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Sundew Help ~ Confused and a bit Overwhelmed

  • #21
If all you're concerned with is what you put on your plants then a decent aquarium store can test your water sufficiently. If you're interested in what you're putting in your body, contact QC testing lab in Southampton.
 
  • #22
What everyone else said but mostly it looks like it needs a media witty better aeration (moss, moss/perlite, peat/sand, peat/perlite/sand) and more light. If it was getting high humidity and you removed a dime or something that can affect it. It'll be fine though. Mine died back to a stem with a little green nub growth point, but in favorable confiions looked presentable in a month or so. This one will stay alive long enough to fix your errors.
 
  • #23
Alright it's been a minute since I've posted for help, I re-potted the thing in the moss, I rinsed the moss, and I've been watering it in a tray with distilled water. It's been in bright light in a window, it's not in a tank or anything but it's still pretty high humidity here and when I got it it was in relatively equal humidity.

For a while the older leaves were brown and dead looking and it had constant new growth, now it has... no new growth. There's not an ounce of green on the thing :( I looked at it one morning and it had a piece of fluff mold on the top of the moss x.x I'm going to take a picture to add but... I'm feeling like I killed it and I feel pretty dumb at the moment, lol. I smelled the moss and it smells like mold, so now I think that maybe it got root rot? :/ And if so I know with regular plants you have to re-pot them in new soil, so I'm not sure if I should re-pot this poor guy again? Bah I'm so frustrated, he's so pissed at me.
 
  • #24
If you have indeed managed to kill D. capensis, congratulations and may I welcome you to the club! Mine died when my grandson who lives with me was in his "helper" phase, and watered it daily with tap water. You live, you learn. Better growing next time. Repotting won't hurt. Although I don't grow capensis, I put all of my potted dews in a 50/50 mix of peat and sand.
 
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  • #25
Hey, don't worry about it, I can't even grow capensis, it dies back to the roots for me every summer
 
  • #26
If you have indeed managed to kill D. capensis, congratulations and may I welcome you to the club! Mine died when my grandson who lives with me was in his "helper" phase, and watered it daily with tap water. You live, you learn. Better growing next time. Repotting won't hurt. Although I don't grow capensis, I put all of my potted dews in a 50/50 mix of peat and sand.

What brand peat and type of sand do you use? I might just look into that.

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Hey, don't worry about it, I can't even grow capensis, it dies back to the roots for me every summer

Yea I told my fiance I'd like to try again and if I kill it again then it's just not meant to be :( It just sucks cause it's my absolutely favorite of the carnivorous plants! What kind of plants do you have?
 
  • #27
I use whatever peat I find at Lowe's. For sand my favorite is size 0 filter sand, but recently I started using a sand intended as an underlayment for paving stones. I like the coarseness of the grains, and it's much cheaper than filter sand.
 
  • #28
Skip the trip. Just get a Zero Water brand counter top water filter and you'll know that your water is deionized with a TDS of less than 6 and pH around 5.8.

Bed Bath and prices beyond sells them and they may take pity on you if you don't bring a coupon.

RO filters waste water, unless the waste water is routed to your grey water sysyem.
 
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  • #29
I use whatever peat I find at Lowe's. For sand my favorite is size 0 filter sand, but recently I started using a sand intended as an underlayment for paving stones. I like the coarseness of the grains, and it's much cheaper than filter sand.

Where do you get the new sand from? Also lowes?


Yea I ended up grabbing a tds meter from online, and I tested our rain water is 82 pps, and our tap water is about 262ppm, which doesn't matter too much anyway since I ended up buying distilled water to use! Thankfully!

Though I still managed to murder the damn thing...

Here's a picture, this is what it ended up looking like...it turned into this LONG before the moss dried out though, so that wasn't the problem. -sigh- the top ended up getting mold on it and it all smelled like mold.

 
  • #30
Skip the trip. Just get a Zero Water brand counter top water filter and you'll know that your water is deionized with a TDS of less than 6 and pH around 5.8.

Bed Bath and prices beyond sells them and they may take pity on you if you don't bring a coupon.

RO filters waste water, unless the waste water is routed to your grey water sysyem.

Calculate your cost per gallon. Even with the 3 to 1 rejection rate, the cost of ro water made at home is a tiny fraction of the cost per gallon with a home deionizer such as Zero Water.

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Yup I buy the sand at Lowe's. It's usually outside in the garden center with the rest of the paving stones and supplies.
 
  • #31
As if good water is free and we have infinite supplies.

Calculate the costs in realtime.

What do you pay the city or utility company to dig the pipes and annual water bill?

Im in the desert and we bring water in from another State.

I do my part to minimize waTer usage.

Its amazing how far a 5 gallon bucket of rain water can be stretched during a black out.
 
  • #32
As if good water is free and we have infinite supplies.

Calculate the costs in realtime.

What do you pay the city or utility company to dig the pipes and annual water bill?

Im in the desert and we bring water in from another State.

I do my part to minimize waTer usage.

Its amazing how far a 5 gallon bucket of rain water can be stretched during a black out.

I have calculated the cost in real time, and more importantly in a place more suited for human habitation than a desert! With all due respect, if you live someplace they have to import water to, my advice is to move to the place the water comes from. Imagine how long my 500+ gal of rainwater on hand would last.......
 
  • #33
Yea I told my fiance I'd like to try again and if I kill it again then it's just not meant to be :( It just sucks cause it's my absolutely favorite of the carnivorous plants! What kind of plants do you have?

Outdoors I have Sarracenia, VFTs and some dews, intermedia does pretty well here along with a Nepenthes that I'm testing out.
Indoors, I have a few Nepenthes, Drosera capensis and nidiformis, some Utricularia, and some Mexican Pinguicula :)
 
  • #34
Outdoors I have Sarracenia, VFTs and some dews, intermedia does pretty well here along with a Nepenthes that I'm testing out.
Indoors, I have a few Nepenthes, Drosera capensis and nidiformis, some Utricularia, and some Mexican Pinguicula :)

Oh nice! :D What kind of temperatures do you get around where you live (especially at night?) I've been told to leave my sundew outside as long as it doesn't go below 20 and I'm incredibly paranoid to just leave it out there. o.o

I'd love to see a picture of your plants! ^.^
 
  • #35
Two winters ago, when we had all the cold and snow my temperate CP's spent all winter in unprotected above ground half barrels.
 
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  • #36
Oh nice! :D What kind of temperatures do you get around where you live (especially at night?) I've been told to leave my sundew outside as long as it doesn't go below 20 and I'm incredibly paranoid to just leave it out there. o.o

I'd love to see a picture of your plants! ^.^
Although D. capensis is hardy, it will still die back at around 30°
What will happen is that the roots won't die and they'll produce new plants from there.

I have the opposite problem of most, we're having a cold spell here and it's about 50° at night haha. We only get a 5° different between day and night at most times of the year but during the winter we'll get a 10/15° difference haha
 
  • #37
I unfortunately have only rarely posted pictures on TF, most have been on other forums or on Instagram haha
 
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