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Sundew n00b, need a spot of help.

Alrighty, being a newbie to carnivorous plants, I recently picked up a Sundew Drosera at my local Home Depot (everyone's favorite supplier of carnivorous plants
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). There's no details on the label as to what subspecies it is, but I'm guessing its a D. Adelae as it looks a lot like this picture, which was posted in another thread.

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Anywho, right now its stuck in its little plastic encased pot until my terrarium arrives in the mail, and I've been watering it with distilled water, keeping the soil moist, and giving it what light I can from my desk lamp. Unfortunately, I can't put it in a window or outside for light because I live in Las Vegas, and I'm afraid the summer temps here would bake the poor thing. Is there another way I can provide adequate lighting without having to buy expensive flourescent lamps and whatnot?

Also, I've noticed that the new leaves that have grown in the few weeks that I've owned it, have a wilted look to them instead of being spread out flat like the older ones. I'm a bit confused about this, because I've done a pretty good job of keeping things humid, so I'm wondering if maybe its still not humid enough, or could be something else.

Finally, I've noticed that this plant isn't particularly adept at consuming bugs. From small ants to even a couple of aphids that I picked off my rose bush in the backyard, the tentacles on the leaves don't do a thing upon contact, even though they were crawling all over the things. Two days later the ant and aphids were dead on the peat moss. Is this species not very good at capturing insects, or is my plant just being retarded?

Any advice would be mighty welcome.
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geez is Hawaii Home Depots the only ones that don't have carniverous plants?!?! lol

Hmmm as for your question, the only thing I think might be wrong is using the desk top light. It needs real light. I think it would be okay if you put it near the window instead of in it, that way it wouldn't fry.

As for it catching the bugs, I have no idea, but I'm sure someone else here would.
 
D. adelae needs light, but not much of it. your desktop light wont cut it, unfortunately. i dont think the temps on your windowsill will be a huge problem, mine grow in my lowland terrarium and in the day it's 90-95 degrees (it was cooler but then i covered the whole tank with foil). remember, when temps go up, humidity goes down, so keep watch of the humidity.

he reason your plant doesn't look so great is because its probably in shock. my dews always stop producing dew when i do do something to them (say that ten times fast!)

also, dews make enough dew when they are in the right light, and your lamp wont cut it. D. adelae doesn't need alot of light at all, in fact they get bigger and live longer in lower light.

Do you have a hygrometer?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ June 27 2004,6:24)]D. adelae needs light, but not much of it. your desktop light wont cut it, unfortunately. i dont think the temps on your windowsill will be a huge problem, mine grow in my lowland terrarium and in the day it's 90-95 degrees (it was cooler but then i covered the whole tank with foil). remember, when temps go up, humidity goes down, so keep watch of the humidity.

he reason your plant doesn't look so great is because its probably in shock. my dews always stop producing dew when i do do something to them (say that ten times fast!)

also, dews make enough dew when they are in the right light, and your lamp wont cut it. D. adelae doesn't need alot of light at all, in fact they get bigger and live longer in lower light.

Do you have a hygrometer?
desktop light doesnt cut it? naw, its fine for adelae... Careful with higher temps, like JLAP said, the humidity will go down... If you want your adelae to flower, keep it cool!
 
Basically the lowest temperatue I can keep it at for now is whatever temperature my room is, which is usually 75-80 degrees. I considered letting it go open air, but Vegas is the king of dry heat, and humidity levels are usually quite low, unless you're stuck in an area chock full of swimming pools. I went to that weather.com site and today's humidity level was an amazing 11%.
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Temperatures on the windowsill are unfortunately far too high. When the sun is out and putting a decent amount of light through it, it gets HOT. I put a thermometer there and it went up to a whopping 130 degrees. This is during your average 105 degree day, which is extremely common during the summer in Vegas.

I don't have a hygrometer or barometer yet (I'm assuming you mean something that records humidity levels), but I plan on getting one once my terrarium comes in.

I have a smaller desktop lamp that's lower and would fit well right above the terrarium. Do I need any specific bulb light that would work best, is easy to find, and won't burn a hole in my pocket?
 
