Mold in the terrarium?

[Ali Johann]

I live in Northern Canada so we pretty much have around 6 months of winter, a non-existent spring, incredibly hot and dry summer and a prolonged fall. Due to those factors, I’ve got my Venus flytraps in two big terrariums and they’re in the kitchen by the windows for appropriate lighting. (Though I take them outside in the summer and bring them in at night)

Lately my traps have been growing mold though, the traps themselves turn black and grow white fuzzy mold. If the traps don’t catch anything and die off they turn black and grow mold; the traps catch any house flies or house spiders, they turn black and become moldy after a day or two.

I’ve tried leaving the lids off the terrariums to let some moisture out, I’ve tried sticking the specific traps in more direct sunlight, I’ve tried open lids and sunlight together and that has no effect on it whatsoever. It seems to start spreading to the moss in the terrariums and I’m concerned it might be harmful to the other flytraps in the terrariums (3 small plants per terrarium).
When it spreads to the moss I just pick it out of the terrarium and put fresh moss in when I need to.
I also repotted my plants six days ago.

My questions are…

1) Is the mold harmful to the plants?

2) Is there another way to get rid of the mold rather than trim the plant?

3) Do I cut off the molding traps?

4) If so, should I just cut the trap itself off and leave the leaves they grew on?

5) If I trim the traps off will it cause the plants any damage having been repotted so recently?

I can’t get any carnivorous plants where I live, I have to go all the way to British Columbia to get Venus flytraps, or go all the way to Saskatchewan to get honeydew plants; my dad actually brought the ones I have for me from BC. So, I’m really cautious about doing anything to my plants unless I’m certain it won’t have any negative effects on the plants. I've even named them all lol I'm quite attached. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated 

[manders]

Sorry i cant help much, mold would normally indicate its a bit too humid but youve allready thought of that.  Is it possible to leave them out at night or is it too cold/dry??

vfts are are usually ok down to several degrees below freezing, although they wont grow if it gets that cold.

Do you get sarracenia purpurea anywhere near you or are you too far north?

 

[Scuipici]

I don't think VFT are good for terrarium, I'm not saying you can't make it work but usually it kinda suffers. My first few vft died because i grew them indoors and they died of fungi, lack of air circulation. The light is also very important. If you can't grow them outside then I suggest getting them out of the terrarium, put them under grow lights in a place with some fans for good air circulation. There is no reason to keep them in terrarium since they don't need the humidity, I grow mine outside in full sun scorch heat and they flourish ( ofc the soil is wet, tho i let it dry a little bit before watering again ) The humidity in your terrarium and lack of air circulation is creating the mold. As I mentioned before, my first VFT were grown in a pretty aerated room and they still died to fungi. Once I solved these problems, now my VFT flourish. So yea, get it under good growlight with some fans or smth. Also are they out of dormancy or still in?

P.S.  Some photos would be useful to see your setup. 

Edited February 13, 2017 by Scuipici

[Ali Johann]

On 2/12/2017 at 2:18 AM, manders said:

Sorry i cant help much, mold would normally indicate its a bit too humid but youve allready thought of that.  Is it possible to leave them out at night or is it too cold/dry??

vfts are are usually ok down to several degrees below freezing, although they wont grow if it gets that cold.

Do you get sarracenia purpurea anywhere near you or are you too far north?

 

Thanks for the reply!

It still gets down to about -15 degrees Celsius here at night, it'll be another 2 to 3 months for nights to average about -5 Celsius which is basically our spring season. We do have sarracenia purpurea, the closest place to where I live is four or more hours to the east, but roughly the same latitude. I don't know much about them, I had no idea they were even in this province until I googled them! We have sundew plants both further north and further south of where I live. Should I be conditioning my VFTs more to the climate those plants live in?

 

On 2/13/2017 at 3:59 PM, Scuipici said:

I don't think VFT are good for terrarium, I'm not saying you can't make it work but usually it kinda suffers. My first few vft died because i grew them indoors and they died of fungi, lack of air circulation. The light is also very important. If you can't grow them outside then I suggest getting them out of the terrarium, put them under grow lights in a place with some fans for good air circulation. There is no reason to keep them in terrarium since they don't need the humidity, I grow mine outside in full sun scorch heat and they flourish ( ofc the soil is wet, tho i let it dry a little bit before watering again ) The humidity in your terrarium and lack of air circulation is creating the mold. As I mentioned before, my first VFT were grown in a pretty aerated room and they still died to fungi. Once I solved these problems, now my VFT flourish. So yea, get it under good growlight with some fans or smth. Also are they out of dormancy or still in?

P.S.  Some photos would be useful to see your setup. 

Thank you for getting back to me!

Two out of eight plants are out of dormancy, I've one plant that's got a few flowers about to bloom, another plant is growing the flower stem. The other six plants seem to be coming out of dormancy. I have a big growth light setup in the basement for starting garden plants in the spring so I'll negotiate them out of their terrariums and get them under that light. I have tried to grow them in pots but they only last about a year at most. It sounds like there's a sweet spot for growing conditions I haven't pin pointed yet, I will do some experimenting. Thank you so much for your help!

This is one picture I managed to shrink enough to fit, this is one of two terrariums. I can upload more if you'd like.

[Scuipici]

Yea the VFT don't look too happy. I would cut the flower stalk on the ones that didn't get to that size. I don't think they can afford a flower stalk at the moment. They need more light for sure and air flow. I would suggest a peat + perlite mix and let it dry slightly before waterings. But you can experiment with sphagnum moss if you want.

Since you said growing outside is out of question, I would suggest a setup like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saCV-Dii5Ic