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All Things Petiolaris
- Thread starter bluemax
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What are people feeding these dews? I saw someone mentioned ants. I tried beta bite dust, and blood worms, but got mold in the hot humid conditions these guys like. I tried wingless fruit flies but they seem to be too big for the traps and end up escaping. Guess I could slow them down in the freezer first.
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Knuckles
Chief Cat Behavior Specialist
BugfoodSome growers who use fish food on dews rinse off the excess after a day or so to avoid mold.
I use dilute fish emulsion solution, approx. 1/4 strength as recommended on the bottle. I use a round wooden toothpick to put a single drop on each leaf to be fed or more for very large leaves, such as D. falconeri. I have not found any petiolaris 'dews that don't do well on the stuff and it doesn't induce fungus to grow. There may be some that don't like it, though, as there are a few Drosera in general that don't seem to like it.
I froze a bunch of wingless fruit flies last night I will report back once they have had time to mold up if they do.. I have also been experimenting by putting a small drop of 1/2tsp / Gallon 16-16-16 Maxsea on the trap of some pretty small plants and it seems to be working well so far.
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What other drosera or pings do well in a petiolaris chamber? Think prolifera or Adelae or anything else would do okay in ~90-100 degree temps with high humidity? My current max mins are: 80-99% humidity 75-106 deg F I can drop temps to hit 91 max if I unplug a seed mat and just leave an aquarium heater going.
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Wow, sorry I missed this post many months ago! If you are still around, Bugfood, I would expect D. adelae and D. prolifera to do well in the higher temperatures and humidity. I don't have any knowledge about butterworts in those temps. I have recently been growing Byblis guehoi under these conditions to good effect. Lowland Nepenthes species might also grow well, though both they and the Byblis need quite a lot of room.
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I need to divide this Drosera petiolaris plant and I wanted to photograph it before I make it much less interesting-looking.
Drosera broomensis - I find this species to be much more beautiful up close than it usually shows in photographs. The very cottony center is the epitome of 'woolly' for a sundew, in my opinion.
Drosera broomensis - I find this species to be much more beautiful up close than it usually shows in photographs. The very cottony center is the epitome of 'woolly' for a sundew, in my opinion.
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You have some very nice plants there! You should try to get ahold of a Drosera derbyensis though. It's the wooliest of the wooly sundews, but I understand it can be hard to get ahold of a true pure species specimen in the US.
Aren't these plants wooly to prevent moisture loss in dry climates? I wouldn't think they'd need high humidity to grow well.
Aren't these plants wooly to prevent moisture loss in dry climates? I wouldn't think they'd need high humidity to grow well.
Higher humidity will boost growth but is not necessary. I moved all of my plants into my new hothouse but have yet to pipe in humidity and have seen some decent decline. Even in the last week since I shut the ventilation down, my fulva has already produced slightly larger leaves (the filter was sucking what little humidity was left out of the room). I should hopefully be back up to 80% humidity though this weekend.
I have yet to experience inducing dormancy with fluxuating light levels. Again with construction, my timers were removed so they were being forced with 50 hours on, 10 off, 16 on 24 off 48 on, etc and almost all of them stayed in their growing state. My lanata were already dormant and stayed that way during the lighting fluctuations. Most seem to be coming out now that everything has stabilized. Temperature has pretty much been the only thing that throws them off for me.
Watch out trying to seperate broomensis. Those things hold on for dear life. Most species in the complex easily seperate but I had to get out a razor blade to divide my broomensis.
I have yet to experience inducing dormancy with fluxuating light levels. Again with construction, my timers were removed so they were being forced with 50 hours on, 10 off, 16 on 24 off 48 on, etc and almost all of them stayed in their growing state. My lanata were already dormant and stayed that way during the lighting fluctuations. Most seem to be coming out now that everything has stabilized. Temperature has pretty much been the only thing that throws them off for me.
Watch out trying to seperate broomensis. Those things hold on for dear life. Most species in the complex easily seperate but I had to get out a razor blade to divide my broomensis.
Mona -
Just watch out for fungus growth. I grew mine in a tank for the longest time with little airflow and only saw fungus a bit. Usually adding a fan will fix that. Falconeri and kenneallyi are the only two I've had that seem to be a bit more sensitive to fungal attack. Especially on the fringes and middle of dormancy. Wet and humid air then will kill them (learned the hard way too many times haha).
My caduca occasionally get attacked by sooty mold but the worst that will do is just cause the traps (not the leaf) to die off a bit sooner and growth to slow a bit. Usually a repot and a hydrogen peroxide sponge bath (q-tip) will knock that out. It will die back to the crown but will come back with a vengeance.
Just watch out for fungus growth. I grew mine in a tank for the longest time with little airflow and only saw fungus a bit. Usually adding a fan will fix that. Falconeri and kenneallyi are the only two I've had that seem to be a bit more sensitive to fungal attack. Especially on the fringes and middle of dormancy. Wet and humid air then will kill them (learned the hard way too many times haha).
My caduca occasionally get attacked by sooty mold but the worst that will do is just cause the traps (not the leaf) to die off a bit sooner and growth to slow a bit. Usually a repot and a hydrogen peroxide sponge bath (q-tip) will knock that out. It will die back to the crown but will come back with a vengeance.