What to do with a moldy Venus flytrap
It is not uncommon for Venus flytraps to grow mould. I’ve often had this problem growing plants in my own house as the temperature tends to be too low which causes the formation of mould. I have never had any problems with the mould and it doesn’t seem to have caused my plants any issues, however it is rather gross to look at if there is too much mould then the plant could potentially be receiving less light onto it’s leaves than it ought to and even worse, the mould could start feasting on your healthy plant tissue and kill it. To get around this situation I have tried removing the mould with tweezers, but this tends to be a bit of nightmare to maintain as the mould quickly grows back. It is also imperative that you don’t accidentally poke your plant and damage it whilst removing the mould. Manually removing the mould is also only fixing the obvious symptom of weird looking white fuzz stuck to your plant. The underlying cause and infection with mould will not be removed.
The best way to fix the problem is to simply remedy the situation which causes the mould in the first place. Usually moving the plant to a warmer, sunnier environment will rapidly cure the problem. My mold problems have been fixed within about two weeks after placing my plants into a better environment.
It’s possible that you may be able to remove the mould with some mould removing chemicals, but this will likely kill the plant in the process. If you have tried this approach I’d love to hear about the results in the comments below. I suspect it is a recipe for disaster, but without having tried I’m not sure how well (or unwell) it would work.
It is not uncommon for Venus flytraps to grow mould. I’ve often had this problem growing plants in my own house as the temperature tends to be too low which causes the formation of mould. I have never had any problems with the mould and it doesn’t seem to have caused my plants any issues, however it is rather gross to look at if there is too much mould then the plant could potentially be receiving less light onto it’s leaves than it ought to and even worse, the mould could start feasting on your healthy plant tissue and kill it. To get around this situation I have tried removing the mould with tweezers, but this tends to be a bit of nightmare to maintain as the mould quickly grows back. It is also imperative that you don’t accidentally poke your plant and damage it whilst removing the mould. Manually removing the mould is also only fixing the obvious symptom of weird looking white fuzz stuck to your plant. The underlying cause and infection with mould will not be removed.
The best way to fix the problem is to simply remedy the situation which causes the mould in the first place. Usually moving the plant to a warmer, sunnier environment will rapidly cure the problem. My mold problems have been fixed within about two weeks after placing my plants into a better environment.
It’s possible that you may be able to remove the mould with some mould removing chemicals, but this will likely kill the plant in the process. If you have tried this approach I’d love to hear about the results in the comments below. I suspect it is a recipe for disaster, but without having tried I’m not sure how well (or unwell) it would work.