Question
QUESTION: can i keep my plant on its original box?

ANSWER: Hello Eddie,

Considering that I know nothing about your plant or how it has been potted or cared for before you bought it I cannot answer your question as authoritatively as I would like.

In any case, most plants, including almost all carnivorous plants, should be repotted in the type of medium they naturally live in, or as close an approximation as possible, once a year. Send me a followup with more information about the type of plant you have, the "box" it is in, and the growing conditions you have it in. You might also let me know where you got it so I can determine how healthy your plant is likely to be.

Christopher

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QUESTION: well i got it at Lowe's it came in clear box in side is a small pod . the other name it has is,dionaea muscipula,
i got it today..... oh and as well i got another the is drosera (sundew) other name for it. from same place

ANSWER: Hello Eddie,

Yes, you can keep both plants in their original containers for now, however; you can take the covers off slowly to adapt the plants to your home humidity.

To do that, lift the cover and brace it up with a pencil or toothpick a little more every 3 days until the cover is completely raised at least two inches by the end of week two... then remove the cover completely. The cover only keeps those plants from getting fresh air and sunlight and makes mold and infection a real threat to their health.

Dionaea is the common Venus Flytrap... it needs full sunlight, so slowly adapt it to full sun slowly too. Place it in a good west or east window first for a week, then in a south window for a week, then outside in a very bright, sunny place. While it is under that silly plastic cover you will need to keep it in a west or east window at first or it might get cooked by bright sun. At the store you got it from it was likely under shade or even kept inside the store where it would have slowly died from light starvation. Venus Flytraps are best kept outside where they will soak up as much sun as possible.... if you cannot keep it outside due to extremely hot (over 100 degrees) or windy weather, place it in the brightest window you have and add florescent lights from a shop light or a bank of several compact florescent lights of at least 100 watt equivalent over the plant. Venus Flytraps really need a lot of light, which is why they die quickly after people buy them.

Only water your carnivorous plants with distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water as most tap and drinking water is way too polluted with minerals and chemicals that will kill Venus Flytraps and sundews in a couple weeks. Use a tray that can hold up to 1/4 the bottom of the pot of water as many carnivorous plants are bog plants that like their moss always moist, but never too waterlogged.

You do not need to feed the plant, especially at first. Let it adapt to its new home and you will be surprised at how many flies and spiders it catches on its own.

You can certainly repot these plants, but only use sphagnum peat moss in large bales and perlite in a 50/50 mix and make sure they are not fertilized materials. Fertilizer will kill your carnivorous plants very quickly. Use at least a 4-6 inch pot and moisten the soil first, then place the plants in the pot as you would any potted plant. Dont worry about dirt on the leaves of the sundew or the traps closing on the Flytrap, it is going to be messy at first when repotting, but they will grow new leaves and look great in a couple weeks.

As for the sundew, I do not know what species you have, so I do not know whether to give you information as a tropical or temperate plant as their are about a hundred species of sundew worldwide. For now, give it partial light in a sunny east window and water it and pot it as you would the Venus Flytrap. most sundews use the same soil and water as Venus Flytraps, but some sundews like less sun and might be burned by too much ultraviolet light. If possible, place a picture of your plant in a followup so I can see what kind of sundew you have.

Christopher



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picture   QUESTION: i think is about to die

Answer
Hello Eddie,

If you can provide the symptoms that make you believe your plant is not doing well and what happened to the plant I might be better able to help out.

If you removed the cover without slowly adapting the plant for two weeks to lower humidity, as I advised previously, it will wilt and dry up as it loses too much water from transpiration. If you placed the plants in direct sun without first adapting them to high ultraviolet light then they will suffer leaf burn and drying as well.

If the plants have been watered with tap water or fertilized before you bought them, they will suffer root rot and die. These things often occur when non-specialist stores get these plants and try to treat them as they do their regular tropical plant stock. Venus Flytraps are not even tropical plants.

Christopher