Common Carnivorous Plant Mistakes (And How to Fix Them Fast)
After 30 plus years of growing and answering customer emails, I can tell you almost every dead carnivorous plant comes down to the same handful of mistakes. The good news is that they're all easy to fix once you know what to look for. Here are the ones I see most, and what to do instead.
Not Enough Light
This is number one by a mile. A bright room is not the same as a well lit plant. Without strong light, flytraps stretch and go green, sundews lose their dew, and pitcher plants stop making pitchers.
Fix: full sun outdoors, direct sun on a south or west window, or a good LED 6 to 12 inches above the plants. My light guide.
Using Tap Water
Carnivorous plants come from bogs with almost no minerals. Tap water slowly builds salts in the soil, and by the time you see damage it's been going on for weeks.
Fix: distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water only. Why tap water is a problem.
Regular Potting Soil
Standard potting mix has fertilizer and minerals that burn carnivorous plant roots. Most of these plants want a lean mix like peat and perlite, and Nepenthes do best in something airy like long fiber sphagnum. If you don't want to mix your own, I sell pots already filled with what I use.
Letting Them Dry Out
Flytraps, Sarracenia, and most sundews are bog plants. One hot afternoon with a bone dry pot can do real damage.
Fix: keep the pot sitting in a tray with 1 to 2 inches of pure water during the growing season. How I water.
Overfeeding and Triggering Traps
It's tempting to feed a new flytrap every day or poke the traps to watch them close. Every trap only has a limited number of closes in it, and food that's too big rots in the trap and takes it out with it.
Fix: one small bug every 1 to 2 weeks, about a third the size of the trap. My feeding guide. If traps are going black, here's why.
Fertilizing a Struggling Plant
Fertilizer can be a great tool, but only on a plant that's already healthy. On a plant that's weak from bad light or bad water, it usually makes things worse.
Fix: sort out light, water, and soil first. Then start weak and slow. How I fertilize.
Stressing Over Dormancy
Flytraps and Sarracenia naturally rest in winter, and new growers tend to go one of two ways. Either they panic when growth slows in fall and think the plant is dying, or they worry that missing one dormancy will kill it. Neither is true.
Fix: give them a cool, dimmer winter if you can. If you can't, skipping it for a couple of years isn't a real problem. It just means slower, smaller spring growth. More on dormancy indoors.
Picking the Wrong Plant for the Space
A Sarracenia on a bookshelf or a Nepenthes outside through a frost is set up to fail before you do anything wrong. Pick plants that fit what you have. Indoor vs outdoor plants.
Flytrap Olive Green, sunny windows and yards, from $10
Drosera binata dichotoma Giant, catches its own food outside, from $9
Forgiving Plants for Beginners
All in stock now. If you're growing flytraps specifically, here are the flytrap mistakes I see most.
Light, Water, Soil
If your plant is struggling and you're not sure why, check those three first, in that order. Nine times out of ten the answer is in there. Get them right and carnivorous plants are honestly some of the easiest plants you'll ever grow.
Start With Healthy Plants
Beginner friendly picks that forgive early mistakes.
Happy Growing
Jeremiah Harris
Jeremiahsplants.com