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Newbie needing help

Hello all,


Like I said elsewhere, I am brand spanking newbie to CPs and needing the easy route to get my feet wet. I am very fascinated with sundews, as for the reason I am posting in this forum.

Basically, I want to know which kind are easy to grow and maintain. through reading, I am assuming that D. capensis is fairly easy, especially since it doesn't go into "dormancy". I need time to be prepared for plants that require refridgeration or whatever to help put into the sleep stage and that is not an option right now.

I am getting some D. capensis 'alba' seeds from elgecko. Read that those are pretty happy plants and easy going for a beginner and doesn't reequire dormancy stages. What i would like to know are a list of good beginner CPs that I can get into. I have/am purchasing Long Fibered Sphagnum and have Sphagnum Peat Moss. Also looking at soil types that can along with these. Like I said, I am a newbie and uneducated to say the least.

I have a friend who has said a mix of Silicasand, Sphagnum Peat Moss, and Long Fibered Sphagnum at a 1:1:2 ratio. Not to undermine him and I saw pictures of his plants and they look very happy and pleased, but is this one of the best options for soils for sundews or does each one require something different? Little help please!

Thanks all

Krom, Brian of Illinois
I am getting married in December and I live in Southwestern Illinois, right beside St Louis, MO. It will be an inside kept plant and they will go outside for fresh air/incests when the weather is nice enough. Pretty humid place and gets rather warm as well. Right now as a matter of fact, 81% humidity and temp of 82/heat index 94. Rather stiff humidity and a nightmare to breath
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I am getting some C.
 
nidiformis has been an easy one for me that requres no dormancy. wait till around November and Tamlin will have LOTS of pygmy species if he is going to do his "Great Pygmy Drosera Gemma Giveaway" again, thats ALOT of work for him though. filiformis is easy but needs a dormancy along with rotundifolia. ill have to look when i get home and see which species i have that are easy and no dormancy. i should have seeds from my nidiformis in a couple of weeks that you would be welcome to. sand peat and LFS is a fairly standard mix.

Rattler
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I am getting married in December ... It will be an inside kept plant and they will go outside for fresh air/incests
This will be an interesting marriage -- particularly the part about going outside for incest.
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LOL, I like the fresh air and incest too......<SNORT>!

In your conitions, and of the tropical species should do fine: Drosera adelae, admirabilis, aliciae, brevifolia, burkeana, burmannii, binata, capensis, capillaris, coccicaulis, collinsiae, dielsiana, madagascariensis, nidiformis, prolifera, regia, spatulata, trinervia, venusta all spring to mind. With a little work all the others are possible as well and I will be happy to help you master any of them. ALl are of similar culture.

The mix you mention is fine. Be sure to rinse the pet and sand before you use it to get the micronutrients out that might otherwise favor the growth of moss and algae and you are off!
 
Rinse the pet before incest? What kinda show you guys runnin' around here, anyway?
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David, ya beat me to it!
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Bah! Typos and that is a horribly bad one at that!
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Well, I went to Lowes today and bought myself a couple pets.. finally found a place with some. I got two VFTs and a sundew. I believe it is just a typical VFT and a D. capensis... I think.

I made a mixture of Sphagnum Peat Moss, Long Fibered, and Perlite (sp). 1:2:1. Give that a try I rekon. Put it in a tray of water so all of them are sucking from the same bowl of water but in different pots. I didn't wash the pets like a bad boy. They were in terrarium's and are pretty green. Seems remotely healthy to the newbie untrained eye. The soil is nice and moist and each plant has an ant or cricket. Must have been hungry because it really snapped on them. lol. I figured it should help I hope with helping give it some nutrients to their new home in my plastic pots. Sound alright to you all?
 
Correction... make that D. adelea
 
  • #10
you can find healthy plants at places like Lowes, ive got a very nice Ping from there that is blooming at the moment. i have a large number of pots(prolly 20) all in the same tray. there are sundews, Pings, Sarrs, and a VFT. ive noticed no problems as long as all the species like the same conditions.

