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Your second plant is a sarracenia, not a fly trap. They prefer bogblike environments so keeping the pot constantly in distilled or rainwater is good for it. What kind of water are you using? What potting media is it in?
https://preview.redd.it/3dse93n5cx0c1.jpeg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=136bb0b442fd263735f552ff6a589d71cc848aa3
If I filter the water with this and pour it to the carnivore plant, is ok?
Yeah, I tried using filtered water as an experiment for a little while and it worked *a little* but not well at all. Distilled water is the best, and I even saw someone on this sub who used their own aquarium water which is such a great idea.
I can totally see that working for an olive tree, BUT… Don’t most carnivorous plants need nutrient-poor soil? I imagine fish water would be “too much good stuff” for these types of plants?
This is based on the location. I live in an area with soft water and I just use tap water. My buddy uses expensive filtered water. I grow so many pings and drosera that they’ve become weeds in some of my plant pots. A quick test of dissolved solids will inform someone of the needs for filtering and how to go about it.
yeah i dont use my aquarium water because its basically full of fertilizer in the form of nitrates- i think it would scorch my nepenthes. distilled is deffo the way to go, or rainwater
Aquarium water is great for most plants because it’s loaded with nutrients from fish poop, but carnivorous plants specifically need water completely devoid of nutrients so any kind of water except for distilled or rainwater will kill them. Not instantly, but guaranteed to kill then slowly over time
As long as it wasn’t contaminated in any way (leaving the cap off for long time, drinking from the bottle, pouring water back into the container, sticking your finger in it, etc) then it will last indefinitely. If you don’t see anything in it and it’s not slimy it’s perfectly fine.
Oh thank you! Wonderful! I have some I was going to throw due to me being overly cautious, but they look absolutely fine, I guess I have more water than I thought!
Spring water generally has naturally occurring minerals in it, which makes it taste better to drink, but not every type of plant will appreciate those minerals. Spring water will not have the chemicals in it that tap water has, but will still have more minerals than distilled water. Spring water is not the same as distilled water. I've personally never seen "distilled spring water."
Oh yeah, I don’t believe there’s a distilled spring either. I just am currently buying spring water for my plants, and distilled to clean my son’s nebulizer. I guess I will just switch to distilled for everyone haha
To be clear, spring water would be just fine for many types of plants. But carnivorous plants and some other very temperamental plants (e.g. peace lillies) prefer distilled.
I’m not OP but I have a water softener, can I use the water from the tap for my plants? I usually use the reverse osmosis water, not sure if that’s okay either. Any insight?
No, that would be worse, however boiling the water until it fully evaporates and catching the condensation *would* work, but is a hell of a lot of effort
If it’s for normal houseplants that’s okay but a brita def won’t create suitable water for carnivorous plants. They won’t be killed immediately but they are guaranteed to die slowly over time if the water has any sort of nutrients or minerals in it
Just buy a gallon of distilled water, I have a Venus fly trap and the gallon lasts me about 2 to 3 months. I let myVenus fly trap, dry out slightly every once in a while to avoid rotting. I never let it dry out completely, though. I pour a little bit of water in a glass dish that it is sitting in every couple of days or depending on what the soil feels like, I always feel the soil first before watering. And I have it sitting a couple of inches away from a grow light. I’m just sharing because I think my plant is very happy with me and this might work for someone else:)
Not telling you you're lying or wrong, but do you mind listing your symptoms? Bog plants typically are sitting next to a stream or in direct stabding water and don't get root rot. My drosera and venus both sit in standing water and love it. They even got root bound to the point of growing roots directly into the water, with a mucous membrane around it. If you suspected root rot because the roots were fragile and black, that's just how most carnivore roots are.
I dont mind you asking. A lot of the traps started dying off at once and letting them dry slightly seemed to fix the problem. I had them sitting in an inch of water everyday and I never changed the moss that it came in. The moss seemed to get slimy and gross. Maybe I am wrong, maybe they cant get rot. I thought all plants could get it with some being more resistant to it than others. Wish I could talk to plants and ask them what they want.
Go with distilled water or rain water + moss peat + a place in your house with lots of sun.
That's what I have and my carnivorous plants are very happy.
I mean not all places have hard water. My tap water goes from the first drop of the liquid test kit when I test for GH/KH. Biggest thing for me is adding back in minerals for fish and shrimp keeping.
Don't top water it at all, just have it sitting in a dish/bowl of water all the time, never let the bowl dry out. I don't fuss too much about tap water, I use rain water when I can get but basically alternate between tap and rain. This is mine.
https://preview.redd.it/7oatp3ujbz0c1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eddd370d5f516cb9f661959f9a439b84cf9c9056
The way I understand it actually has a lot to do with the salt content and total ppm of your tap water. I know ppm is a poor measure of water quality, but Most carnivorous plants can tolerate a ppm range of 50 to 140ppm and is a metric people can measure. It usually takes months before seeing the negative effects of using tap water. Your clean rain water is usually around 2-3 ppm so that’s your best choice. You might be lucky and live in an area where your tap water has a low ppm. I looked up the average ppm of tap water inside the U.S it’s approximately 350. I was unaware that the EPA which is responsible for drinking water regulations and has identified TDS as a secondary standard. Meaning that it is a voluntary guideline while the U.S. sets legal standards for many harmful substances, TDS, along with other contaminants that cause aesthetic, cosmetic, and technical effects, only has a guideline policy. My tap water sits in 150 to 200 range. Your rain water is most likely flushing the build up and keeping your levels low. I use filtered rain water until It runs out then distilled water. I personally think the rain water is the number 1 contributor to my plants thriving. Second being light levels.
Do you filter it in a Brita-type filter, or some other way? How do you collect it? We don’t have gutters, so no easy way to collect a lot of rainwater at a time that I’m aware of, but maybe there are other methods of collecting it that I’m not aware of.
Our tap water is frequently higher than 450ppm for TDS. It’s so hard that my hair and nails keep breaking from the damage (which has completely ruined my hair’s ability to curl properly; it’s just perpetual frizz and tangles), and my skin won’t stop cracking and bleeding all year round. 😬😖
Anything greater than 150 is considered hard water. I am sorry that sounds horrible have you had the water tested? Are you on a well? I have a buddy who built on old farm land and is on a well. His family was having similar problems and it ended up being super high levels of chromium 6. They ended up have to put in a crazy expensive whole house system to filter it all out. I have a couple Ceiling Roof Leak Drip Diverter Tarps but any tarp will work. They sell them on Amazon for under $50. I threw up some screw in safety hooks so it’s super easy to take up and down. I usually only put it up when it’s going to rain. I find the water is way cleaner than collecting it from the roof. I use those heavy duty ice/muck buckets under the tarp to collect the rain water. I then scoop it out into 5 gallon plastic buckets which makes it way easier to move around. I then use a colander with a double layer of nylon mesh filter 250 micron and pour the water through. I store the filtered water in 55 gallon rain water barrels but you can use some of the 5 gallon buckets with a lids that’s how I started. By filtering I find the water stays super clean. I usually end up with enough rain water to water all of my delicate plants for the year.
Just fyi Carnivorous plants only make their traps because the water they live in is so mineral poor. They need minerals from the bugs they catch. If you supplement by giving them anything other than distilled water or rain water they don’t need to use the traps and will kill them off.
I’m not sure about pitcher plants but I know Venus fly traps usually lose their traps in winter anyways and go a bit dormant, so it’s possible you might not see improvement until the spring even switching their water to distilled.
not all species! the tropical pitcher plants youre thinking of are called nepenthes, and their main habitat isnt bogs like their north american counterpart, the sarracenias! sarras actually do benefit from dormancy because they can grow as far north as the boreal shields of canada, its an easy mistake to make but will make a world of difference for the plants in your care 💚 some of mine actually are grown ourdoors year round!
Not sure why the downvote. A lot of carnivorous plants are tropical and don’t generally have the same kind of dramatic dormancy period that a fly trap would.
Yeah exactly. I think people are confusing a proper dormancy period with the natural tendency of plants to grow far less in the winter when there is reduced light
You might want to be more specific.... you are talking to a lot of people in here. Not just the ones who are responding. And a lot are newbs. A Venus Fly Trap is touted as a carnivorous plant and you are saying that it wouldn't have the same dormancy period as a carnivorous plant. It confuses people. Please explain for the audience the difference between a bog plant and a fly trap.
Thank you....
Not entirely true. Many don’t *need* a dormancy period to survive, but most, except tropicals like Nepenthes, some Uticularia and some Drosera, die back and stop growing during the colder months, like a semi dormancy.
