Question
QUESTION: A couple years ago I grew a nice little group of Venus fly traps in my backyard in an 8" pot of 1/2 play sand and 1/2 sphagnum peat moss.  They were receiving full sun from dawn to about 2 or 3 PM until they were shaded by a large tree.  In August we moved across town to an area with fewer trees, and I relocated them to a deck where they received full sun all day.  In this new location they quickly wilted and died.  The next year I bought new plants and had the same result.  I followed the "tray method" using distilled water at both locations and have yet to successfully grow anything at my new house.  What could the problem be.  FYI: I live in central Arkansas (USDA zone 7).

ANSWER: Hi Chris,

Sorry for taking so long to answer.  We've had some shows over the last week, and haven't been near the computer much.

I've been pondering your question awhile.  This is a bit of a mystery considering everything seems to be good.  Has anything changed besides the move?  Actual wilting is usually from something changing too fast for the plant to adapt to.  Is the soil different in any way?  Are the ingredients different such as the sand or your peat moss source?  Is there anything that makes your deck exceptionally hot?  Is the water typical gallons of distilled water?  How deep is the pot into the water tray?  Did the flytraps experience any odd rapid transitions such as going from a windowsill to outside, or from one of the store cubes to right outdoors?

Let me know, and we'll see if we can figure this out.


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

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

QUESTION: Thanks for the great reply; hope everything went well for you at your shows.  

I've been thinking a lot about the questions that you asked and it has helped me remember a few details.  If I remember correctly, the first pot of flytraps may have been neglected during the move and dried out some.  Also, I think that we had a problem with birds eating the leaves and traps.  However, last years batch of flytraps are still a mystery.

I remember that last year I purchased my flytraps early in the spring from Home Depot along with a S. purpurea (ssp. ?) and a D. filiformis (again ssp. ?). These were immediately replanted from their plastic cubes to the 50/50 sand/peat moss mixture I used the year before.  The pots were all standard plastic with an oversized tray (ie 6" pot with 8" tray).  Springs here in Arkansas can vary wildly in temperature so I cannot definitively say what the weather was like; however the deck in question can get a little warm in the summer.  It is a large pool deck and the sun reflecting up off the water can get a little intense during the middle of the day.  I know that chlorine contamination could not be a problem because we had not opening the pool yet (it was a very lovely shade of green).  

I hope this sheds a little light on the situation.  Thank you very much for taking the time to help.  I've become really fascinated by these plants and would love a huge collection.  Unfortunately I don't have much of green thumb.   Thanks again.

Answer
Hi Chris,

This helped a bunch.  What happened is you lost them in the transition from the plastic cubes.  When you buy plants in those little enclosures they've been in 100% humidity for anything from weeks to months. The plants are very weak from this treatment.  They have to go through a hardening off period before you can have them out of the cubes.  This amounts to opening their cubes a little, then increasing the opening incrementally over a week or two.  After that the first stop is a windowsill to reacclimate them to sun.  After that they can be introduced to full sun a little at a time outside until they can handle direct sun.  You can also just cut the leaves off entirely.  This way the plant has to grow new ones, and they'll be adapted to normal conditions.  It also minimizes transpiration until the healthy leaves are present.

This situation that you experienced is why we rant so much about not keeping Venus flytraps in terrariums.  People see the little cubes and think this is an optimal environment. It also reinforces the whole high humidity nonsense you see repeated so often. Our flytraps are never in such enclosures except just to ship them.  Our humidity in Oregon is usually around 40-50% or lower in the summer.  Your humidity in Arkansas is much higher than that in the summer.  In reality the cubes just extend their shelf-life for the retailer, yet makes it harder for the consumer to be successful.  If carnivorous plants were sold properly it would require garden center people to actually know something about their care.  The stores I've seen can barely keep their regular plants watered, let alone a plant that sits in water.  This does happen at independent garden centers, sometimes, but expecting this from one of the big box stores is wishful thinking at best.


Good Growing!

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