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D. capillaris - failing Sundew care...?

  • Thread starter MPHampel86
  • Start date
Before I ask the question, here is my set up. Now, keep in mind that this is TEMPORARY. In early April, all these plants will be moved outside in bog planters and take part in cycling with nature's seasons. But, for now, this is where they are residing.
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Made with manila folders and tin foil, they're all positioned in front of a southwest facing window. The backing and top were made to reflect the incoming sun, as well as the overhead artificial lighting, back onto the plants.

A view from the outside of the window -
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The bulbs in the overhead light (one bulb 6500K/860 lumens and the other 5000K 1,600 lumens). The photo makes them appear dimmed for some reason, but I assure you they are new and very bright. -
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The bedroom is kept at a constant 70F with humidity in the 60% - 65% range. In the set up where the plants are sitting the conditions read 77F and the humidity in the 40% range. I'm sure on a clear day with full sun this gets a bit warmer. The light is on a timer and turns on and off with the rising and setting of the sun (currently - on at 7:00am and off at 5:30pm)

My Fly Traps and Sarracenia are looking awesome, and are developing in a positive direction more and more every day. The rotundifoilia started to worry me, but in the past few days it's started producing dew and has some decent looking developing leaves.

The plant was ordered and arrived about two weeks ago. Upon arrival it was in decent condition, most leaves were dry with one or two still dewey and another two leaves developing out of the base.

The plant now -
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All the leaves appear to be dying off and even the new leaves that have just opened up two days ago are following suit. It's kept in 1" - 2" of distilled water (reading 1 - 2 ppm TDS) and the soil medium (same pot and medium it arrived in) is wet at all times.

I'm left to ponder - am I off on something? Is the plant trying to go dormant because of the short light cycle? I don't see a dormancy bud. I can't imagine it's too hot given the wild range of this plant. I also can't imagine they die off because of 40% humidity. Maybe the foliage isn't used to the light and is soon to produce more that is more adapted? If someone notices something that doesn't look good, I'd like to catch it as early as possible. Anyone have any ideas?
 
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I can only guess as to why your new sundew isn't producing new, healthy growth but it seems to me that the most likely possibility is that it is undergoing some shock over a radical shift in the conditions it is used to. Your set-up looks solid to me from your photos. Perhaps it has been in a much-cooler environment before you received it and is now needing to adapt. I would also surmise that it will do this given some time, but you don't want to take this as gospel. Unless you can detect some very out of balance factors in the way it is being grown all that remains is to keep an eye on it and watch for signs of new growth. I wish you success!
 
Hey mate, just saw this and am experiencing something very similar with my D. capillaris.

You don't happen to know if your plant is from a particularly warm climate do you? Including anything from north Floridian latitude south through the tropics?

I have several seed-grown capillaris from north florida, and each of them is currently dormant or just emerging from dormancy. In fall when I germinated them, the plants would grow to spectacular dimensions - almost two inches wide. Then they'd flower, and their diameter would either decrease or the entire rosette would shrivel to a dormant bud.

Presently, a few of the plants are picking up again. As warm temperates, I understand that my winters in Portland may be too extreme for this particular taxon, so I kept it indoors with my D. burmannii in similar conditions as yours. Point is, your plants look similar in state to mine, and I hope that it's because they are actually experiencing a sort of post-floral dormancy, seeing that this was in January.
 
D. capillaris doesn't go dormant (perhaps slowing in winter but not true dormancy), so I would be highly suspect if you have plants that have hibernacula on them or some other sign of actual dormancy.
 
Mine've not got hibernacula. But they do lose all their leaves and keep an inactive collection of small, furled leaves at their base.
 
"Small, furled leaves" is what most hibernacula are composed of, to varying degrees of compactness. I know various forms of rotundifolia and tokaiensis (the latter in particular) have often been mislabeled as capillaris also; pictures of active growth would help this quandary though.

As for the one in question in the first post, giving it time to acclimate to conditions and restart growth is about all that can be done currently.
 
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