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Small sundews with shallow roots?

Hey everyone! I'm looking for small, tropical sundews that can live in really shallow pots, like really really shallow, I'm thinking like 1cm deep. I'm looking for plants that grow to the max size of under a quarter, but the smaller, the better.

I looked up pygmys, but they seem to have extensive roots and will probably not do well.

I am also looking at D. burmanii and D. sessilifolia as candidates, but are there any others that might fit in this environment?

Thanks!
 
I don't know you'll find many that survive long in 1cm of media. Mexican pinguicula are a better choice.

Jason
 
Pygmys have long, LONG roots -- but they spindle around and shouldn't cause too much trouble. For example, I have a good batch growing in a 3" pot, but according to what I've been told, 6" pots are more or less required due to the length of the roots.

1cm though... wow. You'd have to be super careful watering something like that, a stiff breeze would remove that soil.
 
The reason it is so shallow is because it is part of this really small planted terrarium design. I have this little area that I would like to fit some small dews in. I have already planned to put some small pings in another higher part of the terrarium with more soil, but if worst comes to worst, I can just switch the two.

I'll experiment with burmanii for now, and I have a few gemmae coming in the mail so I'll sprinkle a few easy ones there too to see what happens.

I was also thinking about planting some utrics with really small leaves there instead, but I guess that is a question for the utric part of the forum. Also, I'm not too much of a utric fan, so I'm hoping that would be a last resort.
 
Gemmae, as said before, will produce Pygmy sundews (this will be a problem, they really do have long roots)
 
I would say pinguicula definitely need less root space than drosera. Some people have successfully grown pinguicula on old bits of wood. How deep is the area you currently set for pings?

Jason
 
Gemmae, as said before, will produce Pygmy sundews (this will be a problem, they really do have long roots)

I intend it to be sort of like an experiment. I plan to plant the majority in appropriate pots though.

I would say pinguicula definitely need less root space than drosera. Some people have successfully grown pinguicula on old bits of wood. How deep is the area you currently set for pings?

I would say 5cm of soil. This was what it looked like a long, long time ago (note the drosera looks kinda down since I took the picture the day it arrived in shipping):
4moreplants1.jpg


This terrarium was something that I tried to build before, but then I kinda left the hobby for a few years and everything in it died due to neglect. I just left the thing in a corner. Nothing inside has changed, I can even see the dead remnants of the plants. Looking back, the P. moranensis and P. laueana and maybe even the D. prolifera were pretty bad choices due to their eventual size. The sandy area I was hoping to fill with a couple of small drosera is in the lower left corner of the picture.

My planning was pretty off, I was even going to fit a nep in there :crazy:
 
I'd say find some nice compact pings for the shallow areas. You could certainly attempt pygmy drosera in the deeper areas. I might also try rotundifolia and other smaller, non-pygmy dews. Keep us posted on results.

Jason
 
One sundew you might like to try is D. intermedia 'Cuba'. Although the roots get very long after they grow for a while, it is generally a small plant.
 
  • #10
While the pygmy roots will be long, won't they just hit the bottom of the container and grow, you know, outward instead of downward?
 
  • #11
D. spatulata should be a safe candidate.
 
  • #12
Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely try out a few easy species in order to improve the chances.
 
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