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D. adelae

My D. adelae looks really bad. The leaves are dry with no dew. It keeps growing new leaves but they look shrivelled. It was fine all year until August or so. It was very hot this year. Above 95 F (many close to 100 F) for over 2 months straight. Almost everything in my small collection was stressed a little but most everything else has recovered. But not the D. adelae. They look pitiful and they are supposed to one of the easiest to grow. What can I do?
 
Sorry to hear that your D. adelae is problematic. Off the top of my head, my first guess would be to raise the humidity, and my second suggestion would be to make sure it has pleanty of light. Take care not to disturb the root system, that will set back the plant for months maybe.

-Homer
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Above 95 F (many close to 100 F) for over 2 months straight.

The leaves that experienced those chronically high temperatures may have been damaged to the point of permanently losing their ability to produce dew.

However, newly-formed leaves should be producing dew. If they are not, the plant may still be recouperating or conditions may still be unfavorable. What is the current temperature, lighting and humidity?
 
Temps: 75 to 85 daytime and 60 to 70 at night.
Humidity: maybe 80% to 90% most days
Light: bright patio. Full sun morning to noon, filtered for the rest of the day.
water: tray system

I received the plants in Feb. this year. They grew like crazy for months. They flowered profusely. They were covered in bugs constantly. The leaves were just drenched with dew. They grew many new rosettes. They looked like pictures I have seen in books and on the web.

Then after about a month of the hell weather (late August), they started to decline. Almost everything in my collection did at least a little. Example: almost all the D. capensis lost some leaves or the leaves curled up. When it coooled off, they grew again and they look fine. Almost everything else seemed to bounce back too. Not the D. adelae. What is weird is that it keeps growing. It has continued to produce new leaves for two months. They just look really bad.
 
Is your area windy? I have 2 pots side by side on the windowsill. The smaller, shorter plant is below the ledge and it is dewy. The larger, taller plant has dry leaves like what you described. I brought the taller plant into the terrarium thinking it was declining. Presto! The dew came back! My humidity is similar to yours so I was surprised that D.adelae disliked having its 'hair messed up'.
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Another possible reason for D.adelae drying up is that it is dying back. Don't panic 'cos you'll get many plantlets when it regenerates from its roots.
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It has been windy at times but on the patio they are protected mostly from the wind.

I think I will put a modified 2 L bottle over them to protect them a little and raise the humidity a bit.

I have read that some times they just die back and then regrow.See what happens.
 
Yeah adelae is a real pain for me as well.
main thing i learned was KEEP THE TEMPEATURE BELOW 80!!!
light helps, good watering too, but if its too hot, its screwed and there will be no dew. Only on new leafs.
Also, the plantlets sprouting from roots are gonna dew up in no time... my tiny babies are already as dewy as parent plant, only about 10 times smaller
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Your conditions seem fine. It may just be "spontaneous" die-back, as Cindy suggested. It happens sometimes.

Dimka also has a point.....my D.adelae will grow and produce dew when temps are in the mid-80/90s but they seem to do much better when temps are between 65-80F.
 
My Lance Leafs HATE high temperatures. Well, let me rephrase that...SOME of my Lance Leafs hate high temperatures. I have several plants that begin to shrivel when it gets hot and the humidity goes down. However, I have several other plants that do very well in hot and not very humid conditions. I guess it depends on the plant...
 
  • #10
Whenever mine demonstrate the decline described in this thread, I always find mites infesting the plants. I then submerge the plants for a few weeks, and this often resolves the issue and the plants resume healthy growth. Examine the underside of the leaves with a high-powered loupe for mites (there are several types). If you have very good vision you may be able to notice them without magnification, if you know what to look for.
 
  • #11
Joseph!!! I remember you commenting about this phenomenon before, only I couldn't find the topic and barely remember you saying something about the quality of the growing conditions, leading up to the rapid decline thing. Waht else did you say?
 
  • #13
There was a different topic. I think you were saying something about the growing conditions that most people have, relative to how you grow yours, is the difference. That's not coming out right. Um... whatever you are doing, as a whole, is preventing that sudden decline. Maybe it was on CPUK?
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  • #14
Using a powerful magnification, I looked under the leaves and on top for insects, mites, fungus, etc. (like I would know) and did not see any. But I think I am going to drown it anyway for 2 weeks. After the drowning process, can I repot it or should I wait for regrowth? It has over grown its current pot.
 
  • #15
I would repot. Start everything afresh.
 
  • #16
Let the drowning commence!
 
  • #17
I know what you mean. Basically I give mine much more light. It gives them smaller leaves and a darker overall red color, but hasn't prevented the mites, yet.
 
  • #18
This is just a random thought, but elgecko thought of using some UV lights, which I know can deter mold and small organisms. Maybe if you have like a small 15 watt UV light added to the rest of your plant's lighting, maybe the mites will die?
 
  • #19
I put them into a bucket of rainwater with soup bowls to hold them under today. So I will see. It is nice an cool these days. When they come back out maybe they will grow bettter.
 
  • #20
I, beginning to believe that color and leaves are genetic traits like color of flowers in peas... I got 2 fairly large (compared to other 6), one is light green, with broad large leaves, and red tenticles. other - thin, smaller leaves, vivid reddish dark green color, with dark red tenticles. Both of them are under 160W of CFL, and both have sprouted 4 leaves over last week, and new leaves look just as I described. Of course now for some reason they stopped with the leafs and dew completely dried up... I've no idea why... although I noticed that in lower humidity they are totally dry, while in high one there are tiny dew droplets. Also another anomaly - the closer the lamps are... the lower the temp, and the dewier the leaves... the farther away the lamps... the hotter and drier it is... Maybe its just usual state of my life - everything is backwards.
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