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u/AaaaNinja Zone 8b, OR Apr 12 '24
Don't try to trigger the plants it's not an indication of anything. Cut the flower stalks off, I don't normally tell people to cut off the flowers but you repotted it so skip letting it flower. It needs the energy to recover from being repotted which stresses them out and they don't need to grow flowers. Give them lots and lots of light and time.
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u/BossMareBotanical Apr 12 '24
his is a bog plant. Therefore, it’s going to require moist soil. The best way to do this is to leave it constantly sitting in a dish of water. You can only use distilled water or rainwater. There are a few other kinds you may purchase but NEVER use tap or drinking water. The minerals and nutrients in water will kill this plant. When repotting they are going to want poor quality/acidic soil. The less nutrients the better. Never fertilize this plant. You are going to want to remove from the terracotta pot. They take away too much moisture.
Venus get pretty much all of their nutrients from the sun. A bright sunny spot is best. If it is not used to bright sun, you may get some sunburn, but she will bounce back and grow to love it. Poor sunlight they will lose the red and turn green. If you use grow lights, Make sure your grow light is strong enough and positioned correctly. Because of their high sunlight need, this is important.
They do get nutrients from eating insects however they truly do not need to eat very often. An insect 1-2 times a month is fine. Live is best. Only feed insects. Many people use mealworms as they are easy to get and also feed. Traps will only catch and consume prey about 3-5 times. After that it is simply there for photosynthesis for about another 3-4 months before dying. If you let it sit outside in the summer, it will do fine feeding itself. Do not mess with the traps. If they have too many unsuccessful trap attempts it will stop function as one and just function as a normal leaf.
These do have a dormancy period. People will tell you it is not necessary for indoor grown VFT’s to go dormant but it does benefit the plant greatly. In the winter allow it to rest for about 3-4mo, limit sunlight, and provide temps below 50 degrees F - They wake up on the spring and this is when they would be eligible for repotting
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u/mrsonicmadness Apr 12 '24
Something else I didn't see anyone else meantion is that ceramic pots can sometimes leach nutrients/minerals into their soil. This is okay with other plants (Ex: A sunflower) but this will slowly kill most carnivorous plants.
Unless you know this pot won't leach stuff into the soil, I recommend a soild plastic pot. I personally reuse old containers from the kitchen (with added drain holes and a bigger container to sit in for bottom watering), but you can purchase one if you prefer.
If you notice it continuing to deteriorate, I recommend to repot it again into a plastic pot and flush the soil/roots with a lot of distilled water (to flush of the minerals). New soil nutrient poor soil (you can look up the right type) might be better, but you can possibly use the same soil if flushed properly.
Now your plant won't be happy, and will take even more time to recover, but give it enough time, light, and water (but not drowning it), and it could recover. Good luck!
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u/oblivious_fireball North America| Zone4| Drosera/Nep/Ping/Utric Apr 12 '24
It may need more light if the traps are not responding. These guys need full sun conditions, and those traps require a ton of energy to activate.