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Heavy rain and your sundews

I grow all my CPs outside. I notice that lots of rain or heavy rain disturbs the sundews, while the other CPs seem to enjoy it. So I was wondering what do you outside growers do with your sundews when it comes time for the rain? Do you shelter it somewhere else or let mother nature do her thing? Just curious...
 
"disturbes" them?
 
Yes "disturbs". The pots get flooded and and the perlite seems to be rising to the top. My intermedia's pot's surface is all perlite. The water made it rise. Not only this but the dew has been washed off.
 
ooh i see.

if it's a BIG rain i move everything inside. but these little summer storms i dont worry about.
 
I have only brought mine in for 1 storm and that one had 30 mph winds with gusts over 50 mph.
I wasn't really worried about the plants themselves but that the pots would blow over.
The only problem I have had was the perlite flooding over and making a mess.
I solved this by top dressing with a thin layer of peat moss 1/4" and then another layer of LFS. No mess, and the soil doesn't wash over any plants anymore.
The dew does wash off sometimes, but it all comes back normally 1-2 days later.
 
I have my D. binata & filiformis outside, with their long, flowy leaves, but their buckets / minibogs are up against the kitchen and that partially shields them. However, we get those intense 3" rains and their leaves do droop. I haven't noticed a loss of dew and the next sunny day, they seem to bounce back. The are not harmed by the rain. They just have a "bad leaf day". Perlite naturally rises to the top, over time.
 
I just put some holes in my plastic water tray, to avoid an overflooding. I did this to my Nep's water tray as well, so now I won't have to worry about it
biggrin.gif
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I'm going to put some LFS on the top of my sundew pots. I have been hesitant about this because last time the LFS was overgrowing my sundews! So far I haven't seen this kind of behavior from Golden Sphagnum (aka Angel moss). Thanks.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] just put some holes in my plastic water tray, to avoid an overflooding.
Yep, that's what I did. No more floating pots in my trays.
I do cover the pygmy sundews though, they are kind of small and delicate and the rain will wipe them out.
 
  • #10
First off, ditch the perlite and go with sand which doesn't float.  All my Drosera were grown outdoors during the warmer months in undrained plastic containers (bins that fish came in).  Some were actually aquatic for weeks on end with no ill effects noted when the water receeded.  If strong rains were in the cards I would cover the bins with their lids, but otherwise they were exposed to whatever Mamma gave them.

I have to disagree about the comment on terrarium culture: I never found a need for this with Drosera and plants so grown never did as well as those in more open scenarios although the Queensland species did need some babying to get them toughened up. 40% RH and above seems adequate for just about all of the species, and I have grown most of them.

Strong Drosera are remarkably resiliant and spring right back after rains, even if the lamina are covered with peat. Rains also leach out salts from the pots and wash away prey corpses which are prone to fungus infections that can affect the plants.  Noticing the growth spurt evident after rains,  I speculate that the litter actualy provided some nutritional benefit to the plants.   Best effects were reached with plants started from seed in the nekkid outdoors - these required no hardening off or babying at all. Switching from closed to open growing takes observational care and patience to get them hardened off.
 
  • #11
I grow several drosera outdoors. We just got torrential downpours from the remnants of the huricane. They are all currently underwater. The level should receed in about three to four days. Thay all seem to love it.

Glenn
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Tamlin Dawnstar @ July 18 2005,3:19)]First off, ditch the perlite and go with sand which doesn't float.
Huge bag of perlite for sale cheap...
smile_n_32.gif
 
  • #13
I no longer use perlite in my outdoor pots.

Here are some tips:

You can top-dress the peat/perlite or peat/sand mix with long-fiber sphagnum, or live sphagnum.

Don't worry about the sphagnum burying the plants; just harvest it and use it in other pots.

You can also sow the peat surface with a fast-growing utic (like U. subulata) that will help hold the surface together when it rains.

In my outdoor pots, I put peat in the bottom half of the pot. The rest is filled with LFS.

My Sarracenia love it.
 
  • #14
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Huge bag of perlite for sale cheap...
smile_n_32.gif

Perlite is $3.99 a bag, even for small bags in my neck of the woods. I buy 100 lb bags of silica sand (used for sandblasting) for $8. That goes a loooong ways. I think its much easier to work with, when rinsing and all. Another alternative might be pumice. That shouldn't rise to the surface.

Also, I leave my outdoor Drosera exposed year around to whatever nature brings their way. Can't beat the coloration and vibrance of Drosera growing outdoors.

-Homer
 
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