Venus flytrap wilt, am I doing this right?

10 years ago

Well this will be my second Venus flytrap, as my first one died because I used potting mix and well water. I bought it at Walmart as that's the only seller nearby that has them for me. It looked fairly healthy, except the soil was pretty dry. When I took it out of the plastic it comes in, it wilted over slightly. I planted it in peat moss, this time WITHOUT fertilizer in it (before I had used miracle gro, which has fertilizer in EVERYTHING). I unfortunately do not have any perlite that doesn't have fertilizer. The first day or two I did water it with purified water becaus so didn't have distilled water, but I bought some on the third day and since then have used it. It is outside facing southeast, more so the east. I guess my question is: do I HAVE to have perlite for it? Or can it survive without it. Will it be ok even though I used purified water for two days? Also, how soon, if I'm doing this right, will it stop wilting. Let me know if I'm doing something wrong or any advice is appreciated!

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Comments (3)

tommyr_gw Zone 6
10 years ago
It needs to be sitting in a shallow tray of distilled or rainwater. Acclimate to at least 8 hours of Sun a day or more if you can. It should be o.k. without the perlite for now but get some perlite for when you do repot it and use a 50/50 mix of peat moss and perlite.
purslanegarden
10 years ago

If you don't have some perlite, some people do grow it in a spagnum moss media also . I use the 50/50 mix that tommy mentions above.

Get the Better-Gro orchid moss, not the Mosser Lee spagnum moss. ML moss has too much other undesirable stuff in it, such as twigs.

Since you mentioned Walmart, I'll assume you're in USA somewhere. Check your local Lowes to see if you have some VFTs there, too. I have been able to get 3 varieties of sundews, 3 varieties of Saracennia pitcher plants, 1 variety of Nepenthes pitcher plants, and of course, the typical VFT cultivar from Lowes.
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Mariy Necro
10 years ago
I don't see anything wrong with it. It looks very healthy, but that potting mix you have it in looks completely wrong. Try to find sphagnum moss and only water it with destiled water.