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How quickly does drosera capensis grow

  • Thread starter leslieg
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I'm new to growing carnivorous plants. I'm the proud parent of about 30 itsy bitsy baby Drosera capensis. I planted the seeds in November-December, and wonder of wonders, they're growing. They're in wet long-fibered New Zealand sphagnum about 5" below a pair of T5 fluorescent lights. The room temp is about 70 degrees. They're about 2-3 months old now. They're pretty cool little things, most with 4-5 tiny leaves with red hairs and dew. I'm looking forward to seeing them without a magnifying glass.

How long will they remain semi-microscopic? Is there anything I can do to speed up their growth?

Thanks!
 
Drosera will increase in size kind of slowly when not fed. However, when you feed them you can easily get flowering sized plants in a year or so. At this stage the trick is to feed pieces small enough not to overwhelm the plant. Tiny bits of blood worms or fish pellets seem to work well.

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Be careful about feeding them at a small size. If you feed too much it can result in a fungus outbreak that can overwhelm the plant. Sundews tend to speed up a bit once they gain a little size too.
 
Drosera will increase in size kind of slowly when not fed. However, when you feed them you can easily get flowering sized plants in a year or so. At this stage the trick is to feed pieces small enough not to overwhelm the plant. Tiny bits of blood worms or fish pellets seem to work well.

I've attached a photo - the entire pot is only about 3" across. Do they look large enough to start feeding? I have to use a magnifying glass just to see them very well. How do I feed small enough pieces to avoid causing a fungus outbreak, as numbulan mentioned?

Does it look like the sphagnum moss is alive, or is that just algae?

I didn't do a good job of scattering the seeds. I tried to tap them out of the envelope slowly, but they all escaped at once. I never expected so many to sprout. I'm going to need to separate them at some point. Is that better done now (how do you do it?) or when they get larger?

Thank you!
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I wouldnt feed those yet. It'll be very hard to make food small enough for those. I usually wait until my seedlings are about a 1/4 inch across. At that size anything you give them will probably mold. The green in that moss seems like algae to me. You can separate Drosera but I nevwr have. They don't mind being clumped.

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I've attached a photo - the entire pot is only about 3" across. Do they look large enough to start feeding? I have to use a magnifying glass just to see them very well. How do I feed small enough pieces to avoid causing a fungus outbreak, as numbulan mentioned?
Does it look like the sphagnum moss is alive, or is that just algae?
I didn't do a good job of scattering the seeds. I tried to tap them out of the envelope slowly, but they all escaped at once. I never expected so many to sprout. I'm going to need to separate them at some point. Is that better done now (how do you do it?) or when they get larger?
Thank you!

They can wait some time before feeding, I'd wait a bit on plants that tiny. When you do decide to start feeding, it will be easy to use crushed fish food or cricket flour (fed by using a tooth pick with a little moist food on it).

Looks like algae on the sphagnum.

I like to separate my sundews and you can separate them when they are large enough for you to work with. That size is up to you. I've used 2 toothpicks when separating them and you have to dig them up a bit to get all the roots. If you leave roots behind, they normally produce a new plant, then you get crowed again. :p

Have you seen GrowSundews.com ? Check it out it's a great website and they have info to help with many questions. Good Luck! :D
 
I'm new to growing carnivorous plants. I'm the proud parent of about 30 itsy bitsy baby Drosera capensis. I planted the seeds in November-December, and wonder of wonders, they're growing. They're in wet long-fibered New Zealand sphagnum about 5" below a pair of T5 fluorescent lights. The room temp is about 70 degrees. They're about 2-3 months old now. They're pretty cool little things, most with 4-5 tiny leaves with red hairs and dew. I'm looking forward to seeing them without a magnifying glass.

How long will they remain semi-microscopic? Is there anything I can do to speed up their growth?

Thanks!

I started some around August last year. They are about an inch now. The best thing to do is give them lots and lots of light. I didn't have any special light setup so they went through the winter kind of in the dark. Yours will probably grow faster.
 
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When they are that small, I don't feed them unless I am feeling desperate. I've never had luck with pellets at that small a size, but, even if largish for the leaf size, dropping a mosquito or (better) fungus gnat onto two or more leaves where the leaves are close to each other can work. So where the leaves are close, you drop it so that it is touching two or more leaves. Those leaves usually die, but who cares, when I'm feeling desperate? They'd die anyway. New leaves come up bigger. Note: I've also killed seedlings like this on occasion, though not often.

This desperation usually happened when I had very few plants growing. Now that I have more seedlings than I have pots for, I don't care what speed the germinating plants grow or don't. Once the conditions are good, the plants grow themselves. Don't recall the last time I fed anything. They seem fine.
 
Sowed some Cap seeds back in October and the largest one is around 3 inches tall right now, but again I haven't fed it for a while...
Feedling does boost the growth quite a bit, especially for seedlings. As Acro mentioned, try crushing beta fish food pellets into fine powder, dip with toothpick, and apply as little as possible to the leaves. Within a day you shall see the tentacles curl (not sure if the leaf does at that size) around the food. Some mold might appear, but no worry, they will make it through :)
 
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