Rattler
 
  • #11
Hey Krom! That D.adelae you purchased from Lowes is a perfect beginners sundew. I bought two pathetic looking specimens from Lowes last summer and placed them in a large brandy snifter with 100% LFS as the medium. (This species doesn't require direct sunlight to be healthy either) I placed the bowl on a bright but sunless north facing windowsill and other than an occasional watering did nothing else with it all winter. By January the two "parent" plants had died. However, they had already sent several underground shoots through the moss which resulted in dozens of new plants. The snifter is literally overflowing with them now. You should have an easy time with this one.  
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  • #12
beautiful to hear! Hope it pans out as well as I am hoping. Time will tell no doubt. I am going to New Mexico soon to my sister's wedding. Just out of curiousity... are CPs allowed in luggage should I find one there? My sister said that she sees them there off an on, but I am kind of worried what airlines would think of transportation of live plants. Seeing I am in the same country, I wouldn't think it was a problem. Anyone know?
 
  • #13
you better be talking about bringing plants back from a garden center! wild collecting is extremely frowned upon, it makes people furious and it causes chaos and extinction. Wild collecting is the number one sin in the Savage Bible.

but if you want to bring plants back that were grown in TC, i don't see why they wouldn't let you. there might be some paperwork to fill out but i don't think it'll be a big deal. i've never brought plants on an airplane so i dunno.
 
  • #14
Heavens no.. I would never take them out of their natural environment! Perhaps I will just send it through the mail to avoid problems. Put it on rush delivery so I can get them home. Was just curious if you can bring Cps on planes.
 
  • #15
not sure. prolly better to mail them to yourself from NM.

Rattler
 
  • #16
Got another question.... I thought Perlite was Perlite.... and Miracle Gro Perlite was just the brand..... is it loaded with nutrients and bad perlite for CPs? My CPs are starting to perk up after I transplanted them into the mix... but now I am a bit paranoid that I might be killing them in the long run with this Micracle Gro Perlite.

Should I let them go with it or will it be bad for them? My venus flytraps are opening since I put them in the new environment yesterday and one of them that was laying on the ground is starting to lift itself up, also a sundew leave is sticking up that was laying down. I am thinking it is okay, but I am scared about the long run. Little advice about the Miracle Gro Perlite?
 
  • #17
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Little advice about the Miracle Gro Perlite?
Look on the bag for ingredients. A few years ago, Miracle Gro began to market Perlite laced with Miracle Gro fertilizer. This would not be good for your CPs. A while ago, I was looking for some Perlite and all I could find in the local garden shops was the kind with fertilizer added. I finally went to a plant nursery and found a large bag of plain perlite.

Also, there was a thread somewhere that discussed issues with Perlite and recommended that it be washed several times before using, because during the manufacturing process (expansion of naturally occurring siliceous rock by heating), various nutrients may be released. For more information, see
http://www.perlite.net/
http://www.perlite.org/perlite.htm
 
  • #18
With such easy availability of obtaining sundews via the net (and Lowes) why bother yourself with transporting live ones anyway? I'd rather not have to worry about it while traveling. Also, that adelae will grow much better in plain 100% LFS.
 
  • #19
After reading the fine print, apparently Miracle Gro still has fertilizer added
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Fast emergency trip to Frank's Nursery and I had the last bag of fertilizer free perlite! Fast transplant and washing the plants and getting off as much of the old as I could. Unfortunately, I do not have superthrive yet... so.. little luck and hope it will be all okay! I washed everything in distilled water and the plant..so lets hope I didn't already kill my first pets
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Newbie Mistake #1.
 
  • #20
Got some superthrive on the way now, maybe that will help. I am rather paranoid LOL... As if you can't tell right?

I was also wondering, if you got grow lights, do they still need to receive sunlight? I was thinking of setting up an area in the basement with some growlights instead. I am currently at my folks house and well.... they have a lot of stuff LOL. Difficulty finding room right now for my new babies.
 
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