfts lol...i'm so glad i just buy my stuff from the grower lol makes owning vfts so carefree with no hassles over media.

Purchasing your media along with your vft is so much easier in my opinion because you know what the grower uses works.

Also if you find your having problems with finding the right additives for aeration and not completely sure what your buying then my advice would be to keep it simple and just use peat, as peat usually has enough pieces of bark/moss fibers etc to provide sufficient aeration.

Anyway from looking at your plants they look fine and the dieback isnot anything serious as this always happens with mailorder plants-there just acclimatising-as long as the growth points stay green your plants will be fine.

Remember these plants grow in really rough conditions and are very hardy so you shouldn't have any probs growing them as long as your providing them with the right conditions.

I have also noticed that plants purchased in supermarkets etc already in pots do a lot better than plants purchased through the mail from specialised growers-it takes mail order plants quite a while to recover compared to plants purchased in pots.

Nice photographs by the way,hope your plants go well.
 
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