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Need id on sundews

Hi everyone. Last month I purchased some drosera. The sender sent everything in a box without identifying them. I'm not sure what is what now. May I ask if anyone is able to help me ID these plants?

I ordered these and 8 plaants arrived:
Drosera Falconeri Red Titan
Drosera Falconeri Red Goliath
Drosera Falconeri Green Goliath
Drosera Falconeri Kondo Tsang
Drosera Falconeri from seed
Drosera Falconeri x Paradoxa
Drosera Kenneallyi "All Red"





I have emailed the photos to the seller but he has not told me what they are. Ieven called him about it. As a last resort I am posting here hoping a well informed expert can help ID them.
 
#3 D. falconeri x paradoxa
#7 D. keneallyi

Other than that how do you tell a Titan vs a Goliath? How do you tell if a plant was from seed or a cutting? Color is dependent on light levels and quality so that's not always very good indicator. It may take several weeks for "red" forms to show their true colors. Provided they get the light they need to display these characteristics. However I see nothing that is all green.

I'll leave it up to our resident petiolaris complex experts pingman, Pyro and Seandew to help you out with the others.

BTW what do you have them planted in? Petiolaris complex generally do better in tall pots with sandier mixes. They grow rather extensive roots and require pretty dry conditions when dormant. Pyro's recipe of 2/2/1/1 sand/perlite/peat/milled LFS is a wonderful mix for these.
 
Hi not_a_number, Sorry about that, I really didn't mean to expect anyone to identify a seed grown plant vs a cutting. I thought I'd just put down the list of what I ordered, in the specific names the seller listed his items.

It's quite possible that some of the stuff on the list was not sent to me. At the last minute the seller decided prolifera and regia were not ready to ship so he withdrew them. It's possible green goliath was withdrawn too.

All of these sit side by side, and it is yet unusual some are red while others aren't quite there. Weather's about 30-38 degrees which is 86 - 100 f. Humidity is around 70 and upwards. Sun is direct from 3pm onward, and very bright shade before that.

I honestly don't even know if there is such a distinction as a red titan vs red goliath vs green goliath falconeri. But I thought I'd post here for help.

Substrate is peat + perlite with a top layer of sphagnum. They sit in a tray about 3-4 inches deep. I might have to move them into something deeper later for their root systems since you say they get long. I grow a dilato petiolaris and strangely it has divided 4 times but not produced any roots at all in this set up. It's just plant and sits in a perlite peat mix. Almost 1 year still no roots.

I don't intend to let the falconeri go dormant though. In the darker months here I will put them under artificial lighting. Dormancy doesnt sound easy and from what I read it is not a necessity as long as wet and light levels are maintained.
 
You may have to wait a few months, after the plants have had time to acclimate and grow, to be more sure of what you have. Even then, the crosses may not excatly be distinguishable. To me, the leaf structure of #3 has a paradoxa shape.
 
#3 is kenneallyi and #7 is the falco x paradoxa hybrid. Tough call unless you have a lot of experience with these plants but once you know the traits you can pick them easy.

The others are best just left labeled as falconeri. I am 99% sure I know who sold them to you and said person has a tendancy to give his own plants fancy names but none of them are actully registerd cultivars so in all honesty it does not make much difference. As NaN noted, colour is a matter of conditions and yours probably will not match the sellers. I have a dozen plants that all came out of the same flask (and as such are to all intents and purposes identical) yet each and every one of them looks different.

If I had to hazard a guess #5 is the red titan, #2 is the green goliath and #8 is the red goliath. But those are off the hip and just as likely wrong as right. Like I said, best bet is to just call them all falconeri and give them your own code numbers to tell them apart.

And, if I can chime in on cultivation. In my experience the rootless phenomenon you describe is the result of too compact media. This was part of the reason I switched up to the much looser mix I now use. And as far as dormancy, yes in theory if you keep the plants hot and wet they stay in active growth. However, in practice this almost never happens. Dormancy really is not the great boogieman but it can be tough. Best bet is to watch your plants closely, if they start the "inward spiral" that means they are going dormant. DO NOT fight it. Dry them down and keep them in high humidity but do not leave hem sitting in water. The plants almost always come back within a couple months.

Hope all that is helpful
 
Hi pyro,

If I sound a little noobish but, isn't perlite and sphagnum a rather loose mix? NaN mentioned your recipe of 2/2/1/1 sand/perlite/peat/milled LFS . If anything, I would have thought that sand is heavy and would make the media compact further than if I were to just do nothing more than perlite and sphagnum Moss. I also need to confirm that you are actually using river sand and not the stuff from corals or the beach right? I will have to go out and try and buy some sand this weekend. I could go ahead with two parts perlite, one part peat, and one part sphagnum Moss. I have that at home. Does that sound good enough if I skip the sand?
 
I know what seller you got yours from and here my Drosera Falconeri Green Goliath I got from him. Same as yours. I got a vary small Green Goliath it took a couple of months before it started looking like a Green Goliath
rarerare.jpg
 
B.T.,

Not a newbie-ish question at all.

Maybe I misread but I thought your mix was 1/1 peat/perlite... If it is sphag/perlite then that might do fine. Remember, no matter how well someone is growing a certain plant, their conditions only apply to them and should only be taken in that context. How I grow my plants I can guarantee works perfect only for me. You can try it my way if you want but I will not guarantee it for you. Take it only as a suggestion and nothing more.

Sand, in too great a proportion, can indeed compact. My original mix for petios was a high sand mix and it was compacting which was giving me the rootless phenomenon. The new mix I came up with was actually the result of talking with another grower about growing tuberous group. He said a good mix for them should have lots of pumice or similar grit in with the sand based mix because it kept it open. I figured that would help with the petios too and remade my mix adding the extra parts of perlite. Those 2 parts really keep it open. Even after 6 moths on some of the pots you can give them a squeeze and the media shifts as it if had just been placed in the pot. And, an even better indicator IMHO, I have roots growing out the bottoms of about 50% of the pots.

But like I said, this is just what I have found works for me. I know a number of growers who just use peat/sand or peat/perlite and get great palnts as well. Some of the other top petio growers use those mixes (Homer, Forbes, PingMan, RL...) It just never worked for me.

The sand I use is just the paver sand you can buy at HD/Lowes. Nothing fancy about it. I do not really recommend river sand because there is no telling what crap might have been leaching into the river.

If you would prefer to not use sand that is your call and I am not going to encourage or discourage it. It might work great for you , it might not. I would think a mix of 2/1/1 perlite/sphag/peat should be okay but if it feels too dense then toss another part or two of perlite in. It is always good to experiment because that is the best way to find out what works best for you.

Hope all that helps. Ask away if you have more questions
 
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