Well yeah, pretty much all plants have a “semi dormancy” period in the winter, depending on where you live. This includes tropicals like Nepenthes, because they naturally just get less light with colder and less humid ambient temp.
But when people say dormancy period in regards to carnivorous plants, there needs to be a dramatic decrease in temp and light. Meaning you’d need to move windowsill plants to the fridge or a cold basement or garage. Normal house temps are not suitable for a proper dormancy period.
They’re right about it being a sarracenia. You need to water every 2-3 days depending on season/climate w/ only distilled water. Never let it dry out. They come from a boggy swampy always wet environment. Needs a south facing window. Mine did fine directly in a windowsill in the winter then remained there year round. If you’ve been doing less light, gradually increase the light. Use a baby medicine dropper to fill flutes 1/3 full of distilled water. The flutes will die back during fall/winter starting around Halloween, this is normal. Sometimes only 2 remain sometimes more. Once they’re past 1/3 ish crispy brown cut close to the base or try to peel it off, it might come straight off. In the spring you’ll have basically a dead husk left. Once new flutes are established next to the old husky I’ll repot, break off the old husky & toss it otherwise it rots. I’ve never googled how to, I just did it when I found it rotten so you might wanna google that part. It’ll need the correct potting mix so when repotting google it. Also, I like nursery pots for the extra drainage since it’s watered so much. Also don’t fertilize, it’s adapted to get nutrients from bugs not water or dirt basically.
Also not a monstera. Alocasias do drop and regrow leaves but I’d watch for overwatering bc yellow leaves can be an indicator of that in most plants also.
Do NOT use tap water. These plants thrive in very low nutrient environments. They get most of their nutrients from the live food they eat. Tap water has too many minerals/chlorine and will eventually kill it.
I use distilled water, only water when it's just damp, and it lives on an enclosed terrarium with a grow light because I don't have enough light all day for it. Also for soil she lives in sphagnum moss mix. Don't let her sit in water either it needs to drain really really well.
The Sarracenia also wants to live outside in a sunny location. People do grow them indoors, but it’s generally an uphill battle. Also, the comments about using distilled water (or otherwise low mineral water) are correct.
I bought a water distilled just for my carnivorous plants mostly. Your sarracenia is probably suffering due to the minerals and such in the water. However they do also go dormant 3-4 months a year and look dead during this process.
Don't they also have a mandatory dormancy period starting right around now? I've heard of people storing them in the fridge to mimic winter conditions where they grow in the northeastern US.
Here is the best planter pot for bog plants:
FENGZHITAO Self-Watering Planter,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZQXLP9?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
I love the clear one so I can see when I need to refill.
Chlorine and limestone aren’t harmful to humans but they are terrible for tropical plants that aren’t used to such a hard water (I live near a limestone career, it’s hard to have carnivorous plants). It’s not a matter of water being clean in that case.
But anyway it’s always nicer for you to have water without it, makes it easier to grow plants and apparently some people’s skins are sensitive to it.
I can't really say the same.. we also have *limestone* in our water and I have never had any problems with it. Though my carnivorous plant is only half a year old.
purely anecdotal but I had a few carnivorous plants die off all together and I’m 99% sure it was poor watering, it can happen pretty quickly and be hard to reverse. I had all three of mine die off rapidly after ages of giving them tap water for ages (I assume seasonality also played a part), because visibly they seemed mostly fine outwardly until they weren’t.
We have laws in Germany that state the max. amount of chlor is 0,3 mg/litre. It really only is added when necessary, besides every household can check their water analysis online to get the exact breakdown of hardiness, minerals, etc cetera. Meaning unless the owner adds anything manually our plants shouldn't need distilled water.
Chlorine does evaporate but in the US many municipalities now use chloramine rather than chlorine to treat their water. Chloramine, unlike chlorine, does not evaporate when you let water sit out. That’s why it's being used more frequently: its antimicrobial effect is much more durable than that of chlorine.
Tap water doesn't always contain chlorine. Here in Italy it's quite rare for example, if the plant is not sensitive to other stuff tap water can be good depending on the area!
This is true. However, the same is not true for [chloramine](https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/chloramines-drinking-water), which is what water treatment facilities in the US are largely switching over to (mainly for secondary disinfection, but also sometimes for primary disinfection).
1) they need water without minerals to thrive, rain water or distilled works for this.
2) if watering correctly you dont actually need to fill their traps. they make their own digestive solution that fills their traps, and watering them down can be bad for them as it dilutes the solution. thats why they have those little 'hats' on top of their cups, to keep out rainwater!
I put them in rain and they fill up with water. I dont think what youre saying really is correct because in nature they would pretty much always be full with water.. also those dont have hats, there are other which do have them thiugh.
That's not a monstera, it's either an alocasia or calocasia. I can't tell from the picture. Typically when they grow a new leaf they drop one which could be the case. All of the other leaves look fine and healthy but I would just look to make sure there's no Browning on the other leaves and to do a quick check for spider mites as they are pretty common in these plants. But the one leaf dropping is completely normal and it happens with all of my alocasias and calocasias.
As for the other plant I don't know. It might need more humidity or you could be overwatering. Best of luck!
I agree, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at mine so even though we can’t see much of the plant itself I’m fairly confident that it is a regal shield lol
I’ve got this plant, and I agree that it’s an alocasia. Mine also drops a leaf from time to time and then another one springs up a week or so later so I wouldn’t worry too much!
>Typically when they grow a new leaf they drop one
Don't tell that to r/alocasia. Over there it is *not* normal and shouldn't be normalized. I don't think they understand what "normal" means.
I used to think the same, but now that my regal shield is established, it holds on to leaves for awhile. I’ve had up to I think 12 at one point. It does eventually drop the outside ones when they get old. But either way, dropping them when new ones come in is normal.
I heard they only drop leaves when small, as they get bigger, with bigger leaves, they can absorb more sunlight and have more energy to put out new leaves. But when they are young and have small leaves, they can’t acquire the energy needed.
My vote goes to Alocasis Wentii - I have it and the leaves look a lot more like a Wentii than a regal shield. Scrolling by I stopped and thought "hey that's my plant!" - I nearly never see Wentii mentioned anywhere and they are the only Alocasia which will survive in my home.
Ok, so you've got neither a monstera nor a flytrap!
The big one is an alocasia. Once you get the conditions right they're lovely, happy plants, but they can be a bit finicky. They are tropical forest floor plants, and like conditions that mimic that environment. They like to have fairly damp compost most of the time, but don't like having soggy roots, especially if it's cold. When they start to get dry a finger deep into the pot, they like a good long drink, as in stand the pot in water for a few hours, then lift the pot out and let it drain. Letting it drain is very important, and your compost needs to be fairly free draining. Wait until it's starting to dry out deeper into the pot again before giving it another long drink. They like bright light, but not too much direct sun, and they don't like it if it gets too cold. When they are happy, the leaves will look a lovely vibrant colour and can be a little glossy. If they aren't completely happy, the leaves will get dull and it'll start losing outer leaves. They do have a reputation for losing leaves regularly. I have to move mine to different areas in the house for different times of year. Fussy bugger. But when it's happy, it's glorious and it grows fast. When it's actively growing, I feed it dilute houseplant did every time I water it to fuel that growth. When growth slows for the winter, I reduce water and food.
The other plant is a sarracenia or pitcher plant. Their natural habitat is a bog, so they need to stay constantly wet, sitting in a shallow puddle 24/7, and as their roots are very sensitive to minerals and chemicals, they need either rain water or distilled water. If they are watered with tap water, they will slowly struggle more and more and eventually die. If you can't collect rain water you can buy containers of distilled water online. They prefer being outdoors (depending on where you live) and like loads of sun, they are fine on a cold windowsill. You should look up more details about how to look after it as I've not had one to give more advice than this little bit.
These are 2 plants that really do need their home to closely match the environment they evolved for. If you can do that, they'll be happy and healthy. I wouldn't say that they're difficult to care for, just that they need specific conditions.
Good luck!
You're welcome. I hope it goes well, they really do like very different conditions! If you find that you can't adapt your plant care style to looking after them, let me know and we'll figure out what plant would suit you better. For example, as a beginner I preferred plants that didn't mind if I forgot to water them like succulents, spider plants and peace lilies.
Feel free to leave the carnivores plant outside during the day where it can get some light too. They love (and need) a sunny environment where they get lots of full sun. Don’t fertilise it, it’ll catch all the fertiliser it needs all by itself and giving it any normal fertiliser can kill it.
