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I'm having a problem with two of my sundews, a spathulata and a capensis. I've had them since April.

The spath is dewless, and the leaves look bad, but it is sending up a nice green flower stalk.  The capensis is dewy enough, but it is growing very slowly and looks like it ought to be greener--no flowers.

They are kept in a tank with two neps, a ping, an adelae and a diels.  All are doing great--really great--except for those two.  The neps have big (for new plants, anyway), colorful pitchers, the diels has a flower stalk that has had 8 blooms on it, the adelae is groaning with dewy goodness and three flower stalks.  The ping has a nice, purple flower on it and is producing lots of new leaves.

I've fed them, once a month, with dried insects caught by the light hood, and gnat-sized bits of dried tubifex.  (An occasional ant has gotten in the tank, with bad results for the ant--the neps really take off on that diet&#33
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Av temp is about 80.  Av humidity is about 80.  Getting light, all artificial, 16 hours a day.  No fungus.  No mold.  No bugs.  Tray method for water.  Mix of LFS, perlite, peat.  Distilled water.

Too much light?  The other plants don't show any sign of it.
Dormancy??

I am bewildered.  TIA, as always.

PS--As the spath was still in its original grower's soil, which has proved too rich in the past (red worm infestation), I have repotted it in hopes that I might reverse the decline.  The soil smelt fishy, so I think I did the right thing, but it is too soon to tell if it will help.

Steve
 
How close are the plants to the lights? They both love lots of sun. Also the plants may "drie up" when they flower.
 
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tristan @ July 10 2002,01:39)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">How close are the plants to the lights?  They both love lots of sun.  Also the plants may  "drie up" when they flower.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
The cape is about 4 inches away. The spath is about 6. Four 20W lights. The diels is happy.

So the spath may be dried out because it is flowering? Darn! I should have left it alone!

I should say at this point that I don't know what a healthy cape sundew looks like. It's dewy, but I thought that these were supposed to be annoyingly fast growers and flower a lot. Mine just sits there, looking whitish-green (the tentacles are red).

Steve
 
I think there fine. Just give them time.
 
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I should say at this point that I don't know what a healthy cape sundew looks like. It's dewy, but I thought that these
were supposed to be annoyingly fast growers and flower a lot. Mine just sits there, looking whitish-green (the tentacles
are red).[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

My capensis plants have similar coloration. I think the capensis is fine.
 
The plants should be fine. Spathulata's often lose dew during flowering, but mine hasnt (but awhile ago it went through a period of no dew). The capensis (yours is typcal type becuase it has green leaves and red tenticules) should be fine, but more light will be better for it, if you want it more green. but it is healthy.
 
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