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some petiolaris dew closeups....
- Thread starter amphirion
- Start date
Hey Aaron, klasac! Thanks so much for the kind comments. if only i had a better camera---i could make my plants look....maybe half as good as yours! you guys are like THE best when it comes to growing Drosera. i hope my dews could look like that...preferably sooner than later.
@Aaron: those plantletts are pretty much the only thing i have left from the mother plant which i got from Butch during the auction. some fungus that turns the plant red and causes it to lose its dew came, and pretty much ruined the plant. in fact, the mother plant's remains are found in the second photo, center plant. i thought i had lost it but lo and behold! i got all these plantlets! the largest one is starting to reach the diameter of a quarter while the smallest is about 3/4 the entire area of my pinky nail.
@Aaron: those plantletts are pretty much the only thing i have left from the mother plant which i got from Butch during the auction. some fungus that turns the plant red and causes it to lose its dew came, and pretty much ruined the plant. in fact, the mother plant's remains are found in the second photo, center plant. i thought i had lost it but lo and behold! i got all these plantlets! the largest one is starting to reach the diameter of a quarter while the smallest is about 3/4 the entire area of my pinky nail.
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pappydew
I hate bugs. Carnivorous plants get me.
@jpappy789: very hot. they're in the LL tank, and not only that, they're about 3-4 inches away from the lights! key is to keep them very hot and very wet. if they happen to go into dormancy, start cooling them off and allow the soil to dry out and water sparingly. however, if you do keep them hot and wet, they will continue to grow.
pappydew
I hate bugs. Carnivorous plants get me.
thez_yo
instigator
chibae
An orchid fancier with a CP problem
Adam
Sarracenia Collector
pappydew
I hate bugs. Carnivorous plants get me.
Ah, so it is the opposite...that makes even more sense. I didn't mean to imply they could be grown side by side just that they can be grown year round w/o dormancy. Knowing they are compatible with LL conditions is good to know.
Mufffft get ffoot out of mouffff..beautiful woolies you have there and very good cultural observations! Hot is the name of the game. I used to have some problems with fungal blight with this section of the genus. I found top dressing with laterite was a big help. If you can find a tropical fish concern, they can order it. You want the smaller particle type and as uniformly red in color as possible, avoid laterite with any other inclusions.
Yes, the pygmy Drosera and Tuberous species go dormant in hot conditions.
Yes, the pygmy Drosera and Tuberous species go dormant in hot conditions.
jimscott
Tropical Fish Enthusiast
It can happen with just about any species but for some reason it seems prone to hitting the most rare, valuable and generally unobtainable ones. Ain't it the pits? All of a sudden a formerly bedewed plant loses all the dew. The entire rosette looks red and sun burnt, even if it never saw the sun. Those affected leaves will never regain their dew, but applications of fungicides like Cleary's is reported to help, and if the plant is cured of the infection, normal leaves and dew will happen again with new growth. Species I have noted with little immunity are many of the South American droserae from the Tepui's, and 've also had many problem with the petiolaris species. Not to mention Drosera capillaris and D. spatulata. It seems not to widely spread to other plants, and was always a sort of contained phenomena in my collection when it did happen.
It is best avoided rather than treated. Avoidance comes from good mineral free mixes, in my experience. MAintaining an highly acidic mix helps (LFS is a great additive to mixes for this). Might be time for the "rinsing peat" lecture again. Don't assume your peat moss is ok, the quality varies widely. You should always rinse your peat and sand before potting, it really cuts down on problems like slime mold, mosses, liverworts, fungus, fungus gnats and aphids which take opportunistic advantage of overly mineralized mixes. Many growers prefer LFS entirely for the majority of Drosera species, but if you use this, you must be more aggresive in your feeding of your plants vs the peat/sand mix. I prefered the latter.
Some growers think I'm daffy regarding this process, but run off water from unrinsed peat read nearly 1000PPM on a TDS meter, nearly 10 times over the recommended limits for good CP cultivation. Also their pots were usually chocked with moss, green goo and the like! Some said they prefer the mossy look...to me it was always a heads up that something rare was gonna bite the dust.
I can post my method if there is interest?
It is best avoided rather than treated. Avoidance comes from good mineral free mixes, in my experience. MAintaining an highly acidic mix helps (LFS is a great additive to mixes for this). Might be time for the "rinsing peat" lecture again. Don't assume your peat moss is ok, the quality varies widely. You should always rinse your peat and sand before potting, it really cuts down on problems like slime mold, mosses, liverworts, fungus, fungus gnats and aphids which take opportunistic advantage of overly mineralized mixes. Many growers prefer LFS entirely for the majority of Drosera species, but if you use this, you must be more aggresive in your feeding of your plants vs the peat/sand mix. I prefered the latter.
