New baby drosophyllum all potted up. Some questions as well.

[Brie]

I picked up a baby Droso a couple weeks ago from the local CP nursery... SO STOKED to finally have one of these! It just kind of sucks that it had to be at the END of the season where I could safely keep it outside.

For substrate I used pumice, rinsed black lava rock, rinsed 8grit coarse quartz sand, and rinsed peat in a 1.5 : .5 : 1 : 1 ratio... The .5 is in there because I would of had JUST ENOUGH black lava rock to use IN the mix, BUT I wanted to use some as top dressing, so I subbed in more pumice instead.

Pot is a 10" x 12" terracotta pot I picked up today, and as previously mentioned used black lava rock as a top dressing. Everything sound good to yall?

So a quick question. I live up in the Seattle area, zone 8. I KNOW I wont be able to leave it outside for the winter... How low of a temp can it take? Anyone know? Havent been able to find an exact answer. Just need to know when to bring it inside, which leads me to question #2. What type/how much lighting would you use for one of these guys indoors? Im assuming i'll have to use some sort of spot light since the sucker is gunna be WAAYY to big to go on a shelf in my plant rack.

Anyway, a couple pics:

Before being potted...

And now.. Crappy quick low light pic.. Sun had pretty much set so had to use a really high ISO.

 

[Heli]

Drosophyllum can take surprisingly low temps, they can survive down to 20F so you can keep them outside for a bit longer. As for light, the more the better, full sun on a south window or a powerful grow light like a halide, they should have at least 6-8 hours or direct light.

 

[Brie]

Drosophyllum can take surprisingly low temps, they can survive down to 20F so you can keep them outside for a bit longer. As for light, the more the better, full sun on a south window or a powerful grow light like a halide, they should have at least 6-8 hours or direct light.

Well the other problem we have is not only does the change of season here mean lower temp, it means days of rain on end and not a peak of sunlight. It just doesn't seem like it would be a good environment for a drosophyllum..

 

[ErrorEN]

Hi there,
I just looked up the lowest average temperature in Portugal and it is around 52 degrees (probably not true). Just to be safe I would just keep it at a nice 60 degrees. As for lighting, I would assume that ordinary shop lights would work, but in The Savage Garden it says to grow them under halide lights. (Which I'm pretty sure are used to light football fields and to light saltwater aquariums for corals and such.)

 

[Not a Number]

They survive temperatures as high as 45°C (113°F) and light frosts down to -7°F (19°F). Soil temperatures in-situ near the stem of the plants have been recorded at 41°C (106°F). They should be brought indoors before the first frosts. I may be mistaken but I seem to recall Stewart McPherson mentioning snow lingering in shaded crevices at some sites. You should refer to his chapter on Drosophyllum in his "Carnivorous Plants and their Habitats vol. 2" which is very up to date and corrects much of the information floating around about this species.

Then again you could pay for a copy the article Ecophysiological observations on Drosophyllum lusitanicum by Wolfram Adlassnig, Marianne Peroutka, Gregor Eder, Walter Pois and Irene K. Lichtscheidl

 

[Natalie]

Looks great! Do you have a place in your yard that's a bit protected for the really cold nights? Remember, since it's from a Mediterranean climate, rain and wet soil is OK as long as it's cold since that's what they are used to in the wild. It's wet soil + hot weather that would give you problems. I've also read this species can tolerate temperature dips down to 20 degrees and possibly cooler, but just to be safe I think it would be best to put the plant in your garage or inside for the night if you're expecting temperatures that low.

 

[Brie]

Looks great! Do you have a place in your yard that's a bit protected for the really cold nights? Remember, since it's from a Mediterranean climate, rain and wet soil is OK as long as it's cold since that's what they are used to in the wild. It's wet soil + hot weather that would give you problems. I've also read this species can tolerate temperature dips down to 20 degrees and possibly cooler, but just to be safe I think it would be best to put the plant in your garage or inside for the night if you're expecting temperatures that low.

YAY! Was hoping you'd reply.

I live on the top floor of an apartment building, unsheltered patio is what all of my plants are on... No outdoor storage closet or anything. :\ Best I could do is cover it with a tub and blanket...

So days of rain and cold would be ok you think? And I mean like, ALOT of rain. I always read they cant be kept wet.. Im also worried about how dreary it gets here.. Pretty much no direct sunlight in the winter months here...

Lets see.. looks like our average Seattle rainfall for october/november is 5inches, while december/january/febuary is about 6inches a month. AAAnnnnddd according to this weather site, looks like Portugal has the same.. 5-7" a month.

So yeah.. ya think covering it with a tub or something would help insulate it a bit from the cold? Its kind of what i'd planned on doing with my sarrs and vfts during the coldest parts..

 

[Natalie]

Does it usually rise to above freezing during the day? If it was my plant, I'd just set it inside for the night until it got warm enough outside to put it back out there. The rain shouldn't be a problem since the soil drains well... Days of rain pretty much nonstop is fairly typical for Mediterranean climates in the winter, and your area gets about the same amount of precipitation as the areas in which this plant is found natively.

 

[Brie]

Snapped a few new pics this morning... It experienced its first PNW rain/wind storm over the past couple days.. Looks like it wasnt phased lol. Had to go pick all of the pine needles and stuff off of it..

 

[ellisonk001]

Glad to see it is doing so well for you!

 

[Smitty]

looks like it weathered the storm like a champion!

 

[Cindy]

Brie,

Was the peat pot that it came in originally so wet all the time? And did you just plonk the whole thing into the new pot?

TIA!

 

[Brie]

Brie,

Was the peat pot that it came in originally so wet all the time? And did you just plonk the whole thing into the new pot?

TIA!

Yeah, at the nursery they were growing them in peat pots, in a water tray with just enough water to cover the bottom of the tray. When I potted it, I tore away the bottom of the peat pot really carefully, then set it into a hole in the substrate that I had made in the shape of the pot(used a different 2-3" pot).

 

[Cindy]

Thanks, Brie! I have already killed more than 10 seedlings plants from either under-watering or heat wave (dried out them out).

 

[kulamauiman]

This was the thing i was wondering also. It got me thinking that maybe my media is too dry, too much sand and dries out too quickly. Add the terracotta pot and losing water way too quickly all the time. So far they grow, get nice and big and die.... Either that or for me it is too much UV light for their liking.....