New to the scene

[Trout]

I am brand new to the Drosera-growing scene, and have started out with a tiny little terrarium, which I'm currently rather proud of. At the moment, I'm sure I don't have enough light for my plants, but I'll be getting a better bulb on Tuesday. The old bulb I've had them under for the past day and a half does not have a light color rating listed in Kelvin, but it does say "warm-white" which I believe was in the area of 3000k-3500k.

I honestly don't know what sort of sundews I've got, but I believe they're D. capensis. They're growing in a mix of 2:1 peat:vermiculite, since I couldn't find any non-miracle gro perlite at the store I went to, and that mix is on top of about an inch and a half of aquarium gravel.

Will it cause undue stress for the inside of the terrarium to briefly reach 105 degrees F? I try to keep it between 70 and 90 degrees but today, the sun had other plans.

 

[tje25]

Welcome to our hobby/addiction! Got a decent little setup going there, it will be full of life in no time.

And yes that's quite hot...I would keep it away from the sun if that's the case.

 

[Trout]

I'm really looking to put in another couple plants. Probably D. aliciae if I can find them, but only after I've finished tinkering with my environment and made sure they'll survive in there. D. aliciae is also a South African sundew, correct? It'll thrive in a similar environment to D. capensis? Actually, I've looked around and have not been able to find anywhere a definitive list of CPs that'll grow well with D. capensis. Does anybody here have such a list? I'd like to take a peek at it.

Apart from that, does anybody know where I can find some good sphagnum to put on top of my substrate?

 

[tje25]

I have a bunch of D. aliciae and it grows right along with my D. capensis. Next time I get seeds ill send you some, ill also probably be doing a giveaway here soon so keep an eye out

 

[Tacks]

Hey Trout! Welcome to sundew cultivation. Congrats on your Drosera capensis. A few things to keep in mind while you're developing your collection:

The most important thing for a healthy sundew is light. Lots and lots of light. Unspeakable amounts of light. And in fact, the humidity needs for the most common species are not very high, and they can handle a fairly wide range of temperatures – if they're given enough light. There's a page on Grow Sundews about light, and I covered the topic in two posts on my sundew blog.

In terms of what species grow well with D. capensis, I can definitely recommend Drosera aliciae, Drosera madagascariensis, Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera intermedia 'Cuba', Drosera burmannii, Drosera ultramafica x spatulata, and most pygmy sundews as liking conditions similar to those appropriate for Drosera capensis.

In terms of temperatures I try to keep my growspaces under 90 F. Most species you'll be cultivating at first will not like temperatures too much higher than that. Again though, high light conditions will make your sundews less susceptible to other forms of stress.

 

[hcarlton]

It's somewhat pointless to find a list of "things that grow well with capensis" since the reverse is more applicable: what capensis will grow with, and the answer is almost anything. I have a few plants that live with my Sarracenia, experiencing <10% humidity and 100F+ temperatures in summer, and then frosts and low light in winter. You really don't need a terrarium for these species, setting them on a windowsill where the sun gets to them or on a shelf you can hang the lights from will work all the better really.
Mind you, it's best not to push the temps, keeping them under 90F is definitely recommended.

 

[Trout]

Of course I would love to grow some plants out-doors, but I spend my time between my home in Eastern Washington and my apartment in Rexburg, ID where I go to school. I built this terrarium so I could bring my plants with me wherever I went, and not have to worry about someone else messing up their care. While I'm semi-mobile, an enclosed and portable environment is, I believe, the best solution. Since I already had this little aquarium on-hand, and since pet animals are banned in my apartment, I figured I might as well do something with it.

Here's a quick update, though! It would seem that my plants are doing better every day I have them under the fluorescent lamp I found in our attic. Can't wait til I get the new bulb for the terrarium hood, though.

 

[Trout]

Here's another update! Today, as I was feeding, I accidentally touched one of the leaves with my tweezer, and the leaf moved as I pulled them away, which means the dew is actually becoming sticky. A big improvement from how they were when I put them in the tank. Before today, nothing stuck, and my fruit flies were walking around on top of the leaves and tentacles with ease. After today, I think they'll find they get tangled up a lot more readily when they try to walk on these leaves.

 

[w03]

Sounds like good progress, and welcome to TF!

Others have already stressed the importance of lighting, but it seems to have a strong effect particularly on dew production in Drosera, especially the more tolerant ones like D. capensis. If your lighting setup is good, you should soon find your plant putting out growth with stronger coloration and even more dew.

