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New Enthusiast - Drosera Concerns-General Growing?

Hello Everyone!
First off, I'd like to thank those of you reading this in advance for your time and help.

A few years ago, when I was much younger, I was fascinated with carnivorous plants. I had tried to keep them, but always failed, likely making mistakes that I was too young to understand. At any rate, I went out yesterday after spending the past week reading, and picked up a Drosera from the local garden shop. When I picked it up, the plant looked incredibly healthy, and was in a small pot, covered for humidity and "wading" in wet pebbles. I brought the plant home, and placed it outside, out of direct sun, and with a small dish beneath it with some gravel and a quarter inch of water. upon coming home from school, the plant's traps appeared to have dried out slightly, and there are no longer "dew" drops visible on the hairs. I shutter to think that I could have messed up this badly in the first six hours... but that's why I'm here.. I'm determined to raise healthy sundews and vft's! Since last night, I brought the plants inside, placed their pot's/saucers on a towel, then placed a 5 gallon aquarium upside down over them, with the towel to create a moisture lock. I also put a separate Tupperware container with some warm water to create extra humidity in the enclosure, without soaking the plants, and I placed a 15W fluorescent bulb (the bulb that goes with that particular aquarium) on the top.. or bottom
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of the tank. I have had this on since last night. will this provide a suitable environment until I can establish something better? Am I making any major mistakes? is it possible to grow sundews in a pot outside? Also, I know this would belong in the VFT forum but I also received 3 different VFT plants from my girlfriend for my birthday, all of which came in a rather poor condition. I rinsed them off and repotted them in the pot they came with, and plucked the solid black leaves. Do you think that these plants will be okay? I am convinced that they'll grow, I just want to be sure that I'm caring for them in the right way. Also the VFT's are in the same tank as the sundews right now. I can post a couple of pictures of both plants later today, as I'm at work right now, but any advice or links to helpful articles would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read through this, and I thank you for your responses!
 
Your dew is most likely D. adelae. they like shade but can take bright light with aclimation.

take the aquarium and turn it on it's side. that way you have more room for light on top, good air circulation, and more space for plants. i would get more light but D. adelae might do ok under 15 watts, i've never used only 15 watts so i don't know.

you can grow lots of drosera outside in full sun! all of the temperate species and tropical ones like the D. binata complex, D. regia, Capensis and the south african drosera, etc etc.

take the vft's and put them in a bright windowsill for now. when they are stronger you can aclimate them to full sun. pure sphagnum peat works well, or 1/1 peat/sand etc. don't put them in the terrarium because it's a breeding ground for fungi and your vft's are already in a weak state.
and 15 watts is waaaaaaaay to little to grow Dionaea in terraria.

oh yeah, the drosera lost it's dew because you changed it's environment. totally normal. the dew might not return on the old leaves but it will on the new leaves after it's aclimated.
 
loosing dew after a move is normal. any chance you have a camera? or can you describe what the leaves and growth style of the plant looks like? or do a search for D. capensis, D. spatulata and D. adelae and let us know which it looks like.

if its capensis or spatulata or about anything but adelae you need good light and wet peat. forget about humidity, it doesnt matter. i as a newbie i lost more plants to much humidity with poor air circulation than i have lost to low humidity in the last 4 years. i have Drosera out on my back step in 100 degree heat and 15% humidity, as long as there is water in their tray they are fine.

make sure to use peat for the soil and R/O, distilled or rain for water along with as much light as you can give them and most Drosera will be weeds. however if the your plant is adelae, good luck, hopefully this PITA will grow for you, it hates me
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if it is D. adelae, i suggest using pure Long Fibered Sphagnum. i can't grow it in anything else.
 
Thanks for the input guys! JustLikeAPill: If I am to put the VFT's in the windowsill.. should I be worried about them not having sufficient humidity? I will do as you said with the aquarium, and look into better means of lighting today! I just want to be
successful with these plants!

rattler_mt: I will take pictures when I get home from work today. The drosera does not really look like any of these. I suppose if anything it maybe a young D. capensis because it looks similar, but there are more leaves and the sections that are the traps are shorter. Like I said, I'll take pictures once I get home and get them up here. I hope everything works out.. Any other advice.. is certainly helpful! Thanks Guys!
 
on the VFT's, they are out with my drosera in the 100 degree heat and low humidity. other than Nepenthes, Heliamphora, certain Utrics and a handful of Drosera, humidity is not an issue. most of my plants have been grown in open trays. not sure what the localized humidity is but the abiant humidity in the room is often around 20%.

get us some pics and we can fine tune our recommendations on care but chances are if it doesnt look like adelae what i said above should work fine
 
i suggest getting 2 20 gallon tanks side by side and a 4 foot shoplight with 3 tubes. i have a 440 watt VHO setup ( regular shoplight is only 160 watts) if your interested . pm me.

compact fluorescents work great too!
 
