> When I got it, it had 4 or 5 closer things on it, but a day after
> sitting in the sun (with the lid on it) the leaves (the pintcher
> things) turned black, and it spread to the others. So I cut them off.
> Now a little new growth is starting, but they are turning black too.
It's possible you fried it. It can get incredibly hot very quickly
under a lid in the sun.
> Could this be a disease? Now I have it at work under 24 hours of
> florecent light. I thought this would be a good thing, but it does
> not appear to be. There is about 3cm's of green left on the WHOLE
> plant.
Do you just mean normal office lighting? This isn't normally anywhere
near as bright as daylight.
Try treating them a bit more naturally. No plant expects 24 hours
light. VFT doesn't need high temperatures, and doesn't seem
particularly fussy about high humidity either. Just to give you an
idea, it is quite happy sitting outside in a water tray during an
English Summer - it can even survive Winter outside, but it gets
a bit too cold (perhaps -10C, 12F) so this isn't recommended. I
appreciate though that perhaps some people need to use an enclosure
if the only alternative is an office or air-conditioned home or
similar. Try weaning them off the high humidity gradually - if they
wilt, then it just means that there aren't enough roots to take up
water fast enough to replace that lost. I don't know whether there's
any truth in it, but I feel that if you keep a plant in 100%
humidity, then it will never lose any water, and so will have no
incentive to grow roots. I trust that you alreay keep to the other
'basics' - lime free water (rain, distilled, whatever you can get),
no plant food, and no need to fuss about 'feeding' it.
> I have been reading these articles for quite sometime now and only two
> or three people have mentioned Venus Fly Traps or Dionae M. Has
> everyone out grown these or something?
I think you are right. We've not grown out of it - we (or at least
me!) have just become complacent about it. Now that I find it so easy
to grow, it's difficult to remember that only a few years ago, I'd
have treated it with awe. Don't worry about asking questions about it
- there are lots of people on the list willing to offer their
thoughts on VFTs (possibly totally different to mine!).
-- Clarke Brunt (clarke@brunt.demon.co.uk)