Question
QUESTION:          Hi. I have several questions to ask you. I thought it would be best to
type them all in here, rather than separately.  I live in New Jersey.  I have
several carnivorous plants; 6 venus fly traps, 1 cape sundew and 1 mexican
butterwort (in same pot), 1 purple pitcher plant and a doodle bug.  I keep
them in a screened in porch located in a south facing window.
        Mt first question is- 1-I was told that all of my plants could be kept in
my screened in porch all winter up to 30 degrees with protection from frosty
days.  They are in rather small pots, though. Their pots range from 3 1/2
inches (my venus fly traps are in that) up to about 8 inches (doodl bug's size
pot) Are these pots too small to be kept outside in the 40s or less? If it's ok,
should I leave the venus's outside and bring in the sundew, butterwort and
doodle bug when temps go below 40 degrees?   
     Question 2-One of my venus's have completely died down to a barren
pot. It's Fall now. I even saw mold on the plant which I removed with a tooth
pick. Does the mold mean the plant is dead? Should I repot the plant or leave
it alone b/c it may be dormant?  
      Question 3- Do you know about the hybrid doodle bug? It appears to
have brown marks on it's hood and let's call it, it's nose.  Is this A BURN b/c I
keep it in direct sunlight.  I keep all my carnivorus plants in direct sunlight in
a south facing window (morning and afternoon sun) Is the doodle bug a
fragile plant, b/c it also got 2 red spots on it when I kept it outside on my
porch one day when it was in 40s?
         Question 4- 3 of my venus fly traps have brown spots on them.  New
traps grow and then get black marks on them and die.  Is this black spot
fungus.  If it is, is this contagious to my other plants? I use the same scissor
on all of my plants. I bought a fungicide spray called fungicide 3 to treat this.
One ingredient in it is Neem oil.
        Question 5- Should I cut off all the black traps and leaves and spray all
of my plants with fungicide to protect them from mold b/c it's Fall now?
         I appologize for all of my questions. Thank you for your response.

         Tracy

ANSWER: Hello Tracy,

If I understand you correctly, you have the Mexican Butterwort and the Cape Sundew in the same pot together? I would place the butterwort and the sundew in different pots as they require very different soil, water, and sunlight requirements. The Cape sundew will not need a dormancy as it is a sub-tropical plant. The butterwort will go dormant in dry weather, or just about anytime it chooses.

Keep the Cape sundew in the same sphagnum peat/perlite mix the Venus Flytraps should be in and give them both up to 1/4 their pot depth in distilled or reverse osmosis water, or rain water if you can collect it. (Never water carnivorous plants with tap water or bottled drinking water as those contain minerals that most carnivorous plants cannot handle). When winter comes, place the Cape sundew inside in a south facing window with good lighting and perhaps even supply additional florescent lights if necessary. Cape sundews can survive cold weather, but will die back to their roots. They can survive it, but do not necessarily like it.

The butterwort should be in a mix of perlite, vermuculite, and sphagnum peat in about a 1/1/1 mixture and watered more sparingly than the Cape sundew. Butterworts are prone to root rot in too much standing water and cannot handle direct sun.

All of your carnivorous plants should be in at least 4-5 inch pots if they are adult plants (6-8 inch pots or even larger for the pitcher plants). Venus Flytraps and sundews in particular need root space as their roots can grow down to a foot in depth seeking water.

Venus Flytraps and North American pitcher plants, like the Purple Pitcher and the Doodle Bug, experience cold winters and can survive freezing weather in the wild when they go dormant. They should be kept outside if possible to experience the seasonal changes, but make sure their pots do not freeze solid as they can suffer root death from freeze dried roots. Best bet is to pack their pots in boxes or buckets of mulch to keep them a bit warmer so they won't freeze in cold weather.

Just make sure your Flytraps and North American pitcher plants have direct sun outside all day to really survive. If they are too heavily shaded in your screened in porch they might not get enough light to live for long. Your browned Flytrap might be dead... you can check on it by taking it out of the pot and looking to see if its bulb like rhizome is still white and reddish colored and firm, if so it is fine, repot it. If it is brown or black and soft or shriveled it is dead. If you have not been fertilizing the plants and are sure that your supplier has not fertilized them then we can rule that out. Just make sure your water source is low in minerals and you are fine. Make sure the plants are potted in low nitrogen sphagnum peat moss and perlite... except for the butterwort that is. For the butterwort, follow the previous potting mixture.