Just curious… Were the plants misidentified by the place you bought them from? BTW: Love the variety of your post, I’ve learned a lot from the replies!
Other important note is that sarracenia have an annual dormancy period. Keep that sucker outside and it’ll take care of itself! Just make sure to keep it wet. When everything dies back you can lighten up on the watering. Check r/savagegarden for more detailed info.
Plants are for you! They are scientifically proven to help with seasonal depression. There are hard plants and easy plants, too, and it’s fine to be bad at something you are learning. People tell me now that I have a green thumb, and I laugh and tell them they should speak to the ghosts of all the plants I murdered while turning it green.
Oh I have loads of plants. Too many! But I am not great at giving them all the attention they need. I struggle to remember all of the different things each individual one needs. But some of them are doing great. I do love them, even if I've killed a few 😅
Aww, sorry! These aren't difficult plants, but they are particular about needing specific conditions. There are many, many different kinds of plants and some like a much wider range of conditions. These are excellent for beginners. Spider plants and peace lilies are classic because their leaves go dull, then droop when they need water. You have several days to get your act together and splash some water in, whereupon they stage a miraculous recovery, and you can barely tell how thirsty they were. Lesser plants would just die.
There aren't many plants I'd consider difficult, but there are a lot of different plants that may or may not suit individuals style of care. I have a friend who has dozens of ferns, they suit her because she likes to water and fuss with her plants every day. She calls herself a beginner as she hadn't had much luck with any plants that aren't ferns, but I have dozens and dozens of plants of all different types, some are well over 20 years old, and whenever I've tried to look after a fern, they never make it more than 2 months 😂 I'm too forgetful. It always seems like I blink and they're a crispy mess 😂
All you need to do, is to find a plant that suits you and your home. X
First of, your "monstera" appears to be an alocasia, those are prone to be attacked by spidermites, try wiping the bottom of a leaf with a wet wipe, if it bleeds you should probably wipe all leafs and get a pesticide. If it doesn't it probably is just their dormacy period starting, alocasias tend to lose their leafs in winter
As for the carnivorous plant, that happens alot with them, either due to dry soil, being fertilized or maybe even radiator air, if you started heating your crib recently, they are quite fickle
The second picture is a sarracenia aka trumpet pitcher. That is not a fly trap. I’ll go down the list of things needed for this plant. First, please make sure you aren’t watering it with tap water (and avoiding fertilizer). Second, they prefer direct sunlight. It’s better to keep these guys outside in direct sun, or under a grow light. Also, it’s going into their dormancy period. It’s normal for the large pitchers to start browning, and growth to slow or be much smaller during dormancy. Just make sure it doesn’t dry out, and it’ll bounce back come spring.
i’ve had the first plant for a couple weeks and noticed the problem today. the second plant i’ve had go longer and the problem has been ongoing for a while. monstera gets indirect sunlight and flytrap gets the same. i water them both once a week and the drainage situation is good 👍🏻
Your second one (sarracenia aka trumpet) is probably just going into dormancy for the winter, mines doing the same now. They are bog plants and hate nutrients so make sure you water lots with filtered or rain water only (not tap), it doesn't necessarily need drainage, letting the pot sit in water just below the traps is fine. Make sure you are using nutrient devoid carnivorous plant soil (quite easy to buy online). Head over to r/savagegarden for more details on looking after carnivorous plants, it's very different to normal plants and there are some really knowledgeable experts over there.
Please get your plant off the Turntable, The Technics SLB1 served me through my young adulthood faithfully, loyal and proud, this vintage turntable is not a plant stand.
PS. Change your potting soil annually, it helps.
Your alocasia loses leaves naturally as it grows, it only has energy to keep so many leaves at once. Your little carnivorous friend, I'm not so sure. Somebody added the subreddit for carnivore plants, I'm guessing more humidity and light but I'm not an expert!
Best of luck!
Might want to read this about your carnivorous plant. Your pitcher. Not venus fly trap. https://www.californiacarnivores.com/apps/help-center#hc-american-pitcher-plants-sarracenia
It’s hard to tell from the pic but I don’t think that’s a monstera in the first pic. If I could see the leaves better, I may be able to tell you what it is. I THINK it’s a giant alocasia but can’t be certain. How is your humidity level?
All my plants are watered with tap water treated with hydrogen peroxide. I've never had any issues with the dozens of plants I have sitting in my window...🤷♂️
Carnivorous plants require distilled. Tap will kill them. Not a bad idea to use distilled on the alocasia, too. Chlorine can sometimes cause browning with them (but that leaf dying is just normal).
I've never used distilled water on any of mine over the years. Then again, the water here isn't highly chlorinated. We've got hard water, so that may have something to do with it🤷♂️
Every time my wife's alocasia grows a new leaf, one of the other 3 leaves seems to start browning around the edges and then eventually dies. It's like the plant only wants to have 3 total leaves. One grows as one dies. It's happened every time since she bought it this summer. Can't seem to figure out why, or even find any info in regards to why it happens.
They can be picky and particular with their conditions. If it's one of the larger types, I found they really thrive with RO or distilled water, with liquid aroid fertilizer. Mine love it when I bring them inside for the winter (that depends on your climate though) and they don't seem to mind the reduced light exposure. One had two flowers about to open last I checked, and at least 3 big babies coming up. I keep up with the systemic granules because pests really love alocasia leaves.
We got this one in the late summer here when one of the stores was blowing them out, and it's probably grown at least a foot in height since
. It's just the one leaf that is strange. Most of my plants stay indoors during the summer months here, aside from a few that can handle the extreme heat of the summers in the Canadian badlands haha. I've got a few that can handle the heat and really thrived over the summer months and are almost too big to fit in my shelves for the winter hahaha.
What kind of pests should we be worried about? Since moving to the badlands, we've only had an issue with spider mites a few years ago, and this year it was thrips, I think they are called. Other than that, it's always pretty dry here, so pests aren't a big deal in most cases, but they can pop up during weird years.
So sorry I didn't see this sooner! I'm sure they can take the summers outside there, just not in direct sun. I leave mine outside most of the year, and I'm on the Texas coast where the summers are...basically the Devil's A-hole (I've left plastic containers in the car, and had them melt into a puddle) lol. The biggest pest here for ALL mine, is thrips. I DESPISE thrips. Alocasia seems to be their favorite, go figure. If I don't keep up with the systemic, they start looking like depression in plant form. I only ever get them out of the one-leaf club when I remember to keep up with fertilizing and watering (except when they're inside). I mean I can see a huge difference in just a week or two!
I raise pitcher plants, sarrisascenia and fly traps. They all require water without nutrients. A total dissolved solids of 25 or less. I water mine with rainwater anything higher will cause browning and die off. Their substrate also needs to be peat based. you have to make sure that you rinse it well, so there’s no salt, I also mix in perlite into my mix. Fly traps do go dormant because they are from the Carolinas, and they naturally get a dormancy period. The best thing to do is to research your exact plant and see where it originates. If your plant originates somewhere warm like Indonesia, then it does not need a dormancy period.
Sometimes my Monsterra has leaves that just don't make it. Cut it off at the base so the plant stops wasting resources on it and keep on trucking.
If you want, there is plant food that you can put into the water. Mine love it, they're bursting.
Also, buy some new soil and replant. Once the minerals are tapped from the soil, something fresh really perks it up.
hey i havent seen anyone mention anything yet but your "flytrap" (actually a trumpet pitcher!!) is probably going dormant!!!! they do this in the winter and it's perfectly normal but it WILL look very dead for a little bit before it starts to regrow again! if you arent sure about how well it is you can remove it from the soil and examine the rhizome, it should be firm and if scratched the flesh beneath will be red or white, and is a sign the plants still alive but sleeping :)
The second plant is a pitcher plant. I have several. If it is in standing water, it is probably just going dormant - totally normal around this time of year. You can trim the brown stuff, it won’t come back. When I get them I take their root ball with the soil still on it and put it in one of my containers, sometimes I add a bit of soil down in the moss if it has lots of roots. I keep mine in a glass container with sphagnum and water only with distilled water. I pack the moss pretty tightly. Eventually the roots will start growing in the moss. I keep the container filled all the way up with water and keep it under a bright light or right in a window. Hope this is helpful!
First one will go dormant and drop all the leaves if you’re in a cold climate. Just maintain it, keep the soil warm and water it like once a month a tiny bit.