Some growers think I'm daffy regarding this process, but run off water from unrinsed peat read nearly 1000PPM on a TDS meter, nearly 10 times over the recommended limits for good CP cultivation. Also their pots were usually chocked with moss, green goo and the like! Some said they prefer the mossy look...to me it was always a heads up that something rare was gonna bite the dust.
I can post my method if there is interest?
lizasaur
Charlatan
Now on the subject of rinsing peat,,,,there is peat and then there is peat. In a sphagnum boy, the uppermost layers in a bog produce the most desirable material for growing CP. These layers are naturally low in nutrients and have great antiseptic qualities that discourage anaerobic processes. The cool conditions and lack of nitrobacter in the substrate maintains these qualities, but the deeper you mine a bog, the greater the presence of cyanobacteria (blue green algae). Blue green algae has the ability to fix nitrogen into the substrate and thrives in oxygen poor conditions (like deep in the bog, or deep in your pots where the substrate is compacted. Peat from deeper layers is NOT good and as one bag of peat looks like any other there is no way to tell by looking. If you use bad peat containing nitrogen fixing organisms, things may be good short term but eventually nitrogen will enter the picture. As salts become accumulated over time via evaportive concentration problems arise. Slime mold is an early indicator which in turn produces nutrients that the Byrophytes are able to exploit, and soon mosses and liverworts start growing as well. Fungus also exploits these available nutrient resources, and fungus gnats, aphids and other critters also soon join the community. Over time, CP fail in theis scenario.
With a TDS meter 2 independent growers and myself checked the total dissolved solids in the runoff water from the peat we were using. Recommended limits for CP are 150 PPM (parts per million) Our readings were close to 1000PPM, nearly ten times the limit! Add to this complications arising from the use of any sand not close to 100 percent silica and the problem can be drastic since non uniformly white sand must always be suspected of containing other minerals which the acidic quality of the peat will leach out over time.
There are really only two alternatives: one is to repot annually into new medium, in the meantime syringing the pots at least weekly from above to leach out these nutrients before they concentrate, but this is very demanding in terms of time spent.
The better alternative is to begin by rinsing all potting media before introducing the seeds or plants. Needed supplies are 3 5 gallon pails, 2 half full of pure water. Put your dry peat in the first, and knead the stuff to get it partially wet. Wait 2 or 3 weeks, then wring out handfulls of moss and place in the second pail, When done, dump the water out of the first pail, replace it with fresh and repeat step one. Wait another week, and take the peat from the second pail, wring it out and put into the empty remaining bucket. Wash an appropriate amount of pure silica sand a couple of times and add to the peat in the third bucket. This is your mix. Fill as many empty pots as you can with this. If you have access for cypress mulch use a layer to block the drain holes, Place these filled pots outside where the rain can reach them and the birds will leave them alone and let the rain cycle through them as long as possible by using the oldest made up pots first. Repeat the process as often as needed but I found about 2x would get me through the season and there was always a pot ready to go without added fuss. I rarely had any issues with opportunistic species and my plants thrived without re potting for many years
With a TDS meter 2 independent growers and myself checked the total dissolved solids in the runoff water from the peat we were using. Recommended limits for CP are 150 PPM (parts per million) Our readings were close to 1000PPM, nearly ten times the limit! Add to this complications arising from the use of any sand not close to 100 percent silica and the problem can be drastic since non uniformly white sand must always be suspected of containing other minerals which the acidic quality of the peat will leach out over time.
There are really only two alternatives: one is to repot annually into new medium, in the meantime syringing the pots at least weekly from above to leach out these nutrients before they concentrate, but this is very demanding in terms of time spent.
The better alternative is to begin by rinsing all potting media before introducing the seeds or plants. Needed supplies are 3 5 gallon pails, 2 half full of pure water. Put your dry peat in the first, and knead the stuff to get it partially wet. Wait 2 or 3 weeks, then wring out handfulls of moss and place in the second pail, When done, dump the water out of the first pail, replace it with fresh and repeat step one. Wait another week, and take the peat from the second pail, wring it out and put into the empty remaining bucket. Wash an appropriate amount of pure silica sand a couple of times and add to the peat in the third bucket. This is your mix. Fill as many empty pots as you can with this. If you have access for cypress mulch use a layer to block the drain holes, Place these filled pots outside where the rain can reach them and the birds will leave them alone and let the rain cycle through them as long as possible by using the oldest made up pots first. Repeat the process as often as needed but I found about 2x would get me through the season and there was always a pot ready to go without added fuss. I rarely had any issues with opportunistic species and my plants thrived without re potting for many years
