Dormant pygmies?

[LOs Angels Traphole]

Hello,
I recieved 7 D. dichrosepalas yesterday, they look kinda bad, how can I tell wheter they're dormant or just dead/dying? They have no leaves but but most of them are still very green.
Also I think I put too much sand in their soil mix and planted them in an undrained pot, should I change the mix and put them in a different pot?

Thanks for the help

 

[Colieo]

If they are still green, and if they have a cone-like stucture with white hairs in the center, I would think they are dormant. I grow a few pygmies in undrained containers, and the only thing is that you must be very very careful with watering i.e. dont keep them soaked all the time.

Hope this helps!
Cole

 

[Vertigo]

Wait...dichrosepala what? Plants or gemmae? If they look like seeds, only softish and green, it's gemmae, they're fine, just put them on the substrate.

How much sand is too much btw?

 

[LOs Angels Traphole]

Oh no I don't have any gammae yet. (hope I will later this year to fill my pot). The plants do have white hair like-stuff on them. By too much sand I mean that the surface of the soil gets kinda hard when it dries. It doesn't look to me like that they have any cone-like

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

D. dichrosepala wants a good deal of sand as it is summer sensitive in my collection. Mine are in a 70% sand/peat mix. If there are no traps on your plants, you should aim at a dry surface with some moisture available to prevent the roots from dying, so an undrained pot is not a good plan. Losses are high for me after summer dormancy, but usually a few plants survice. Good luck!

 

[cephalotus88]

Dichrosepla is a drosera that appreciates sandier mixes. 60%-40 peat is what i have mine in. If the plant is still green, it is still alive. As Tamlin said, be careful about watering. Misting the soil once in awhile sounds good. Good luck

 

[homer]

Hello everyone,

My 3 pygmy sundews are in summer dormancy in my kitchen windowsill ( western Washington, USA ).  They are:
nitidula x pulchella
occidentalis ssp. occidentalis
palacea ssp. roseana

The soil is completely dried out, and hard.  I only water them from the tray once or twice a week and the soil sucks up the water in just 5 or so min.  They are producing some tufts of white hair, but some are still flowering

and ALL still have their dew droplets.  My point is:  They are very tough in general and love a sandy mixture.  I believe I read in the Savage Garden that you should not transplant them, at all!  They have very delicate roots... in my case just a small tray of water once/twice a week keeps them from dessicating.  So, go easy on them, let them enjoy hot weather and give them pleanty of moisture and lower the photoperiod in the fall then you'll be set!

-Homer

 

[LOs Angels Traphole]

Tamlin, What do you mean by summer sensitive?

 

[Darcie]

I think summer sensitive is when they die if you screw up their summer growing conditions. I had a pygmi once. It went dorment and died.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

There are a number of species which seem to go dormant despite all attempts to prevent this, many found in lateritic soils in habitat that bake bone dry in the Australian summer. These are what I mean by summer sensitive. Some species will continue to grow if adequate conditions for growth are present during the summer. In my experience, D. dichrosepala is one of the ones that will go dormant, in which case no amount of water is going to make it grow, and overly wet conditions will promote rotting of the dormant rosette. The best chances of success are to grow such species in sandy mixes in as deep a pot as possible (some day I want to try it in lengths of PVC pipe) in order to encourage DEEP roots. This will allow for surface dryness and deeper soil moistness without compromising the root system which are extremely long and fragile. Transplants after flowering are almost certain to cause plant loss, and transplants are best done well before flowering while the plants are juvenille and the roots not so long.

 

[LOs Angels Traphole]

Thank YOu for all the info, a few more things I'd like to know: how long does dormancy last for dichrosepala? is there any way to reverse and/or prevent dormancy? and what month or time of year is best to start shortening the amount of light the plants get to induce gammae production, Thanks a lot

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Dormancy usually comes shortly after flowering and lasts through the gemmae season in December-January.  After the gemmae production the plants make a slow recovery,  growing through the winter (although they look pretty ragged at this stage).  Bu April they should be back to producing active traps (at least in my conditions).

I have heard that dormancy may be forestalled by removal of the flowers, but if the plants are already dormant, nothing is going to make them grow out of season.

My plants come inside in October and  are under 13h, November 12h, December 11h.  I keep them at 11h until gemmae formation is done, and begin increasing the photo period: 14h Feb, 15h MArch, 16h April.  At the end of April the plants and gemmaelings go back outside after the danger of frost.  Remember: photoperiod reduction does not mean light *intensity* only duration.  My plants/gemmae are nearly touching the light tubes: as close as possible.

 

[Seandew]

Hi Tamlin,

It's interesting to hear you say that your dichrosepalas always go dormant in summer no matter what conditions you supply them with. In my experience- with plants grown outside all year in full sun and permanent water (1 inch in a glass fishtank)- they have never gone dormant. They grow constantly until gemmae production and kick on again after that. My mix is around 50/50 peat sand.

Sean.