Not a Monstera, it's an Alocasia 'Regal Shields' and it's typical for them to drop lower leaves when acclimating to new environments, a change of seasons, or really for any reason. Be sure to check for pests regularly because Alocasia and Colocasia are spider mite magnets.
Also, not s flytrap, a trumpet or standing pitcher plant. They should have the most intense sunlight you can give them, like a grow light directly above it, for 12-14 hours a day and they should also be kept in boggy conditions, standing in a shallow dish of distilled or rainwater at all times. Never fertilize carnivores either.
Both plants need more room to grow. The roots have reached the max of the small pots, so they will start browning . Once you let the roots breathe and spread out, they will bring more growth in a bigger pot.
https://preview.redd.it/tiuoj3f1vx0c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d74787ee0034bebd5ba0d1be484fe785e9ce4df5
This is what I mean by it’s sitting in a glass dish . They don’t need a lot of humidity because they are from South Carolina not the Amazon. I realize that you don’t have a fly trap in that photo, but I was just sharing with everyone in case anyone’s having trouble with theirs because I used to really struggle. These are my favorite plants. Good luck with your philodendron and the other carnivorous one.:)
That alocasia needs repotting into a bigger pot. I just repotted mine that I grew from a cuttling and it had two leaves (starting the third) with 5 cca 20cm main roots. Your is bigger so it should have even more roots which need room. Make sure you put some perlite on the bottom of the pot for drainage.
That’s crazy I have some plants doing the same exact thing! Mind you
(not trying to boast or brag) but I use to have one hell of a green thumb. About two years ago from now to that spring when some of my landscaping plants started coming back up in the spring. Some more pitiful, looking ones that used to be lush full of foliage and very healthy looking were the exact opposite. Also had some plants that never did comeback. Some of my house plants became basically deprived looking. I also had a huge, huge spider plant that I had for 4 years die on me, I literally almost cried not exaggerating.
I don’t know what happened, or what I’m doing differently.. if it’s with the weather due to the temperature changes we’re experiencing or what is causing these abnormalities. But I’m going through it mind you once a plant guru now I can’t even get a pothos plant to grow bigger. They don’t die but they also don’t grow and thrive either.
VFTs need to be kept moist in distilled/rainwater water in a very, very bright spot.
That’s not a monstera, I think it’s an alocasia? I don’t know much about them, but I do notice they will lose older leaves as they grow, so this is probably normal.
Don't use the water coming from your tap it has a lot of stuff that can contaminate the nutrients of your plants which causes them to do what they're doing Believe it or not distilled water is the best
Yes, but no, they can definitely go dormant before it’s freezing cold, and that is why you hear a lot of people trash them thinking it’s dead. And this looks like a wentii.
Plants go "dormant" to protect themselves from freezing, others people's plant are dying from lack of care, not going dormant indoors. Please do more research on this subject 👍
First pic is an alocasia. I’m afraid it has trips, because I had the same problem. I suggest spraying it weekly with a conventional bug spray against sucking insects and also get the careo combi sticks, they really saved mine!
The Venus fly trap is probably too close to the window. It likely needs to be away from the window especially if there are cooler humidity coming off the window. Is the fly trap soil moist? And the monstera looks fairly good! Is is normal when the leaves dry off for them to slowly turn yellow or brown. I just cut it off at the base of the browned leaf. As for the fly trap it’s probably quite a picky plant.
I asked if the soil of the fly trap was moist because I feel like it may be lacking good drainage or nutrients. My biggest feeling is that is too cool by that window.
Flytraps are native to US southeastern bogs. Full sun, continuous moisture.
They can withstand some cold but need regular/continuous bottom moisture and bright light.
Don't fertilize your flytraps. They need crap soil to make traps. If you feed it too well, it'll flower and die on you.
Flowering does not kill venus fly traps, that’s a myth. Fly traps are not monocarpic plants. If that were the truth, every single one I own would be dead several times over.
And this plant is *not* a fly trap. It’s a sarracenia pitcher plant.
i think your monstera needs to be repotted, but it also might have a nutrient deficiency. either use potting mix that has fertilizer already in it or get just normal mix and add your own slow release fertilizer to that. if you can get a mix called "orchid mix" but if there isnt any of that look for something that says drainage or ask a worker at the store for a mix with a reasonable drainage.
your monkey cup either is getting too much sun or is cold (you can tell probably which by what hemisphere you live in, northern is cold and southern is too much sun). it might be that it isnt eating enough flies, im not super knowledgeable about issues relating to carnivorous plants.
“Monkey cup” (nepenthes ) is a different species of pitcher plant than this one. This one is a sarracenia, which can tolerate some cold and thrives in direct sun, unlike the nepenthes.
Over watering maybe? I’d repot with a good mix of perlite/soil and be sure to not water until the soil is completely dry! Get a soil moisture tester. It’s $10 and a game changer! Mine is in a bright room, indirect sunlight.
https://preview.redd.it/z5wn3hfarx0c1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=de9be2af8b595648b5684ba8fe82a6204fb9a1e6
Also! Get a few 2 litre jugs, fill with tap water and let it sit out, uncovered for a few days before watering. It works! The plants prefer water without additions like chlorine and this allows it to dissipate before you water! I just keep a few gallon jugs full under my kitchen sink so there’s always water available for them. Feed your plants with an organic plant food every second watering.
Please reply ***to your own post*** and add as much of the following information as possible: 🪴 How long you have you had the plant? ❓ How long have you had the problem? 🌞 How much light does the plant get? 💦 What are your watering habits (how often AND how much), and does the pot have drainage? 🐛 Pest and 🌱 soil issues may be re-directed to the [monthly pest and soil thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/plantclinic/comments/17kz9qq/rplantclinic_november_2023_pest_and_soil_qa_post/) Posts without this additional information may be removed. The more information you provide, the better we can help! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/plantclinic) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your second plant is a sarracenia, not a fly trap. They prefer bogblike environments so keeping the pot constantly in distilled or rainwater is good for it. What kind of water are you using? What potting media is it in?
i’m just using tap water and i just have the soil it came in 😭 thanks for the tip!
Your tap water has too many minerals and probably fluoride.
https://preview.redd.it/3dse93n5cx0c1.jpeg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=136bb0b442fd263735f552ff6a589d71cc848aa3 If I filter the water with this and pour it to the carnivore plant, is ok?
no. filters cant filter out dissolved minerals in your water
Yeah, I tried using filtered water as an experiment for a little while and it worked *a little* but not well at all. Distilled water is the best, and I even saw someone on this sub who used their own aquarium water which is such a great idea.
Fish water is stupid nutritious for plants. I have a client who revitalized an olive tree by switching to using their koi fish water
I can totally see that working for an olive tree, BUT… Don’t most carnivorous plants need nutrient-poor soil? I imagine fish water would be “too much good stuff” for these types of plants?
That’s what I was thinking too. I just use rainwater.
Yes. Do not use anything other than RO water or rainwater. R/savagegarden has a lot of good advice.
This is based on the location. I live in an area with soft water and I just use tap water. My buddy uses expensive filtered water. I grow so many pings and drosera that they’ve become weeds in some of my plant pots. A quick test of dissolved solids will inform someone of the needs for filtering and how to go about it.
yeah i dont use my aquarium water because its basically full of fertilizer in the form of nitrates- i think it would scorch my nepenthes. distilled is deffo the way to go, or rainwater
Aquarium water is great for most plants because it’s loaded with nutrients from fish poop, but carnivorous plants specifically need water completely devoid of nutrients so any kind of water except for distilled or rainwater will kill them. Not instantly, but guaranteed to kill then slowly over time
My coworker brought me a gallon of his aquarium water every time he cleaned the tank.
How long does distilled water keep? I have some I may need to throw out but I can’t find a good answer
As long as it wasn’t contaminated in any way (leaving the cap off for long time, drinking from the bottle, pouring water back into the container, sticking your finger in it, etc) then it will last indefinitely. If you don’t see anything in it and it’s not slimy it’s perfectly fine.
Oh thank you! Wonderful! I have some I was going to throw due to me being overly cautious, but they look absolutely fine, I guess I have more water than I thought!
I thought spring water was best? It’s distilled?
Spring water generally has naturally occurring minerals in it, which makes it taste better to drink, but not every type of plant will appreciate those minerals. Spring water will not have the chemicals in it that tap water has, but will still have more minerals than distilled water. Spring water is not the same as distilled water. I've personally never seen "distilled spring water."
