deformed leaves

16 years ago

Hello all,

I have a couple of plants in my collection that are growing damaged and deformed leaves for no apparent reason. My Venus Flytrap grows new leaves that occasionally dry out, blacken, and die. Most of the time, the leaves grow out normally, however; grow out smaller then before. The Drosera capensis has begun to grow twisted leaves that eventually untwist and open normally. In my experience, that is usually due to fertilizer problems or mineral salts in soil. The problem is that none of the other sundews have shown any indication of a problem and get the same soil and water. No pests have been seen at all, I know what aphids, scale, and mealybugs look like.

Soil was bought at a carnivorous plant site and is peat/perlite. Water is store bought steam distilled in jugs or from store situated dispensing machines that supposedly sell highly distilled, multiply filtered and deionized water.

No fertilizers have been used and hardly any treatments have been used for fungus or pests, even then, sparingly, very sparingly. Salt, tap water, and other non-beneficial chemicals have been strictly prohibited from contact with them.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas about this odd occurrance?

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Comments (5)

carnivorousplants
16 years ago
Have you recently bought it?
Most carnivorous plants at hardware stores suffer from lack of light and produce large,pale leaves to catch as much sun as possible.
However,when given more light,they don't need large leaves and will produce smaller leaves.
mutant_hybrid
Original Author
16 years ago
No, these plants have been in my collection for an extended time, half a year or so. We can rule out shock and the D. capensis is showing plenty of dew, catching and digesting insects, and producing red tentacles. The Flytrap just caught a fly and is digesting it, but those deformed leaves trouble me.
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carnivorousplants
16 years ago
Mayby their are pests in the soil.
If it does'nt have any pests, it is probaly just going thru a phase and will likely get over it soon.
petiolaris
16 years ago
My first thought was aphids or something similar (Whitefly or spider mites...?) Do you have a magnifying glass? That may reveal what is going on. And of course I always recommend a drowning for pests.
mutant_hybrid
Original Author
16 years ago
Same here, but I do not see any pests at all. They have been indoors since last year and my eyesight is superb at spotting insects. I used to spot insects hidden to others when I was a kid (entymology was one of my other hobbies) including aphids and even hatchling praying mantises (green on green, talk about camoflage) on 20 foot tall trees from ground level. In any case, I did give them a good looking over near the crown and ground level, no insects seem evident at all, except captured in the dew or in the leaves. If a female got in and started reproducing on the sundew and Flytrap, I can't find them. I might just repot them and see what happens. Maybe something got in their soil.