Mold can be a problem with carnivorous plants, particularly if they are kept in low light or placed in terrariums or kept covered with humidity domes. If the black spots rub off when you wipe the leaves with a paper towel, they are mold or mildew. If the spots are part of the leaf, they are dead spots from any number of reasons. In strong light, open air, and ouside, mold is almost never a problem.

Make sure the fungicide you use has no copper and is not soap based. Use only water based fungicides and insecticides, preferably those with Neem oil, sulfur, and pyrethrines. Just wipe your scissors off with bleach after use on plants you suspect are diseased or molded.

The Doodle Bug is just getting ready for winter. North American pitcher plants will let a few leaves die back and discolor and then stop growing for several months during winter.

Yes, remove all dead leaves and spray them with fungicide as directed on the bottle just in case.

Christopher





---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for responding back to me.
The Butterwort and the Cape Sundew are in the same pot together.  They
were together in a kit that I bought at a garden store.  I'm not sure what type
of butterwort it is- It looks like the Mexican one.  It didn't say what type it
was in the kit. Also in the kit was a purple pitcher plant.  I put the purple
pitcher plant in a separate pot, b/c from what I read it's requirements are
pretty much opposite of the butterwort and sundew. I left the sundew with
the butterwort in same pot b/c they seemed to get along ok and I thought
they had similar requirements from what I read on internet. The only problem
I noticed with the butterwort was that the bottom leaves on butterwort closest
to soil turned brown.  Is this b/c the soil was too wet? I read to keep both
moist to wet, not in hot direct sunlight, and both with a soil mix of 50:50
peat moss and perilite.  This is incorrect?  Do I have to use vermuculite for my
butterwort? I don't have that, but will buy it if necessary. I will do what you
said and put the butterwort in a separate pot. I read somewhere to put the
butterwort in an African violet pot. Is that like a terracotta pot? Can you
please tell me the "correct" requirements for my sundew and butterwort.
     I kept all of my plants on my porch including the sundew and butterwort
when it reached 40.  Is this too cold for the butterwort and sundew?  I actually
lost a very small butterwort (was in same pot with other larger butterwort and
sundew) when it was 40 outside.  I don't want to lose my last butterwort :(
     I water all my plants with distilled water using the tray method. I don't
keep my plants sitting in water b/c I do not have gravel on the bottom to
prevent them from becoming saturated.  The only time I keep plants sitting in
water (I only put a tiny bit of water in the bottom of tray) is when they are
baking in the sun.  For all my plants, I use a mix of peat moss and perlite (5
to 2 or 3 ratio) There is also a lot of light on my porch for my plants. Too
much actually.  That's why I asked you if it's possible for them to burn from
hot bright sun.
      You had said to check the rhizome of my venus.  Perhaps it's dormant. If
it's dormant, is it a good idea to be digging it up to check the rhizome?
      My last question is- I saw yellow balls in some of my pots yesterday.
Should I be concerened? I read about something called slime mold. Maybe it's
that?
       Sorry for all questions.  I am just happy that someone knowledgeable
can help me. I love my plants.  There's alot of wrong info' on the internet.  
That's why I have my butterwort and sundew together.  Thank you again for
responding to my questions.

Answer
Hello Tracy,

The lowest leaves of butterworts will turn brown normally as the plant grows. Their leaves can rot if they remain wet for prolonged periods, but I have never experienced this problem even when I drop water on the leaves directly.

The Cape Sundew likes a lot of direct sunlight most of the day with some shade from the brightest and hottest noon hours.

Butterworts in general like some morning sun, but really can get burned by excessive direct sunlight. Best bet is to keep them under strong artificial lights or in a bright window. If outside, you can keep them on a slightly shaded patio so long as they do not get too much hot sunlight after morning.

Cape sundews like damp soil and prefer to have their roots close to the water table. Place a tray with water up to 1/4 the pot in depth for most sundews and Venus Flytraps.

