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dewless sundews?

neon-eon

Stop having a boring tuna, stop having a boring li
When my D. spatulata and D. capensis first arrived they both had a whole bunch of dew on them. This was sometime in late november. I kept them on my windowsill with a compact 30 watt flourecent light bulb a few feet above them. After about a week I noticed that the amount of dew was decreasing. In mid-december I moved them into a a nice humid green house, in hopes of returning them to their normal state. I placed the same light bulb a couple of feet above them. The dew still didn't return. About a week ago I moved the light closer to them. They're now about a foot or so below the light. The D. spatulata seems to have increased its dew but just by a little. Some of the leaves of the D. capensis don't have any dew at all right now.

How long does it normaly take for the dew to return to a Drosera?

Does anybody know why this would be happening?

(The D. capensis is flowering, making the situation even stranger to me.)
 
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They're not getting enough light. 30w a foot away is practically nothing. You should have at least 80w, and then maybe a foot away or closer. Humidity isn't a big factor. Cut off the flower, it'll just make the D. capensis even more stressed.

Are the leaves very green on both plants?

-Ben
 
with sundews, sunlight makes dew NOT HUMIDITY. that CF bulb still needs to be even CLOSER. i have mine about 4 inches from my 75watt(output) CF
Alex
 
I was using a 30 watt compact bulb for my sundews because I thought I read somewhere that that they were equivelent to 100 watt tubes. Thanks for the clarification. I have two 40 watt tubes but they're too big to fit inside the greenhouse. I saw some smaller 40 watt tubes at lowes that should work just fine. I'll try do redo the lighting for my greenhouse as soon as possible.

Yes the coloration on both plants appear to be just fine.
 
A plant under 30 watts is like trying to get a suntan by candelight :)
 
Wait wait wait whoa... what about 55 watts? Ugh I had two (GIANT) 55 watt lights over my terrarium ( http://www.topbulb.com/find/Product_Description.asp_Q_intProductID_E_49800 ), my neps have beautiful coloring but is that not enough for sundews?

I HAVE had the same problem in the past with no dew on my dews but..I always thought it was humidity. >_< Maybe that's why my scorpiodes [Edit: actually this species is spelled, D. scorpioides] died.
 
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Wait wait wait whoa... what about 55 watts? Ugh I had two (GIANT) 55 watt lights over my terrarium ( http://www.topbulb.com/find/Product_Description.asp_Q_intProductID_E_49800 ), my neps have beautiful coloring but is that not enough for sundews?

I HAVE had the same problem in the past with no dew on my dews but..I always thought it was humidity. >_< Maybe that's why my scorpiodes [Edit: actually this species is spelled, D. scorpioides] died.

Those lamps are rated at 3300 lumens each, so basically you're starting out with about 6600 lumens which is roughly equivalent to a cloudy dull day. Remember light energy is subject to the inverse square law (divide by the square of the distance, so 1 foot candle would be 1/4 fc at two feet, 1/9 fc at three feet etc.). It takes quite a bit of energy to produce dew so sundews like lots of light. The closer the better.
 
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Please remember that every time the light produced from the spiral bulb hits another part of the bulb it's lost. You're getting about 35-40 top auctual watts from the spiral PC. If you don't have a good reflector, even less light reaches the plant. Nepenthes are very easy to please when it comes to light, not quite the same story with Drosera.
 
Jeez... *puts more foil in his terrarium*...
 
  • #10
55W GIANT CFLs? You obviously haven't held a 125W or 250W CFL! You could knock a caribou out with those things! :grin:
In any case, I find that Drosera in general require more light than anything else I grow, which is easy to supply with the aforementioned 125W bulb less than a foot above the tops of the plants.

Cheers
Amaury
 
  • #12
I'm at the point where I've realized that setting up the proper lighting for sundews in a covered, vertical, four-shelf green house is probably difficult, inefficient, and expensive. I'm starting to think about setting up a terrarium solely for sundews. My birthday is tomorrow so maybe I can talk my dad into setting one up for me as a present. My green house works just fine for tropical pitchers and ultricularia [Edit: actually this genus is spelled, Utricularia] though.

-peace
 
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  • #13
More light! I had some dews next to a south window with shades that were often closed by my wife and they were struggling with dew production. I then set up a ghetto grow area with four 4' shop lights and they are looking great. There was no change in humidity (~40 - 45 %). It is truly amazing what additional light will do.

xvart.
 
  • #14
I feel like I'm getting a graded spelling test back when I see those red edit marks, except now everyone can see how stupid I am. x_x;

*buys enough lights to cause a blackbout*
 
  • #15
They are really light hungry. I'm doing my own light experiment :)

My MH says to only use it with a glass lense to block some of the UV. I keep my terrarium covered with acrylic sheets and I decided i'd take them off and see what happens :) Hopefully the UV will make them even redder than before.
 
  • #17
Then they'll grow back. Maybe. If not then i'll put the acrylic back.

I expect them to burn and die back with the sudden drop in humidity and increase in light.

Once I get a new regulator i'll pump the terrarium full of co2 and see how much faster they grow :)
 
  • #18
That sounds like a risky business there... good luck.
 
  • #19
What's risky? The Co2? Perfectly safe.

If you mean the burnt plants , if they burn BAD and don't grow back all I'll do is put the plastic back lol.
 
  • #20
I wouldn't do an experiment like that, I'm much to paranoid, lol.

What's the point of the Co2 anyways? Like... photosynthesis?
 
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