No!!!Not again!!

[marvin1997]

Oh my god!!My Vft's trap did not close when I was trying to feed it ants.It was looking sick last two week so I moved it indoors.Gave it a 12V(not sure if this helps but it also says 20W) light.HELP!!!

[marvin1997]

Should I cut them off to prevent the plant wasting energy on it.

[hongrui]

marvin, can you post a picture of your vft? the trap not closing can be due to a variety of reasons, old age of the trap is a possibility. as long as the petiole is still green, you shouldn't cut it off as the vft can still photosynthesize.

and 12V 20W of light is most probably too little to meet the vft's requirements. where do you place your plant?

[powersensor]

Hi marvin,

If your VFT is experiencing non functioning trap, I don't think you should be that worried because each trap has limited life span. You should be more concern if your VFT started to turn brown all over as that could indicate rot.

From my experience, VFT media has to be moist only. Not wet. In some situation, VFT on water tray may even rot unless your pot is tall. I prefer to keep my VFT on a drier side. Use to have water tray all the time but I realised that makes the media very wet. Big plant may tolerate such condition but long term small VFT tend to rot.

I usually put my VFT on water tray for half hour for the media to soak up the water then remove the tray. It seems the media remained moist for days (1 to 3 days) depending on weather. Once the media feels a bit dry (or feels very light), then only I repeat the water tray process. My VFT is under full sun protected from rain by transparent plastic shade.

[plantlover]

If its still green don't cut it. It still can do photosynthesis.

[marvin1997]

Maybe it was my neighbour(you'd probably know if you read the "CP theif in MAlaysia" thread)Should I get a special for plants light?If anyone know where to get that.

[marvin1997]

Maybe I should "babying"it?

[marvin1997]

How many watts light bulb should I get it?
need ID



See that deformed new leaf?twisting

[caseyhoo]

I keep most of my VFT at direct sunlight with water tray around 1.5cm.

For light for VFT... I think, you need to test and error. Difference of lighting tube, wattage, light color, what is distance between urs plant and light may give you difference answer for yours question --> how many watt i need...

My friend, he grow VFT in a 2ft standard aquarium using 1 philips 865 PLL 36w. It growing nice...

For yours VFT, it proabably is stress with the changed environment... So, just do what you can, mainly to increase lighting....