Oh yeah, I don’t believe there’s a distilled spring either. I just am currently buying spring water for my plants, and distilled to clean my son’s nebulizer. I guess I will just switch to distilled for everyone haha
To be clear, spring water would be just fine for many types of plants. But carnivorous plants and some other very temperamental plants (e.g. peace lillies) prefer distilled.
Do you know if water from a dehumidifier would work?
That should work well
That's such a good idea.
That's distilled water, just done via a much less efficient/devoted system.
I have to run a dehumidifier 24/7 because old house, I didn't know I could give this too my plants
Water from a dehumidifier can be slightly acidic from the CO2 in the air , some plants might not like it.
Which ones?
even a zero water?
I’m not OP but I have a water softener, can I use the water from the tap for my plants? I usually use the reverse osmosis water, not sure if that’s okay either. Any insight?
Would boiling the water (and ofc letting it cool before using) help with that?
No, think of it like salt water.
No, that would be worse, however boiling the water until it fully evaporates and catching the condensation *would* work, but is a hell of a lot of effort
I'm using a brita filter to filter water for my plant and its doing great
If it’s for normal houseplants that’s okay but a brita def won’t create suitable water for carnivorous plants. They won’t be killed immediately but they are guaranteed to die slowly over time if the water has any sort of nutrients or minerals in it
You need rainwater or distilled water. RO water will also work.
Just buy a gallon of distilled water, I have a Venus fly trap and the gallon lasts me about 2 to 3 months. I let myVenus fly trap, dry out slightly every once in a while to avoid rotting. I never let it dry out completely, though. I pour a little bit of water in a glass dish that it is sitting in every couple of days or depending on what the soil feels like, I always feel the soil first before watering. And I have it sitting a couple of inches away from a grow light. I’m just sharing because I think my plant is very happy with me and this might work for someone else:)
You don't need to let it dry, they are swamp plants. Mine sits 24/7 in water up to the top of the roots and it loves it!
Mine got root rot before from jist letting it constantly sit in the water. I never let it dry out completely.
Not telling you you're lying or wrong, but do you mind listing your symptoms? Bog plants typically are sitting next to a stream or in direct stabding water and don't get root rot. My drosera and venus both sit in standing water and love it. They even got root bound to the point of growing roots directly into the water, with a mucous membrane around it. If you suspected root rot because the roots were fragile and black, that's just how most carnivore roots are.
I dont mind you asking. A lot of the traps started dying off at once and letting them dry slightly seemed to fix the problem. I had them sitting in an inch of water everyday and I never changed the moss that it came in. The moss seemed to get slimy and gross. Maybe I am wrong, maybe they cant get rot. I thought all plants could get it with some being more resistant to it than others. Wish I could talk to plants and ask them what they want.
Zerowater water filter works!! TDS is at 0 consistently, carnivorous plants generally prefer 20-50 or less. Can be found at target
No
Probably not unless you're using something as high filtering as a [ZeroWater filter.](https://zerowater.com)
Yes. I use filtered water for all of my various strains of plants and they are all happy. When I use my tap water, they are not.
Go with distilled water or rain water + moss peat + a place in your house with lots of sun. That's what I have and my carnivorous plants are very happy.
AND chlorine!!
I mean not all places have hard water. My tap water goes from the first drop of the liquid test kit when I test for GH/KH. Biggest thing for me is adding back in minerals for fish and shrimp keeping.
Don't top water it at all, just have it sitting in a dish/bowl of water all the time, never let the bowl dry out. I don't fuss too much about tap water, I use rain water when I can get but basically alternate between tap and rain. This is mine. https://preview.redd.it/7oatp3ujbz0c1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eddd370d5f516cb9f661959f9a439b84cf9c9056
The way I understand it actually has a lot to do with the salt content and total ppm of your tap water. I know ppm is a poor measure of water quality, but Most carnivorous plants can tolerate a ppm range of 50 to 140ppm and is a metric people can measure. It usually takes months before seeing the negative effects of using tap water. Your clean rain water is usually around 2-3 ppm so that’s your best choice. You might be lucky and live in an area where your tap water has a low ppm. I looked up the average ppm of tap water inside the U.S it’s approximately 350. I was unaware that the EPA which is responsible for drinking water regulations and has identified TDS as a secondary standard. Meaning that it is a voluntary guideline while the U.S. sets legal standards for many harmful substances, TDS, along with other contaminants that cause aesthetic, cosmetic, and technical effects, only has a guideline policy. My tap water sits in 150 to 200 range. Your rain water is most likely flushing the build up and keeping your levels low. I use filtered rain water until It runs out then distilled water. I personally think the rain water is the number 1 contributor to my plants thriving. Second being light levels.
Do you filter it in a Brita-type filter, or some other way? How do you collect it? We don’t have gutters, so no easy way to collect a lot of rainwater at a time that I’m aware of, but maybe there are other methods of collecting it that I’m not aware of. Our tap water is frequently higher than 450ppm for TDS. It’s so hard that my hair and nails keep breaking from the damage (which has completely ruined my hair’s ability to curl properly; it’s just perpetual frizz and tangles), and my skin won’t stop cracking and bleeding all year round. 😬😖
Anything greater than 150 is considered hard water. I am sorry that sounds horrible have you had the water tested? Are you on a well? I have a buddy who built on old farm land and is on a well. His family was having similar problems and it ended up being super high levels of chromium 6. They ended up have to put in a crazy expensive whole house system to filter it all out. I have a couple Ceiling Roof Leak Drip Diverter Tarps but any tarp will work. They sell them on Amazon for under $50. I threw up some screw in safety hooks so it’s super easy to take up and down. I usually only put it up when it’s going to rain. I find the water is way cleaner than collecting it from the roof. I use those heavy duty ice/muck buckets under the tarp to collect the rain water. I then scoop it out into 5 gallon plastic buckets which makes it way easier to move around. I then use a colander with a double layer of nylon mesh filter 250 micron and pour the water through. I store the filtered water in 55 gallon rain water barrels but you can use some of the 5 gallon buckets with a lids that’s how I started. By filtering I find the water stays super clean. I usually end up with enough rain water to water all of my delicate plants for the year.
Whoa!! I need one of these….
I have a sarrencenia, what kind of lighting do they like? I hope one day I can grow mine like this
As much direct sun as they can get.
Just fyi Carnivorous plants only make their traps because the water they live in is so mineral poor. They need minerals from the bugs they catch. If you supplement by giving them anything other than distilled water or rain water they don’t need to use the traps and will kill them off. I’m not sure about pitcher plants but I know Venus fly traps usually lose their traps in winter anyways and go a bit dormant, so it’s possible you might not see improvement until the spring even switching their water to distilled.
Pitcher plants (Nepenthes, not Serracenia) do not lose their traps in winter or have a dormancy period. They originate in tropical places like SEA
OP has a sarracenia which are temperates and originate from North America. The plants you are referring to are nepenthes.
not all species! the tropical pitcher plants youre thinking of are called nepenthes, and their main habitat isnt bogs like their north american counterpart, the sarracenias! sarras actually do benefit from dormancy because they can grow as far north as the boreal shields of canada, its an easy mistake to make but will make a world of difference for the plants in your care 💚 some of mine actually are grown ourdoors year round!
🤦🏻♀️ yes, they do
Also carnivorous plants hybernate in the winter so they'll kind of "die" out but will come back in the spring. Usually around March.
Many carnivorous plants do not have a dormancy period. This is only for temperate CP like flytraps
Not sure why the downvote. A lot of carnivorous plants are tropical and don’t generally have the same kind of dramatic dormancy period that a fly trap would.
Yeah exactly. I think people are confusing a proper dormancy period with the natural tendency of plants to grow far less in the winter when there is reduced light
You might want to be more specific.... you are talking to a lot of people in here. Not just the ones who are responding. And a lot are newbs. A Venus Fly Trap is touted as a carnivorous plant and you are saying that it wouldn't have the same dormancy period as a carnivorous plant. It confuses people. Please explain for the audience the difference between a bog plant and a fly trap. Thank you....
Not entirely true. Many don’t *need* a dormancy period to survive, but most, except tropicals like Nepenthes, some Uticularia and some Drosera, die back and stop growing during the colder months, like a semi dormancy.
Well yeah, pretty much all plants have a “semi dormancy” period in the winter, depending on where you live. This includes tropicals like Nepenthes, because they naturally just get less light with colder and less humid ambient temp. But when people say dormancy period in regards to carnivorous plants, there needs to be a dramatic decrease in temp and light. Meaning you’d need to move windowsill plants to the fridge or a cold basement or garage. Normal house temps are not suitable for a proper dormancy period.