Also, if you haven't already done so, another way to reduce heat buildup could be to remove the cover off of the terrarium - as others have noted D. capensis is not picky at all about humidity levels.

As for other plants that would grow with D. capensis, D. binata is equally indestructible and interesting. The tropical forms (especially f. extrema would make good plants to grow year-round with D. capensis. Just be careful about lighting; D. binata likes massive amounts of light to maintain good growth and coloration.

 

[Trout]

Yes. I've actually had to remove the hood during the day to give the plants enough light. I found an old wall lamp upstairs and it's got a "warm white" T-8 bulb and is about 2 feet long. I have to rest it on-top of the hoodless terrarium, but tomorrow, I'm getting an LED bulb that SHOULD throw enough light from the hood socket so that I don't have to remove the hood unless the heat builds up too much inside.

I was worried that my tiny sundew wasn't going to make it, but I noticed that the new growth I spotted a while ago on it IS still growing, which gives me hope. The tiny one isn't recovering as fast as the large one, but it is still recovering.

 

[Trout]

Not entirely certain, but I'm pleased to tentatively announce that I think my Sundew is about to send up a flower stalk. Exciting, considering the state it was in just a week and a half ago!

 

[Dexenthes]

Not entirely certain, but I'm pleased to tentatively announce that I think my Sundew is about to send up a flower stalk. Exciting, considering the state it was in just a week and a half ago!

# D. capensis

 

[ps3isawesome]

i love Tacks's blog. It's my go to website for any Drosera related information as well as the other website he linked.

I seriously have the urge to "pet" his Drosera, they are just so fluffy and pretty

 

[Trout]

I'm not entirely certain about this, but I believe it's moss growing on the substrate of my terrarium. Could be algae, but it looks different from algae. Now that I'm set up in my apartment, with a west-facing window that almost never gets direct sunlight, but through which the light is quite bright, in addition to the light from my hood, dew production is up. The flower stalk is doing well, and the temperature generally sticks to about 70-75 degrees. I'm still not sure it's getting enough light, though. I would say I might have Alba, but there IS red at the very tips of the tentacles, just no red anywhere else. I suppose I'll know once the flowers bloom.

 

[hcarlton]

D. capensis 'Albino' will produce pink tentacles under strong enough light, however if you see actual red, then it's probably a typical and the lights may need to be upped. The flowers tend not to form quite right under low light either I've found...rarely producing full crops of pollen or even opening right.
Also, concerning the substance growing on your soil, a picture would help. Filament algae and weedy mosses are common, but they can be invasive and sometimes detrimental to aeration if not kept in check.

 

[Trout]

I'll get a picture when it's easier to see the stuff. If it does become a problem, what can be done?

 

[hcarlton]

Manual removal really...

 

[Trout]

I can post some pictures of some things I think are really interesting.

Compared to previous photos, my plant is quite a bit larger

See in the middle of the plant, that weird brown stalk-like structure? I'm not sure if it's a root or what, but it's creeping me out. Also you can see in the second picture one of the (mosses) growing in my terrarium. It looks like little amorphous green globules and I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I think it looks pretty darn cool. It started growing underneath the plant so I'm guessing it was already there when I bought the plant, just dormant because of less-than-ideal conditions.

Here, again, you can clearly see the brown root-ish things coming from my plant, and again the green stuff growing on the substrate.

By the way, the tiny one didn't make it through the trip from Central Washington to East Idaho. It froze, poor thing. Perhaps I can get seeds from the flowers my other plant has put up

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Yes, that is an adventitious aerial root, Drosera capensis is well known for them, especially in conditions where its stem becomes elongated vertically. They will often reach the soil, where they help to anchor the plant as they grow into the media.

 

[Trout]

Thanks Joseph! It's good to finally know the function of that growth. Still not sure about the weird green growth on the substrate, though.

Anyhow, I had a thought. On the right side of the plant, where the sun shines through my window, the leaves are curled and not very happy looking, with less dew and less pink in the tentacles, but on the left side which gets more light from my screw-in LED (The designers of this fish-tank were not very smart as far as lighting engineering went, as the light is all on one side) the leaves are straight, the tentacles more colorful and there is more dew. I really want to get some seeds or seedlings to plant directly under my light and see what happens then, but I'm not sure where to get them. I just know I don't want another D. capensis because I prefer plants with more spoon or paddle-shaped leaves.