Question

Flytrap   I live in redding connecticut. I grow my Flytraps outdoors, but to shield from frost I am taking them inside every night until around may. They are growing in a ceramic pot on my porch where it gets very warm on hot days. But one of my Flytraps keeps putting up new traps but they get this strange marking on them then turn black. It started with. Only a few traps at a time but now all the traps are dying off. I hope you can help me. Thankyou!

Answer
Hi Jack,

There's a few things that can cause these symptoms.  Two right off are hard water, and/or fertilizer or nutrients in the soil.  Traps will start to develop, then just stop and die.  You've been successful with other flytraps, so I'm assuming neither of those is the case.

Your porch is the other possible suspect.  How hot is it getting there?  Is it an enclosed porch?  If so, what could be happening is that the plant is getting too big of a temperature spike.  It's better for plants to have a more consistent light temperature profile than to have big spikes at certain times of day.  Here's an example.  I used to have a Nepenthes sanguinea in a west facing window in an office I worked in that wasn't doing well.  It was a sunny window, and the plant was watered properly, but it had a big overhang.  What would happen is the plant would be shady with just normal room light, then it would get blasted in the afternoon when it was sunny.  That's hard for a plant to adapt to.  I later took the same plant home and had it in my west facing bedroom window, but that window got sun from about 1:00 in the afternoon until around 8:00 in the evening in the summer.  The plant was getting much more consistent light, and that is the plant we have on our website with our cat sitting next to it.

The temperatures for your area actually look pretty good, so I would just park your flytraps outside in a sunny spot and leave them.  Only bring them in if you expect a frost.  Inconsistent conditions from going in and out, and the hot porch could be where your problems are coming from.

Good Growing!

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