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toniskids

Help with my carnivorous plants

toniskids
10 years ago

This summer i bought my first carnivorous plants: a nephenta, a sarracenia and a fly trap. And i love them to pieces, but they are not doing great... Please help me keep my babies healthy and happy!

The fly trap caught bugs by itself for about a month. I had in in a kitchen window where i realise now there might not be enough light. So the traps it came with died, and the new growth has very tiny, unformed traps and fat leaves. I read in a post it might be lack of light, and also it might want to go dormant. I put it in my basement, it is a raised basement with lots of light, on a window facing east, the temperature in the basement is about 55 fahrenheit. I have always watered it from the top, but its little pot is placed in a slightly bigger ceramic pot and i make sure it has some standing water on the bottom. Is what i am doing right?

The nephenta has grown like crazy, it has new shoots, but the pitchers have almost all died... It has grown a couple of new ones but they are very tiny and a couple already died off. The plant is left with one tony live pitcher. I have plugges a humidifier close to it, and i am waiting to see if that does it. Any other suggestions?

The sarracenia came full of pretty but somewhat dry pitchers. Not dead, but sort of papery feeling.it was fine for a while, then the pitchers started going brown and dying off. It has new growth, three new leaves that are smaller than the previous ones, have no red coloration at all, and have started browning at the tops. A fourth new leaf is coming out now. I have not taken any steps yet to allow it to go dormant, what should i do about it?

Thanks for reading about my woes, please help me out, i adore these plants and even if i cannot grow them outside because Chicago gets very, very chilli in winter, i want to do all i can to keep these plants happy and healthy.

PS: i have been watering only with distilled water or dehumidifier water. Initially dehumidifier, but our basement dehumidifer died o. Us so not it is distilled water only. I have not used any fertilizers, i have not repotted the plants, and when i do, because the nephenta is getingout of control big, i will do so with soil mix provided by the grower that sold me the plants.

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