Butterworts prefer their soil just moist with their roots far from the water table. Do not leave water in a tray under them for prolonged periods. Some water draining out can be left for a day or so, but never leave a tray constantly full of water under butterwort pots. You can use African Violet pots for them as those pots are double sided. In other words, they have a pot within a pot in which water seeps slowly from the outer pot to the inner pot without waterlogging the soil. I just use ordinary plastic pots with mine and just water them a little every few days. Butterworts also like some mineral content and alkalinity in their soil, thus the vermuculite mixed in. Most other carnivorous plants do not like minerals in their soil so much. The vermuculite is not absolutely necessary right away, but it helps to add some in as extra drainage (with butterworts you really cannot have enough drainage, so you can add even more perlite in with the vermuculite and leave less peat moss, some growers use two parts or even three parts perlite to one part vermuculite and one part peat moss) and to give the butterworts that bit of mineral that they might need. Next repotting you might add some in for them. When repotting, try not to disturb butterwort roots much as they can be finicky about root disturbance. Just take the entire plug of soil out of the old pot and place it in the new larger pot with new soil around it. Every so often, like every couple years, you can tease away old soil with a little soaking in distilled water before repotting to remove some of the old soil if needed.

Sundews and Venus Flytraps like sitting near water, so you do not have to worry much about them being too wet unless their pots are too small. I place mine in 5 or 6 inch pots and leave an inch or so of water under them with no gravel. I use 50/50 peat and perlite for those plants.

Purple Pitcher Plants and other North American pitcher plants like the Doodle Bug like even more water. They can handle being placed in up to half their pot depth in water quite happily. Many carnivorous plants are bog plants.

Most of the aforementioned plants, Venus Flytraps, North American Pitchers, and Cape Sundews all can handle direct sun. The Venus Flytrap and North American Pitcher Plants prefer direct full sun all day long. They literally cannot get enough sun except in extremely hot, arid regions. In those conditions it would be the heat and dryness that harms the plants more than the light levels. If plants have been in low light conditions for several weeks before being placed in bright sun they will experience leaf burn, even garden plants can burn in those conditions. Once they are acclimated to bright sun, if they are full sun plants, they will not suffer leaf burn. What you see on your Pitcher Plants sounds normal. I have a variety of North American Pitcher Plants that are browning and developing fall discolorations on their leaves in preperation for winter. They will keep a number of leaves, but the older leaves will die back some and look rather bad during fall. You can clip off any dead parts and leave anything green and/or alive.

40 degrees would not adversely affect the sundew as it is a sub-tropical, but it might harm the butterwort. Best bet would be to keep both indoors at this time of season and let them continue growing as normal in a bright window with some additional florescent light as a supplement. Try to keep both at over 60 degrees for best results. The Mexican butterworts do go dormant at times, so if you see a change in leaf growth, like thicker non-carnivorous leaves, give it less water, letting its soil get only slightly dry between waterings, and let it remain a little cool, but over 60 degrees, and keep it in bright light. After a few months it should start making normal leaves again and you can give it more water.

Venus Flytraps are tolerant of root disturbance. You can dig it up and look at it and just repot it if you see that it is alive.

The yellow growth sounds like yellow mold or mushrooms to me. You can use Neem oil to kill it rather effectively. Just spray the soil surface lightly with Neem oil spray and the fungus will die in about 3 days. Slime mold is wet looking and grows near water. It looks like a sick amoeba and can come in different colors, but is often clear and jelly like, like a jelly fish. Yellow buttons of mold grow on the surface of soil and often grow where there is no sunlight under plant leaves and around the edges of the pot where it is shaded.

There are also many knowledgable sources like cobraplant.com and californiacarnivores.com. They sell premixed soil and have good information on caring for your plants. They also sell carnivorous plants of all types that will be guaranteed healthy. Best bet is not to buy from general stores and garden centers unless you are saving carnivorous plants from certain death. Most such places do not really understand the differences and myths surrounding these wonderful plants as can be seen in garden centers selling Venus Flytraps in little domes sitting in shaded shelves. Venus Flytraps die in a couple months in such conditions even though they can live to be over 10 years old.

Christopher