Fungus.. help!

[Skye]

Can someone please help me? I see all the pictures of beautiful Drosera and it just makes me wana cry because I know mine will never look like that. No matter what Drosera I try they always grow for a while then turn black and collapse into a black icky blob.

This never happens with any other CP's, only Drosera and Byblis. What am I doing wrong? They're all under lights in trays with 1/2" to 1" of water. The window in the room is almost always cracked so the air circulates. What am I missing?

 

[Capslock]

So, is there an obvious fungus present? Or are they just dying? Could it be your soil? What medium are you using? Are you even re-potting them? If you have temperature, light, humidity, and proper water, then all that's left is soil.

Capslock

 

[Joseph Clemens]

My first question would be: What is the TDS in PPM of your saturated media and of your water? If you don't know this, then you need to find it out and always be aware of it.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

It's probably in your medium. As Joseph says, too high a level of Total Dissolved Solids is very bad for Drosera. If you are using pure water, then it is likely to be the peat. There is peat, and then again there is peat: it depends on the area and level where the peat was harvested. There is no sure fire guarentee that any given batch of peat will be pure, so I always rinse mine well (sand too) prior to its use.

The problem with having these micronutrients present is that they support the growth of algae and bacteria that can fix nitrogen into your mix (not good). Algae also produces agar which is the ideal substrate for fungi to exploit (and thence to the roots of your plants).

If this is an ongoing problem, you might also want to try a new batch of peat.