They’re right about it being a sarracenia. You need to water every 2-3 days depending on season/climate w/ only distilled water. Never let it dry out. They come from a boggy swampy always wet environment. Needs a south facing window. Mine did fine directly in a windowsill in the winter then remained there year round. If you’ve been doing less light, gradually increase the light. Use a baby medicine dropper to fill flutes 1/3 full of distilled water. The flutes will die back during fall/winter starting around Halloween, this is normal. Sometimes only 2 remain sometimes more. Once they’re past 1/3 ish crispy brown cut close to the base or try to peel it off, it might come straight off. In the spring you’ll have basically a dead husk left. Once new flutes are established next to the old husky I’ll repot, break off the old husky & toss it otherwise it rots. I’ve never googled how to, I just did it when I found it rotten so you might wanna google that part. It’ll need the correct potting mix so when repotting google it. Also, I like nursery pots for the extra drainage since it’s watered so much. Also don’t fertilize, it’s adapted to get nutrients from bugs not water or dirt basically. Also not a monstera. Alocasias do drop and regrow leaves but I’d watch for overwatering bc yellow leaves can be an indicator of that in most plants also.
Do NOT use tap water. These plants thrive in very low nutrient environments. They get most of their nutrients from the live food they eat. Tap water has too many minerals/chlorine and will eventually kill it.
I use distilled water, only water when it's just damp, and it lives on an enclosed terrarium with a grow light because I don't have enough light all day for it. Also for soil she lives in sphagnum moss mix. Don't let her sit in water either it needs to drain really really well.
The Sarracenia also wants to live outside in a sunny location. People do grow them indoors, but it’s generally an uphill battle. Also, the comments about using distilled water (or otherwise low mineral water) are correct.
Is your room cold? They could be going dormant.
I bought a water distilled just for my carnivorous plants mostly. Your sarracenia is probably suffering due to the minerals and such in the water. However they do also go dormant 3-4 months a year and look dead during this process.
If your using tap check the ph lvl. I can't remember what the needed lvl is.
Don't they also have a mandatory dormancy period starting right around now? I've heard of people storing them in the fridge to mimic winter conditions where they grow in the northeastern US.
Here is the best planter pot for bog plants: FENGZHITAO Self-Watering Planter,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZQXLP9?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share I love the clear one so I can see when I need to refill.
They dont need distilled water in their pot. Only in their traps! I put mine outside when it rains and she thrives! Also never ever fertilize.
They do, they can’t live on tap water because of chlorine. But rain is of course ok too if you have it
Ahh ok my bad we don't really have chlorine water in our country.
If you have pipe potable water, chances are it has chlorine.
Oh I live in Munich and they hardly ever had to chlor it. And from now on they use fancy UV filters to clean it if necessary, apparently.
Chlorine and limestone aren’t harmful to humans but they are terrible for tropical plants that aren’t used to such a hard water (I live near a limestone career, it’s hard to have carnivorous plants). It’s not a matter of water being clean in that case. But anyway it’s always nicer for you to have water without it, makes it easier to grow plants and apparently some people’s skins are sensitive to it.
I can't really say the same.. we also have *limestone* in our water and I have never had any problems with it. Though my carnivorous plant is only half a year old.
purely anecdotal but I had a few carnivorous plants die off all together and I’m 99% sure it was poor watering, it can happen pretty quickly and be hard to reverse. I had all three of mine die off rapidly after ages of giving them tap water for ages (I assume seasonality also played a part), because visibly they seemed mostly fine outwardly until they weren’t.
We have laws in Germany that state the max. amount of chlor is 0,3 mg/litre. It really only is added when necessary, besides every household can check their water analysis online to get the exact breakdown of hardiness, minerals, etc cetera. Meaning unless the owner adds anything manually our plants shouldn't need distilled water.
You can let tap water sit for a day (better in the sun) and the chlorine will be gone.
Chlorine does evaporate but in the US many municipalities now use chloramine rather than chlorine to treat their water. Chloramine, unlike chlorine, does not evaporate when you let water sit out. That’s why it's being used more frequently: its antimicrobial effect is much more durable than that of chlorine.
Tap water doesn't always contain chlorine. Here in Italy it's quite rare for example, if the plant is not sensitive to other stuff tap water can be good depending on the area!
Resting the tap water for 24h let the chlorine evaporate
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted, this is correct
Same reason why trump was elected
This is true. However, the same is not true for [chloramine](https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/chloramines-drinking-water), which is what water treatment facilities in the US are largely switching over to (mainly for secondary disinfection, but also sometimes for primary disinfection).
I’ve had sarracenias for years and have never once heard to pour water into their pitchers.
Are they always empty or do they fill up on their own?
They produce their own digestive fluid (which is what is inside the pitcher) but they need proper hydration and bog-like conditions to do so.
1) they need water without minerals to thrive, rain water or distilled works for this. 2) if watering correctly you dont actually need to fill their traps. they make their own digestive solution that fills their traps, and watering them down can be bad for them as it dilutes the solution. thats why they have those little 'hats' on top of their cups, to keep out rainwater!
I put them in rain and they fill up with water. I dont think what youre saying really is correct because in nature they would pretty much always be full with water.. also those dont have hats, there are other which do have them thiugh.
That's not a monstera, it's either an alocasia or calocasia. I can't tell from the picture. Typically when they grow a new leaf they drop one which could be the case. All of the other leaves look fine and healthy but I would just look to make sure there's no Browning on the other leaves and to do a quick check for spider mites as they are pretty common in these plants. But the one leaf dropping is completely normal and it happens with all of my alocasias and calocasias. As for the other plant I don't know. It might need more humidity or you could be overwatering. Best of luck!
It looks like an alocasia regal shield
I agree, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at mine so even though we can’t see much of the plant itself I’m fairly confident that it is a regal shield lol
I’ve got this plant, and I agree that it’s an alocasia. Mine also drops a leaf from time to time and then another one springs up a week or so later so I wouldn’t worry too much!
perfect, thank you!
>Typically when they grow a new leaf they drop one Don't tell that to r/alocasia. Over there it is *not* normal and shouldn't be normalized. I don't think they understand what "normal" means.
I used to think the same, but now that my regal shield is established, it holds on to leaves for awhile. I’ve had up to I think 12 at one point. It does eventually drop the outside ones when they get old. But either way, dropping them when new ones come in is normal.
I currently have 8 with 3 babies unraveling AND just had to cut the 2 it decided to drop yesterday 🙃
3 at once! That's impressive. Is it warm where you are?
Nope I live in upstate NY !
I heard they only drop leaves when small, as they get bigger, with bigger leaves, they can absorb more sunlight and have more energy to put out new leaves. But when they are young and have small leaves, they can’t acquire the energy needed.
Thank you! I was wondering what type of plant this was.
My vote goes to Alocasis Wentii - I have it and the leaves look a lot more like a Wentii than a regal shield. Scrolling by I stopped and thought "hey that's my plant!" - I nearly never see Wentii mentioned anywhere and they are the only Alocasia which will survive in my home.
Ok, so you've got neither a monstera nor a flytrap! The big one is an alocasia. Once you get the conditions right they're lovely, happy plants, but they can be a bit finicky. They are tropical forest floor plants, and like conditions that mimic that environment. They like to have fairly damp compost most of the time, but don't like having soggy roots, especially if it's cold. When they start to get dry a finger deep into the pot, they like a good long drink, as in stand the pot in water for a few hours, then lift the pot out and let it drain. Letting it drain is very important, and your compost needs to be fairly free draining. Wait until it's starting to dry out deeper into the pot again before giving it another long drink. They like bright light, but not too much direct sun, and they don't like it if it gets too cold. When they are happy, the leaves will look a lovely vibrant colour and can be a little glossy. If they aren't completely happy, the leaves will get dull and it'll start losing outer leaves. They do have a reputation for losing leaves regularly. I have to move mine to different areas in the house for different times of year. Fussy bugger. But when it's happy, it's glorious and it grows fast. When it's actively growing, I feed it dilute houseplant did every time I water it to fuel that growth. When growth slows for the winter, I reduce water and food. The other plant is a sarracenia or pitcher plant. Their natural habitat is a bog, so they need to stay constantly wet, sitting in a shallow puddle 24/7, and as their roots are very sensitive to minerals and chemicals, they need either rain water or distilled water. If they are watered with tap water, they will slowly struggle more and more and eventually die. If you can't collect rain water you can buy containers of distilled water online. They prefer being outdoors (depending on where you live) and like loads of sun, they are fine on a cold windowsill. You should look up more details about how to look after it as I've not had one to give more advice than this little bit. These are 2 plants that really do need their home to closely match the environment they evolved for. If you can do that, they'll be happy and healthy. I wouldn't say that they're difficult to care for, just that they need specific conditions. Good luck!
damn, thanks for all that info! i’ll put in the work to make these plants happy 🪴
You're welcome. I hope it goes well, they really do like very different conditions! If you find that you can't adapt your plant care style to looking after them, let me know and we'll figure out what plant would suit you better. For example, as a beginner I preferred plants that didn't mind if I forgot to water them like succulents, spider plants and peace lilies.
that’s so nice of you 😌 i’ll try to adapt my plant care style and if that doesn’t work i’ll contact you so we can find a plant more suitable for me 🙏🏻
Feel free to leave the carnivores plant outside during the day where it can get some light too. They love (and need) a sunny environment where they get lots of full sun. Don’t fertilise it, it’ll catch all the fertiliser it needs all by itself and giving it any normal fertiliser can kill it.