In general, drosera and vfts like a ton of light. But don't move the drosera back outside until you have an ID on it.

The venus flytraps you should grow outside. I've never been able to do them in a terrarium, though many people can. Humidity isn't that big of an issue with it.
 
droseradude: What do you mean by getting an ID on it, this is probably a dumb question, but it's better to ask than to pretend to know.

I think that if I set up a terrarium, it will be rather small, and I doubt I will need something of that size JustLikeAPill. I originally wanted to grow them strictly outside, however now that I have them, it's slapped me in the face that that will not be possible 24/7/365 near chicago. The temps here today are about 90° with a humidity of about 85% yesterday was over 90%. So for right now I think it would be adequate, but not untill my new plants get some strength back! I'm in the process of reading the VFT care sheet from the forum, and if i have any questions i'll keep you posted... and I will still post some pics once I get home from work as I said, if anyone else has anything that would be helpful it would be appreciated!
 
  • #10
you can grow temperate species outside all year round in chicago
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i told myself i wouldn't get a big terrarium either
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  • #11
What sort of species can I grow outside year round?.. also which ones do not fall in this list? Or is there a post or link that contains this information?
 
  • #12
http://sarracenia.com/faq.html

theres everything that should get you started. this is an excellent FAQ and is the first FAQ i ever went to many years ago
 
  • #13
Thank You so much JustLikeAPill! This is perfect
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I'll post the pictures in a few hours!
 
  • #14
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]droseradude: What do you mean by getting an ID on it, this is probably a dumb question, but it's better to ask than to pretend to know.

What he means is, do not put it outside untill you know exactly what your plant is. As has been mentioned before, D. adelae does not like full sun. Mine will only grow indoors under fluorescent lights.

Based on the description you have given, I would guess that you probably have a very young D. adelae. When you get your pictures up then we can give a positive ID.

There are a lot of plants that you can grow outside in your area. Problem is when winter gets here, you are going to be faced with dormancy for the VFTs and any temperate drosera, and most of the rest of the stuff is not going to be too happy with the snow and cold so you will need to deal with that as well.

The VFT's I would personally just put outside right now. I have never babied a VFT to get it aclimated to my weather. It goes right from the box to the pot and in the yard. Constantly moving and fidgeting with your plants only drags out the whole process. Put it where you are going to grow it, and leave it alone. Even rotating the pot a few degrees in its water tray can disturb the plant and cause new leaves to grow deformed. I find that my VFTs grow best where they get about 7 hours of direct sun starting in the early morning and then bright shade for the late (after 4pm) afternoon.

Good luck with your plants,
Steve
 
  • #15
Thanks vft guy in SJ, I'll get the pictures up soon as I can, and put the VFT's outside when I get home. I hope everything goes well!
 
  • #16
just make sure it stays wet and worst case senerio you burn a couple leaves on the VFT which will be quickly replaced. other plants need to be eased into the sun a lil easier though or you will fry them.
 
  • #17
I will be running to the local nursery today to pick up some things, including soil.. as in the VFT care sheet, i presume peat moss and perlite will be acceptable? I will also be picking up a couple gallons of R/O water as I don't want to risk anything using tap water. I may even come home with a new Pitcher Plant
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Anything that you guys see as being a CP grower's necessity? Thanks!
 
  • #18
if your placing your plants outside just make sure you have a tray that holds lots of water. i like a tray that holds enough water where i only have to fill it up every other day even in 100 degree heat. longer if temps are cooler and humidity is higher. because you will forget one day so consier a larger tray and a bit of extra water an insurance policy
 
  • #19
If I do this won't I need to place rocks in it so that the plants roots don't rot from being constanly saturated?
 
  • #20
no. they grow in bogs. you can let the water evaporate before refilling if you want, but i dont with my outside plants.
 
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