Drosera adelae come from Southern Queensland so it could be term sub-tropical. It prefer temperature between 20 C and 30 C and unlike most sundew it prefer some shade
 
It actually comes from northern Queensland in highland tropical rainforest where the light levels are low and humidity quite high. Temps between 75-80 will be perfect as long as the humidity is not too low (it won't be happy at 10%). Having said that, the species does not require the humidity to be extremely high and will easily cope with a level around 40-50%.
This is one of the few species that will grow okay with a desk lamp over it as long as the lamp is reasonably close to the plant.
 
d. adalae in my experience, seem to be a bit picky about things like humidity and transplanting. I don't know why, but I usually lose more plants when translplanting. I had tremendous luck with one of these plants in socal about a year and a half ago. the plant grew to nearly the height of a two litre bottle, then sort of fizzled after transplanting and such. I used a desk lamp that you could manipulate into close positions and I had no problem with it. I am finding that the d. adalae that I have now seem to like their distance from the light, but certainly like alot of it, and humidity as well. I would not however put them outside. I tried that in 80% humidity here in va and it nearly killed it.
 
i must disagree spec, while the actual amout of "light" coming from the lamp may or may not be enough, the spectrum is what matters.
 
  • #10
You can buy a compact fluorescent light in the right spectrum that screws right into your desklamp. Get the highest wattage one available, in either "daylight" or "cool white". Warm white is not as good. This will be fine until you get your terrarium set up, at which time you can use cheap fluorescent tubes to grow just about anything.

The good thing about these fluorescents is you can put them right over the plant since they don't produce too much heat.

Capslock
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ June 27 2004,9:38)]i must disagree spec, while the actual amout of "light" coming from the lamp may or may not be enough, the spectrum is what matters.
I grew pygmy sundews with a desktop lamp. They were blood red, and they looked great. A desktop lamp works fine. But in a place like Vegas, it would prolly crisp the plant, since you would need the bulb 3-8 inches away from the plant...
 
  • #12
If you use incandescent bulbs you have to be careful about heat. They produce a lot of heat whereas fluorescents are much cooler. Small shop lights aren't really too expensive.
 
  • #13
spec, just because your desktop lamp apparently had the right spectrum, doesn't mean his does. however, his might work, and i hope it does
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  • #14
Right now I've got your standard 60 watt incandecent bulb, but the lamp is pretty tall so I don't have to worry about it heating up the plants, but they do lose a fair chunk of light as a result. However, if flourescent provide a superior light spectrum, I'll grab one of those instead. What's the preferred wattage? Max my lamp can handle is 100, and I don't want something that makes the room painfully bright. ;)
 
  • #15
how the #### can u find the humidity level guys? i saw a 10gal. terr at pets smart for $23.95 im about to get that! couldnt u buy flurescent lite in home depot and Grow lights?
 
  • #16
You can get little barometers and other humidity meters to stick on/in the terrarium to measure humidity levels.
 
  • #17
Hmmm, will blue light work better for cps or plants in general? I know that plants absorb plenty of the red and blue ends of the light spectrum, so is it better to give them only the light that they absorb...anyone know anything about this?

I just by accident bought a blue light so it just occured to me, and, seeing that my plants had a growth spurt whilst they were under the 55W blue light for two weeks...

Hmm, maybe I should start a new thread...

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I grew pygmy sundews with a desktop lamp. They were blood red, and they looked great. A desktop lamp works fine. But in a place like Vegas, it would prolly crisp the plant, since you would need the bulb 3-8 inches away from the plant...

3-8 inches?!? Oops, my plants have been sunjected to an eternal summer all along!
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But they don't seem to care being 2 inches from the light when standing in flood water...
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What wattage is yours, Spec? How many Watts are you referring to when you say 3-8 inches?
 
  • #18
I got my first set of Sundews 5 days ago and they are all growing very well in my Terrarium. I have 2 15 watt flourescents in fishtank holders.

My Sundew like yours has Red glands at the tip and thats how I know it's doing well. It also is very sticky. A small ant is stuck in it now. I found it crawling on me after I planted some grass seeds on my lawn.

I have a Flourex lamp on the way.

I have some nice pics of sticky Sundew and a ant in it. I need hosting space.
 
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