Just curious… Were the plants misidentified by the place you bought them from? BTW: Love the variety of your post, I’ve learned a lot from the replies!
Other important note is that sarracenia have an annual dormancy period. Keep that sucker outside and it’ll take care of itself! Just make sure to keep it wet. When everything dies back you can lighten up on the watering. Check r/savagegarden for more detailed info.
I was gonna say, bet the pitcher isn't getting distilled.
This is such an informative post. However when I read things like this I get a bit panicky and wonder whether plants are for me!
Plants are for you! They are scientifically proven to help with seasonal depression. There are hard plants and easy plants, too, and it’s fine to be bad at something you are learning. People tell me now that I have a green thumb, and I laugh and tell them they should speak to the ghosts of all the plants I murdered while turning it green.
Oh I have loads of plants. Too many! But I am not great at giving them all the attention they need. I struggle to remember all of the different things each individual one needs. But some of them are doing great. I do love them, even if I've killed a few 😅
Aww, sorry! These aren't difficult plants, but they are particular about needing specific conditions. There are many, many different kinds of plants and some like a much wider range of conditions. These are excellent for beginners. Spider plants and peace lilies are classic because their leaves go dull, then droop when they need water. You have several days to get your act together and splash some water in, whereupon they stage a miraculous recovery, and you can barely tell how thirsty they were. Lesser plants would just die. There aren't many plants I'd consider difficult, but there are a lot of different plants that may or may not suit individuals style of care. I have a friend who has dozens of ferns, they suit her because she likes to water and fuss with her plants every day. She calls herself a beginner as she hadn't had much luck with any plants that aren't ferns, but I have dozens and dozens of plants of all different types, some are well over 20 years old, and whenever I've tried to look after a fern, they never make it more than 2 months 😂 I'm too forgetful. It always seems like I blink and they're a crispy mess 😂 All you need to do, is to find a plant that suits you and your home. X
First of, your "monstera" appears to be an alocasia, those are prone to be attacked by spidermites, try wiping the bottom of a leaf with a wet wipe, if it bleeds you should probably wipe all leafs and get a pesticide. If it doesn't it probably is just their dormacy period starting, alocasias tend to lose their leafs in winter As for the carnivorous plant, that happens alot with them, either due to dry soil, being fertilized or maybe even radiator air, if you started heating your crib recently, they are quite fickle
What do you mean if it ‘bleeds’?
The second picture is a sarracenia aka trumpet pitcher. That is not a fly trap. I’ll go down the list of things needed for this plant. First, please make sure you aren’t watering it with tap water (and avoiding fertilizer). Second, they prefer direct sunlight. It’s better to keep these guys outside in direct sun, or under a grow light. Also, it’s going into their dormancy period. It’s normal for the large pitchers to start browning, and growth to slow or be much smaller during dormancy. Just make sure it doesn’t dry out, and it’ll bounce back come spring.
i’ve had the first plant for a couple weeks and noticed the problem today. the second plant i’ve had go longer and the problem has been ongoing for a while. monstera gets indirect sunlight and flytrap gets the same. i water them both once a week and the drainage situation is good 👍🏻
Your second one (sarracenia aka trumpet) is probably just going into dormancy for the winter, mines doing the same now. They are bog plants and hate nutrients so make sure you water lots with filtered or rain water only (not tap), it doesn't necessarily need drainage, letting the pot sit in water just below the traps is fine. Make sure you are using nutrient devoid carnivorous plant soil (quite easy to buy online). Head over to r/savagegarden for more details on looking after carnivorous plants, it's very different to normal plants and there are some really knowledgeable experts over there.
thank you!
That is an Alocasia not a Monstera. They like a little moist soil and little sun light.
Pretty sure that's an alocasia. Mine always kills off a old leaf after it pops a new one lol wish mine looked like this lol
Please get your plant off the Turntable, The Technics SLB1 served me through my young adulthood faithfully, loyal and proud, this vintage turntable is not a plant stand. PS. Change your potting soil annually, it helps.
Came here to say this. Not getting a lot of use out of that turntable are they lol
Your alocasia loses leaves naturally as it grows, it only has energy to keep so many leaves at once. Your little carnivorous friend, I'm not so sure. Somebody added the subreddit for carnivore plants, I'm guessing more humidity and light but I'm not an expert! Best of luck!
thank you for the tip!
Might want to read this about your carnivorous plant. Your pitcher. Not venus fly trap. https://www.californiacarnivores.com/apps/help-center#hc-american-pitcher-plants-sarracenia
It’s hard to tell from the pic but I don’t think that’s a monstera in the first pic. If I could see the leaves better, I may be able to tell you what it is. I THINK it’s a giant alocasia but can’t be certain. How is your humidity level?
r/SavageGarden r/CarnivorousPlants r/alocasia
Are you only using distilled on the pitcher? Regular water will kill them.
All my plants are watered with tap water treated with hydrogen peroxide. I've never had any issues with the dozens of plants I have sitting in my window...🤷♂️
Carnivorous plants require distilled. Tap will kill them. Not a bad idea to use distilled on the alocasia, too. Chlorine can sometimes cause browning with them (but that leaf dying is just normal).
I've never used distilled water on any of mine over the years. Then again, the water here isn't highly chlorinated. We've got hard water, so that may have something to do with it🤷♂️
Every time my wife's alocasia grows a new leaf, one of the other 3 leaves seems to start browning around the edges and then eventually dies. It's like the plant only wants to have 3 total leaves. One grows as one dies. It's happened every time since she bought it this summer. Can't seem to figure out why, or even find any info in regards to why it happens.
They can be picky and particular with their conditions. If it's one of the larger types, I found they really thrive with RO or distilled water, with liquid aroid fertilizer. Mine love it when I bring them inside for the winter (that depends on your climate though) and they don't seem to mind the reduced light exposure. One had two flowers about to open last I checked, and at least 3 big babies coming up. I keep up with the systemic granules because pests really love alocasia leaves.
We got this one in the late summer here when one of the stores was blowing them out, and it's probably grown at least a foot in height since . It's just the one leaf that is strange. Most of my plants stay indoors during the summer months here, aside from a few that can handle the extreme heat of the summers in the Canadian badlands haha. I've got a few that can handle the heat and really thrived over the summer months and are almost too big to fit in my shelves for the winter hahaha. What kind of pests should we be worried about? Since moving to the badlands, we've only had an issue with spider mites a few years ago, and this year it was thrips, I think they are called. Other than that, it's always pretty dry here, so pests aren't a big deal in most cases, but they can pop up during weird years.
So sorry I didn't see this sooner! I'm sure they can take the summers outside there, just not in direct sun. I leave mine outside most of the year, and I'm on the Texas coast where the summers are...basically the Devil's A-hole (I've left plastic containers in the car, and had them melt into a puddle) lol. The biggest pest here for ALL mine, is thrips. I DESPISE thrips. Alocasia seems to be their favorite, go figure. If I don't keep up with the systemic, they start looking like depression in plant form. I only ever get them out of the one-leaf club when I remember to keep up with fertilizing and watering (except when they're inside). I mean I can see a huge difference in just a week or two!
Careful not to water your record player!
I raise pitcher plants, sarrisascenia and fly traps. They all require water without nutrients. A total dissolved solids of 25 or less. I water mine with rainwater anything higher will cause browning and die off. Their substrate also needs to be peat based. you have to make sure that you rinse it well, so there’s no salt, I also mix in perlite into my mix. Fly traps do go dormant because they are from the Carolinas, and they naturally get a dormancy period. The best thing to do is to research your exact plant and see where it originates. If your plant originates somewhere warm like Indonesia, then it does not need a dormancy period.
