If your Venus Fly Trap is wilting or drooping, you might start assuming the worst or feel upset. However, there might be different reasons why your Venus Fly Trap is wilting or drooping and you might save your plant. In this post, you will learn about why a Venus Fly trap is drooping or wilting, and what to do to revive the plant if possible.
The main reasons why a Venus Fly Trap is drooping or wilting is due to lack of light, using the wrong type of soil or water, wrong watering technique, pests or diseases. However, a Venus Fly Trap also naturally wilts and turns black in winter.
Reason #1: Wrong type of soil
One of the main reasons why Venus Fly traps start wilting, drooping and dying is because of wrong soil. Venus Fly Traps naturally grow in nutrient poor soil, and they compensate by consuming different insects.
Please make sure you do not use any heavy, nutrient rich soil with fertilizers for your Venus Fly Traps. Venus Fly Traps like acidic soil (pH less than 7).
Naturally, you can find Venus Fly traps in damp soil around swamps and fens. What is more, they also get lots of fresh air and sunlight, growing in open areas.
The best soil for Venus Fly Traps is a mix of peat and sand (50/50, or 1/3 sand and 2/3 peat moss). 4:1 parts of peat moss to perlite is also a suitable option.
If you don’t have perlite, you can use sphagnum moss like this. Or, you can two of them separately and make your own mix (might also save money). When choosing peat moss, make sure there are no fertilizers, no lime, and that sphagnum fibers are not too long (can cut with scissors), as well as without twigs.
Reason #2: Wrong type of water
Watering your Venus Fly Trap with wrong type of water will also make it wilt, droop and slowly die. Venus Fly Traps can only thrive if watered with water that is low in dissolved mineral salts.
If water is too high in mineral salts, they will accumulate in soil and eventually kill your Venus Fly Trap. That’s because minerals will cause root rot and general plant’s wilting when minerals are left in soil after water evaporation.
Because of this, avoid watering your Venus Fly Trap with bottled mineral water or tap water. Only use rainwater, purified water, distilled water, demineralized or reverse-osmosis filter water.
To make sure water is suitable, you will need to use a simple TDS meter like this. Make sure that the value is less than 80 p.p.m, but lower, the better.
Reason #3: Wrong watering technique or frequency
Most carnivorous plants, including Venus Fly Traps, require a constantly wet soil to grow and thrive. If your Venus Fly Trap is watered and its soil stays dry between waterings, it will start wilting.
Make sure to plant your Venus Fly Trap in a pot with holes for drainage. Then, place your pot on a deep saucer, which will always have 0.5 (winter) – 1 (summer) inch (or 1.27-2.5 cm) of water in it. Sometimes, you might also wash the saucer to remove any built up minerals.
Make sure to water your Venus Fly Trap as soon as soil starts drying – becomes mildly damp. Don’t let it dry out completely, as it’s not good for a Venus Fly Trap.
Reason #4: Not enough sunlight
Carnivorous plants require lots of sunlight, including Venus Fly Traps. Venus Fly Traps do best in part to full sun. Without enough sunlight, your Venus Fly Trap will start to wither.
6-12 hours of sunlight a day is ideal for Venus Fly Traps. That being said, Venus Fly Traps are not suitable for indoor growing, as they might not get enough light even on a bright windowsill.
If possible, keep them outside, but if not possible, on the sunniest windowsill in the house. You might even consider getting an artificial light (fluorescent lamp like this, for example), if your plants are not getting enough natural light. Or, if you live in a colder climate.
However, do not forget that Venus Fly Traps require a dormant period, when you will water your plant much less. This is when temperatures will drop, and your Venus Fly Trap will start losing traps and look wilted.
However, this is normal, and Venus Fly Traps start growing and thriving again after winter period is over. Keep your Venus Fly Trap cool in winter, where it doesn’t get too warm or too much light either. This period if often from November to end of February.
Reason #5: Pests and diseases
Venus Fly Traps can also become victims of various pests and diseases. Those will eventually lead to a dying of the plant unless you treat it.
Most common pests that attack Venus Fly Traps are aphids, spider mites and even fungus. Fungus (black spots) will appear on the plant if you keep it in conditions that are too wet, humid and cold.
To treat fungus, fungicide will be needed. To treat for spider mites – miticides, and aphids – insecticides or even flea collars.
Reason #6: Acclimation period
Venus Fly Trap might start wilting or drooping after you bring it home from a store. This is because it is used to different conditions from what you have at home.
It might need time to get used to different type/amount of lighting, watering, soil and even go through winter dormancy period. Please note, that a plant might look completely dead after being exposed to very low temperatures or during winter.
Keep looking after your Venus Fly Trap, as it might revive. Make sure to trim any black traps to allow your plant to save energy for new growth. In winter, let your Venus Fly Trap be.
Reason #7: Low nutrition
Venus Fly Traps naturally thrive in nutrition-poor soil, because they catch their food. If a Venus Fly Trap doesn’t get any nutrition, it will start wilting. However, it is not often an issue, as they are good at catching some bugs here and there.
If your Venus Fly Trap is indoors and you never see it catching anything, you can help it by throwing a bug in a trap for nutrition. Avoid fertilizing your Venus Fly Trap. It takes around a week to digest an insect.
Thanks for reading this post on why a Venus Fly Trap might be wilting or drooping. To read more about Venus Fly Trap, please see this resource page.