what are the best growing conditions for a D. capensis?

[yelram4life]

I have it in a homemade terrarium aquarium 12WX30LX19H covered inside with aluminum foil and a GE Ecolux Daylight 20W 24" bulb in the light fixture. The light has nowhere to escape. I am in the process of installing a PC fan to move the air around inside the tank and I have an aquarium water heater set up in a cylindrical water vessel inside the tank to keep the humidity level up. I plan on getting some moss to simulate a moist bog-like environment and I only give the plants distilled water. In the terrarium I have three VFT's an adelae and the capensis all in 3.5" pots on trays with approx. 1/4" of distilled water in them...The cap. seems to be dying and I just started this new and exciting hobby so any help would be appreciated...I live in NH if that info helps anyone. If you need anymore info, let me know...

thanks, Rik.

 

[Wolfn]

You can try growing it on your porch. Where are you located?

 

[yelram4life]

North Woodstock, NH. It's about 20F right now...

 

[rattler]

put it in a sunny window....D. capensis can stand 10% humidity just fine.......putting it in a high humidity environment tends to do more harm than good.......

 

[yelram4life]

Really...? I'll remove right now. Thanks.

 

[rattler]

ive got 3 of them in the window at the office.....between the cold winter air and central air in the office, doubt it sees over 20% humidity for half the year........they are looking great.....there are some sundew species that do benefit from higher humidity but there are a whole slew of them that dont care so long as you keep the soil wet..........

quickest way to kill the vast majority of Drosera is give them high humidity and lil to no air circulation, they will start to rot.........

 

[Wolfn]

Yeah. Sundews actually need light. That's what makes them dewy, not the humidity. I'm not saying to put them in an arid environment, but they will do fine on a windowsill that gets a few hours of direct sunlight.

 

[CPlantaholic]

i might still recommend supplementing the plant with your fluorescent light in the window. Although it will survive in those conditions, it may not thrive unless that window gets a ton of light.
Without additional light, the ones by my window are green w/ only slightly red tentacles. Under T-8 lights, they nearly turn red and have tons of dew (They aren't the red form). But, this should only be temporary. Once it warms up, be sure to move the plant outdoors where it will thrive.

 

[Wolfn]

If light is a problem, you can try growing a Drosera adelae on the window. It thrives in shadier conditions.

 

[jimscott]

See these young capensis plants? I did nothing to encourage them at all. They just reside on the window sill, labelled U. alpina.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Just 2 cents worth of caution if you remove the plants it might be best to harden them off gradually vs just taking them out of their "softer" growing conditions.