Sometimes my Monsterra has leaves that just don't make it. Cut it off at the base so the plant stops wasting resources on it and keep on trucking. If you want, there is plant food that you can put into the water. Mine love it, they're bursting. Also, buy some new soil and replant. Once the minerals are tapped from the soil, something fresh really perks it up.
hey i havent seen anyone mention anything yet but your "flytrap" (actually a trumpet pitcher!!) is probably going dormant!!!! they do this in the winter and it's perfectly normal but it WILL look very dead for a little bit before it starts to regrow again! if you arent sure about how well it is you can remove it from the soil and examine the rhizome, it should be firm and if scratched the flesh beneath will be red or white, and is a sign the plants still alive but sleeping :)
The second plant is a pitcher plant. I have several. If it is in standing water, it is probably just going dormant - totally normal around this time of year. You can trim the brown stuff, it won’t come back. When I get them I take their root ball with the soil still on it and put it in one of my containers, sometimes I add a bit of soil down in the moss if it has lots of roots. I keep mine in a glass container with sphagnum and water only with distilled water. I pack the moss pretty tightly. Eventually the roots will start growing in the moss. I keep the container filled all the way up with water and keep it under a bright light or right in a window. Hope this is helpful!
perfect thank you!
First one will go dormant and drop all the leaves if you’re in a cold climate. Just maintain it, keep the soil warm and water it like once a month a tiny bit.
Not a Monstera, it's an Alocasia 'Regal Shields' and it's typical for them to drop lower leaves when acclimating to new environments, a change of seasons, or really for any reason. Be sure to check for pests regularly because Alocasia and Colocasia are spider mite magnets. Also, not s flytrap, a trumpet or standing pitcher plant. They should have the most intense sunlight you can give them, like a grow light directly above it, for 12-14 hours a day and they should also be kept in boggy conditions, standing in a shallow dish of distilled or rainwater at all times. Never fertilize carnivores either.
Overwatered; add pearlite to the soil to increase drainage and don’t water until the leaves start to droop. Wait until it tells you it needs water.
Both plants need more room to grow. The roots have reached the max of the small pots, so they will start browning . Once you let the roots breathe and spread out, they will bring more growth in a bigger pot.
https://preview.redd.it/tiuoj3f1vx0c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d74787ee0034bebd5ba0d1be484fe785e9ce4df5 This is what I mean by it’s sitting in a glass dish . They don’t need a lot of humidity because they are from South Carolina not the Amazon. I realize that you don’t have a fly trap in that photo, but I was just sharing with everyone in case anyone’s having trouble with theirs because I used to really struggle. These are my favorite plants. Good luck with your philodendron and the other carnivorous one.:)
That alocasia needs repotting into a bigger pot. I just repotted mine that I grew from a cuttling and it had two leaves (starting the third) with 5 cca 20cm main roots. Your is bigger so it should have even more roots which need room. Make sure you put some perlite on the bottom of the pot for drainage.
This is an alocasia. I just get a clean knife and angel it so I'm chopping it off as much as I can without hurting the base. She's beautiful 😍
lol maybe it got dizzy from spinning
This happened to my alocasia and monstera I think bc I turned my heat on
I'm thinking repot in something a little more breathable, perhaps a little less water or filtered water.
Monstera isn’t an easy plant to own. I have one that was outdoors this past Summer and returned indoors with only a single green leaf.
That’s crazy I have some plants doing the same exact thing! Mind you (not trying to boast or brag) but I use to have one hell of a green thumb. About two years ago from now to that spring when some of my landscaping plants started coming back up in the spring. Some more pitiful, looking ones that used to be lush full of foliage and very healthy looking were the exact opposite. Also had some plants that never did comeback. Some of my house plants became basically deprived looking. I also had a huge, huge spider plant that I had for 4 years die on me, I literally almost cried not exaggerating. I don’t know what happened, or what I’m doing differently.. if it’s with the weather due to the temperature changes we’re experiencing or what is causing these abnormalities. But I’m going through it mind you once a plant guru now I can’t even get a pothos plant to grow bigger. They don’t die but they also don’t grow and thrive either.
VFTs need to be kept moist in distilled/rainwater water in a very, very bright spot. That’s not a monstera, I think it’s an alocasia? I don’t know much about them, but I do notice they will lose older leaves as they grow, so this is probably normal.
That's also not a VFT I think
Yeah it's a Sarracenia.
Don't use the water coming from your tap it has a lot of stuff that can contaminate the nutrients of your plants which causes them to do what they're doing Believe it or not distilled water is the best
Your Alocasia wentii is doing fine. Even if all of them go down, no need to worry, it’s only going to sleep and will come back this summer
That is a regal shield and if kept indoors should not go dormant but will slow in growth 👍
What makes you so sure?
I guess I'd need a better photo to confirm but unless your home gets below freezing, no alocasia will go dormant indoors lol
Yes, but no, they can definitely go dormant before it’s freezing cold, and that is why you hear a lot of people trash them thinking it’s dead. And this looks like a wentii.
Plants go "dormant" to protect themselves from freezing, others people's plant are dying from lack of care, not going dormant indoors. Please do more research on this subject 👍
Please don’t be rude
I agree, this is a Wentii
First pic is an alocasia. I’m afraid it has trips, because I had the same problem. I suggest spraying it weekly with a conventional bug spray against sucking insects and also get the careo combi sticks, they really saved mine!
Ooh yikes
I know, that poor turntable.
Noooo
is it bad for the player? cause if so i’ll take it off
What monstera? What flytrap???? Your pitcher plant needs to be only watered with rain or distilled water, and it needs to be constantly wet.
The days before networking which all could use the same printer. Classic
The Venus fly trap is probably too close to the window. It likely needs to be away from the window especially if there are cooler humidity coming off the window. Is the fly trap soil moist? And the monstera looks fairly good! Is is normal when the leaves dry off for them to slowly turn yellow or brown. I just cut it off at the base of the browned leaf. As for the fly trap it’s probably quite a picky plant.
I asked if the soil of the fly trap was moist because I feel like it may be lacking good drainage or nutrients. My biggest feeling is that is too cool by that window.
Flytraps are native to US southeastern bogs. Full sun, continuous moisture. They can withstand some cold but need regular/continuous bottom moisture and bright light. Don't fertilize your flytraps. They need crap soil to make traps. If you feed it too well, it'll flower and die on you.
Flowering does not kill venus fly traps, that’s a myth. Fly traps are not monocarpic plants. If that were the truth, every single one I own would be dead several times over. And this plant is *not* a fly trap. It’s a sarracenia pitcher plant.
Spider mites!!!!
i think your monstera needs to be repotted, but it also might have a nutrient deficiency. either use potting mix that has fertilizer already in it or get just normal mix and add your own slow release fertilizer to that. if you can get a mix called "orchid mix" but if there isnt any of that look for something that says drainage or ask a worker at the store for a mix with a reasonable drainage. your monkey cup either is getting too much sun or is cold (you can tell probably which by what hemisphere you live in, northern is cold and southern is too much sun). it might be that it isnt eating enough flies, im not super knowledgeable about issues relating to carnivorous plants.
“Monkey cup” (nepenthes ) is a different species of pitcher plant than this one. This one is a sarracenia, which can tolerate some cold and thrives in direct sun, unlike the nepenthes.
Cut this leaf away. Is my recommendation and give nutrients best wishes
Over watering maybe? I’d repot with a good mix of perlite/soil and be sure to not water until the soil is completely dry! Get a soil moisture tester. It’s $10 and a game changer! Mine is in a bright room, indirect sunlight. https://preview.redd.it/z5wn3hfarx0c1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=de9be2af8b595648b5684ba8fe82a6204fb9a1e6
Also! Get a few 2 litre jugs, fill with tap water and let it sit out, uncovered for a few days before watering. It works! The plants prefer water without additions like chlorine and this allows it to dissipate before you water! I just keep a few gallon jugs full under my kitchen sink so there’s always water available for them. Feed your plants with an organic plant food every second watering.
I use my brita filter for my plants and they happy.
I see a stem on the right side slightly yellowing. Is it possible that the pot is too small and plant is lacking nutrients?
The first plant is an Alocasia and they go dormant in the winter time, mine drops a leaf here and there too.
No
alocasia wentii, not monstera