Newbie Sundew questions

[Jayman]

By the way, this is my first post here.
I not completely new to carnivorous plants. I have a very healthy venus fly trap grown from a bulb for more than one year now. I thought is was so cool, so I decided to get a sundew. I bought a baby drosera capensis cause I hear they're pretty easy to take care of. Since I'm semi-new to the sundew world (but I have read plenty of websites and posts on them), I do have some questions on drosera capensis:

1) How fast do the tenticles wrap around the prey?
2) When it's finished "eating" it, does it unwrap and become ready for a new bug?
3) When a leaf starts getting black, should I cut off the whole leaf off?
4) How easy in general is it to take care of a d. capensis?

Thanks a lot you guys!

 

[Statik2426]

Welcome to the forums Jayman!

Here's some answers.
1) Movement starts quickly but it won't completely cover the insect for a few hours. These plants only fold over large meals, tiny mosquito's and ants just make tentacles move unless theres a lot in one place. For a good site that shows photos of how much the plants move in time, got to http://www.geocities.com/madmage1/movimento.htm BTW, for those of you who lack any skills of translating languages. Minutos means minutes. lol

2) I do not think a leaf unfolds. This plant is a fast grower anyway, it has a lot more traps than a VFT so you won't run out of places to feed it.

3) You can cut it off if you want or wait for it to turn almost all black. Thats what I like I do with most of my cp, except for those who mold easily. I prefer to leave it on until it's gone so that the leaf can finish it's meal, or help out with photosynthesis.

4) These are considered the easiest of CP and do not need a winter dormancy. It's fine warm all year round. At an old cape sundew topic at http://www.petflytrap.com/cgi-bin....topic=6, someone in this forum named Martin (who will probably post a reply here) states "how can you kill a Drosera capensis

;-)", "Im my opinion Drosera capensis is the easiest of all cp spezies to grow... (here in Germany)". That should give you some confidence.

Hope I helped!
Joe

(Edited by Statik2426 at 11:16 am on April 28, 2002)

 

[Tristan]

3) I like to leave the old leafs on. They slowly build up and form a cool looking stem.

 

[Statik2426]

If you remove the leaves it won't prevent plants from forming a stem. Leaving them just makes a skirt of old leaves around the stem...

Here's a photo of a plant that has dead ones left on, to help you decide what you want it to look like. I personally think it's a bit messy but the plant itself is beautiful.

(Edited by Statik2426 at 12:59 pm on April 28, 2002)

 

[cephalotus88]

1) How fast do the tenticles wrap around the prey?
>>>Sometimes it wont wrap on small prey, but larger prey, it will wrap in about 2 minutes

2) When it's finished "eating" it, does it unwrap and become ready for a new bug? >>>By unwrap i think you mean curl back out from the bug? yup, they do that

3) When a leaf starts getting black, should I cut off the whole leaf off? >>>I used to, but i got tired a stopped. it dosnt matter, it doesnt sstop it from producing a stalk.


4) How easy in general is it to take care of a d. capensis? >>>i have had a coloney cape sundews for 3 years already (since i was 11). it was the first cp i didnt kill)

 

[Jayman]

Thanks for you replies! It helped a lot. I have a few more questions if you don't mind.

I've read some posts about fungus problems and root rot in sundews. Is there anything I should do about that?

Also, in general how long does it take to finish digesting prey and get ready for another?

Thanks!