how do i keep these fuckers alive? they always go black or yellow and die
Fertiliser and don't overwater.
You need to use RO/DI water to water them. Basically the opposite of what >>4777817 said. Personally I water the dish underneath, not the soil as they are prone to having mold problems, specially if they eat ze bugs.
>>4777816Here's what your plant would look like if it were black and chinese
>>4777824looks putrid like a diseased version
>>4777816I find it weird that these are practically everywhere domestically but they're actually approaching endangered status in the wild.
>>4777891>>4777824
>>4777902a lot of animals are like that. i have around 800 endangered animals living in my home.
>>4777816>Need soil with no nutrients in it.>Need pure water like distilled or rainwater.>Can't dry out>Lots of sun>Winter dormancy
>>4777816>>4778031Also no fertilizer.
>>4777816Here's your basic answer, OP:>>4777819>>4778031>>4778032Don't overfeed. Most people like to watch these eat bugs and relentlessly stuff large bugs into them, which overfeeds & produces excessive waste, which causes disease and rot. I had one of these in a terrarium for about four or five years when I was a kid, an old 5 gallon fish tank. All of the traps are part of one plant, so you should never have more than half the traps feeding at the same time (even that is a lot). They can also get fairly large eventually, like up to 2 feet tall, when taken care of properly.Also, use a fucking search engine: "carnivorous plants" are extremely well documented with extensive guides on their natural habitats and how to care for them. Yes, look into all the carnivorous plants, you'll learn a lot that can be applied to different species. Most of them live in swamps and bogs, so the water has to be pure (filtered by peat moss and similar substrate), the humidity has to be high with a fairly high temperature, but if the humidity is too high for too long they rot. Also search "air plants" that grow without any soil at all and get all their nutrients from dust that settle on them. They do need periods of dry air for a couple days every month. As was mentioned, also a "Winter" rest period (which can be fairly short, like 6 weeks-ish or so). In their native Carolina bogs they survive light snow falls and dry out a bit seasonally for periods both in Summer and Winter.
>>4778052I want to add on to the topic of feeding the plant, don't underestimate their ability to catch their own prey. I put my flytrap outside during the summer right in the middle of my patio and it caught all kinds of stuff all on it's own and I never fed it.
>>4777819>>4778052Did I misremember? I recall having one as a kid and we kept it around for a few years. It even made a tiny white flower in the middle. Anyway, my mum would mist the roots rather than actually water it (IE my "don't overwater" advice from >>4777817) and she gave it the occasional bit of fertiliser, also misted.
>>4778031>Need soil with no nutrients in it.this one seems really strange. surely once their leaves start falling into the ground the decomposition fertilizes the soil, no? should i remove those ?
>>4778052how do i know if its dying or hibernating?
>>4778154They grow in nutrient poor soils, and that's the whole reason why they're carnivorous, because they've evolved to get their nutrients a different way. The roots aren't capable of handling things like fertilizer. I don't see why dead leaves wouldn't be fine, its more so wanting to avoid any sort of contaminants. Where I live, I can't use my tap water for them and I have to buy distilled from the grocery store or let it get rained on.I usually take the dead leaves out of the pot anyways because the dead traps take up space.>>4778155The plant will appear like it's in stasis when its hibernating. It might put our more leaves, but the traps will be smaller. Some leaves will die off, but as long as its just a few of them every now and then, its fine. Its one of those things where you just have to put it in the right conditions for it to go dormant and have faith in it.At this time of year, they should be coming out of their dormancy.
>>4778729it's over, 2 days in and it's already losing the redness on the traps
>>4779106The red just means they're getting tons of sun. Are you taking them out of dormancy or what are you doing that's an issue?
>>4778052I'm not gonna do this for them. If I can't relentlessly stuff large bugs into them, what's the point? They're spoiled plants, diseased and rotten on the inside. They do not deserve my love.
>>4779605i just bought it and one of its leaves is going black and the traps are losing their redness and going green
>>4779898Can you post a picture of it? Do you have any more info you could share? I can't really help you or troubleshoot it without knowing anything about it.
>let them go dormant in the winter, don't worry it isn't dying>use low ph soil like peat moss>use the most benign water possible>provide humidity >be based and get a sundew, they're cooler, easier to raise, and kill more insects>get a pitcher plant if you want to unlock nightmare mode
>>4780748these things are very cool too though
They are a semi-temperate plant that grows in carolina peat bogs. They can actually live much further north than carolinas in the US. I think I have read people growing them in zones 5/6 outside in like minnesota by burying them under pine needles so the "bulbs" don't get woken up early by the freeze thaw cycle. They need to be kept moist in an airy substrate that won't get stagnant. The exact combination for you to use for soil will probably depend on local conditions and humidity. Peat and Perlite 50:50 mix is probably a good first bet but it could be peat and gritty sand, or pure long fiber sphagnum depending on taste. Coconut coir is risky as it absorbs salts in the process of being made and fly traps are very very good at capturing what rare salts exist in their native environment so a soil with salt will poison them as they greedily suck them up. Its the same reason fertilizers shouldn't be used and you need to use deionized or distilled water to water them. Spring or well water has too much nutrients in it and will poison them. Their native bogs only get rainwater and the rainwater has leached all the nutrients out of the soil. They need a hibernation kind of like an amaryllis and should in the winter be placed in a basement or cool garage. Some people in the tropics have had success keeping them growing year round by keeping them in an active growth phase with 12 hour light 12 hour darkness cycles that don't have seasonal changes and kind of power feeding them. The mother plant will die out without the hormonal changes produced during the winter rest as they can't grow indefinitely without harm but ideally the rossest are budding off quicker than the mothers are dying to maintain a colony. This is an advanced growing technique and still debated in the carnivorous plant circles primarily used in areas where the growers can't get the seasonal changes they need and don't want to risk them drying out trying to do a dormancy in a refrigerator.
>>4780748Qrd on sundew ranching?
1. The soil needs to be peat moss,Silica sand, and perlite. They do not like soil with nutrients. It WILL kill them2. The soil need to be moist at all times. They are from the swamps in the Carolinas, BUT you can also over water. Make sure your container has proper drainage. 3. Unless you have a proper grow light or have them in a window that gets sun all day, grow them outside. You can keep them outside year round as long as you don't live some where that has the ground freeze during the winters.4. Feed ONLY bugs. No hamburger, no candy, do not put anything besides bugs into the mouths. Do NOT fertilize the plant. That is what the bugs are for.5. Depending on where you live, you might need to water with distilled water. If your water has too many minerals in it, the plant will die.6. If it starts to flower, cut that fucker off ASAP. flowering and making seeds takes alot out of the plant, if the plant in weak it WILL kill the whole plant once the seeds have been formed and ready to drop. Either way it will stunt the grow of the feeding mouths.
