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NeciFiX

Kung Fu Fighting!
Urgh, people are talking about how their D. capensis had tons of dew and continued to have so afterwards. My lighting may not be a metal halide lamp, but my D. aliciae produced enough dew to catch a fruit fly on it's new leaves, and this plant is almost TOUCHING the light it is so close, and the D. aliciae pot was so much shorter. When I got my D. capensis, it only had a little dew on one of the tentacles, which got on me do to the fact I saw no dew and my hand accidentally rubbed onto it. Thankfully, Drosera and Ping dew isn't hard to come off.

Conditions
RIGHT UNDER LIGHT (Dionaea were liking it a lot, slight red colouration, constantly producing new traps, many flower stalks, D. aliciae made dew, was in a 3 inch pot, this is 8 inch)
Humidity (45-50%, some people have had tons of dew in only 15% though)
Watering: Every few days I flood the media, not like all the way to the rim of the pot, only slightly. The tray it is in doesn't do much for the tray system, not deep enough, not enough room to get a bigger one. None of the plants get root disturbance though as I do it slowly and it's not a full fledge flood. Distilled water only.
Soil: 50:50 Peat Moss/Perlite.

I've had it for maybe a month, it came from BobZ, I have a feeling it may be my lightings fine but... my D. aliciae didn't make any dew until I got new light and it made new tentacles. But this thing is FLOWERING and it has tons of new, dewless tentacles, IN FACT, the newest tentacle which is closest to the light, has red hairs, but no dew.

So what could I be doing wrong?

Also, it was making new dewless leaves before it flowered, so I don't think it was flower exhaustion.
 
here is sort of a counter-intuitive suggestion: back it away from the lights some. If they are hot the "dew" can evaporate. D. capensis really aren't that demanding. I admit that a lot of my sundews grow a lot better under lights, but my capensis grows just fine on the windowsill. It flowers (is currently) and has lots of dew. You may be surprised as to how much "neglect" they can take.
 
While light is the biggest factor for the production of dew, it sounds like more than light is the issue. Could it be reacting to shock of some sort... a significant change in conditions?
 
More light. Put it outside once the weather permits.
 
Because I live in summer weather year round, I find that D. capensis does not dew and eventually die on me. Apparently, it dislikes being warm at the roots region and that leads to root rot very quickly. What's the temperatures under your lights?

I find that a night temperature drop is also essential.
 
You said they are flowering. Drosera often lose their dew when flowering. Both flowers and dew production require a lot of energy and the need to reproduce takes priority.
 
My experience with sundew flowering has been that in rare cases the plant can look a little put out, but I can't think a one where it lost its dew. Now taking a capensis from 70 degrees to 15 degrees and back to 70 again will not only cause dew loss, but wilting of over 90% of the leaves. I have seen dewless D. adelae as Lowes "cube of death", but that was from incredible neglect from the store.
 
Well, my D. aliciae was MUCH farther from the light and it still produced gobs of dew on it's new leaves. D. capensis was dewless for about 2-3 weeks then began to flower suddenly with still no dew.

But, light, yeah, it's right next to it, but it could be light.

It's in the freezing temps in the middle of April, temps begin to warm up to 50's and 60's in June, so hopefully by July I can have them outside :).
 
I've got six D. paradoxa, 5 in the same pot. All are flowering. One in the pot of 5 stopped producing dew.
 
  • #10
Well, my D. aliciae was MUCH farther from the light and it still produced gobs of dew on it's new leaves. D. capensis was dewless for about 2-3 weeks then began to flower suddenly with still no dew.

But, light, yeah, it's right next to it, but it could be light.

It's in the freezing temps in the middle of April, temps begin to warm up to 50's and 60's in June, so hopefully by July I can have them outside :).

I think CPsInAtl had it right. You should try moving your lights further away, around 8" - 10". If your aliciae is MUCH farther away, you can raise your lights further from the cape and see what happens. Then just elevate your aliciae if you think it needs to be closer then. Give it a try, what have you got to lose? More dew?

xvart.
 
  • #11
Neci, When I got my Capensis it started making a flower and stopped producing dew for about a month/month and a half. After the flower was situated I noticed that the dew slowly returened, the old leaves eventually died, and then it started growing like crazy. In just a week the plant can produce about two new fully-sized leaves. If you cut off the flower stalks the dew will probably return quicker, but I have personally found that the capensis will naturally start making dew again, if you give it time.
 
  • #12
NeciFiX,

As JLAP mentioned, light is the single biggest factor in sundews making their dew. For example I grow my D. spatulata a good 6" or 8" from a compact floro bulb from Target. I think it is a 75 watt equiv, maybe 100 watt...

Anyway, the point is that the plants are completely flushed red from the light they are getting. Something to consider is that you *can* trade intensity for photoperiod - to a point. As for capensis, I can't comment though on your floro situation exactly. That plant grows just fine for me on a windowsill were I have problems growing more "difficult" sundews such as D. graminifolia (which grows great under aritifical lights). Now for example, my graminifolia is so long that the leaves get up near the bulb, usually that part has less dew - if any - than the part of the leaf a few inches below.

As for flowering, mine is in bloom right now, still full of dew. I have noticed two things with this plant 1) when it flowers it grows smaller leaves and 2) when it is cold and the photoperiod is shorter (granted this is relative since I live in Georgia) the leaves loose some color and grow smaller, but still very dewy.
 
  • #13
Alright, I'll try moving it back. Some other plants may like the lighting anyway. The morning light coming in is very nice so I moved some plants to it. Since we're still in the freezing temps (after 80F or 35C the other day) we're getting snow and not rain, but still, so it's getting cloudy fairly often.
 
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