Question
I bought 3 Venus flytraps from a different site and 2 of them have already died. the last one is not doing so well the traps are turning black and it hasn't been 'active' since i got it. i keep it outside so it receives sunlight, i use well water right out of the ground that has not been filtered, and i use for soil peat moss and sand. i live in Bradenton Florida and would like to know if I'm killing my plant. thank you

Answer
Hi Courtney,

Yikes!  It looks like that your flytraps are suffering from hard water.  Hard water is when the mineral content in the water is very high.  Ideally you should give your flytraps relatively pure water.  It can tolerate some minerals in the water, but not a lot.  If there is too much minerals in the water, the roots will burn and the plant will end up looking as you've described.

I know that most well water in Florida in relatively hard.  Check your water hardness.  It should be less than 50 parts per million (ppm) in dissolved minerals.  You can find test kits at many aquarium stores.

If your water is much more than 50 ppm, then you will need to use bottled distilled water for your flytraps.  Either that or you'll need to invest in a reverse-osmosis unit.

The other problem might be the sand.  Not all sand is the same.  The only sand we recommend is silica sand.  All other types of sand potentially carry pollutants and minerals that will leach into the soil and harm carnivorous plants.  To be on the safe side, use perlite instead of sand.

Unfortunately, when this type of damage occurs, there isn't much you can do to reverse it.  You can coax a plant back to health if you catch it soon enough, but usually by the time most growers catch it, it's too late.  So you may need to start over again.

For more information about growing Venus flytraps, read our care sheet online:
http://www.cobraplant.com

Good growing!
Jacob Farin