Photoperiod: how short is too short?

[CPlantaholic]

Fury, the key for you (especially with the aphid problem) will be to let the pots dry out a little between waterings, as jim suggested in his last post.

Judging by how moist your media looks, your tray could probably stand to have less than a half inch of water in it. I usually only use 1/4-1/2 inch in mine in my automatic watering setup, which never dries out.

You can get away with having a higher level of constant water if the plants are water-lovers, like D. rotundifolia, D. anglica, or D. intermedia, etc. or if your plants are grown in a peat:sand mix that favors sand for better drainage. Otherwise, really good air circulation will allow you to have higher water levels as well.
However, with the current media and pot height you're using, it seems to really soak in the moisture well, so I'd just recommend using a bit lower water level and letting the tray dry out every so often.

[TheFury]

SORTED!! Thanks for all the info. The tray these dews are in is completely empty and has been for about a week and a half. Last night I top-watered all my plants. I'll go three days or so between top-waterings without letting water accumulate in the tray. Once summer comes around, I'll let the plants stand in an inch or so of water.

As for my aphid problem - I murdered them mercilessly with some kind of fruit tree spray and relished in their demise (the spray is mainly neem oil with pyrethrines, and piperonyl butoxide - all CP safe according to my research). No signs of life at this point, but some black flecks have appeared on the leaves of some of my dews - presumably struggling aphids that left their hiding spaces to die. Only fitting that they be caught in the death grip of my hungry CPs in their last pointless moments on earth bwahahaha. I'll repeat the treatment in a week or so, perhaps with slightly less enjoyment next time.

Got a link or some info on this nifty automatic watering setup you got? Sounds like a fun tinker project for a gearhead like me!

[tommyr]

FYI, my Scorps made gemmae with a 12 hour period this season. Light on at 6am, off at 6-6:30pm.
I think cooler temps also help a lot as well.

[TheFury]

Thanks tommyr! I should have gemmae in a few weeks then, if I did things right.

Alright - so my lights are now closer to my plants, I upped the photoperiod by 1 hour to 10 hours total, and I'm watering plants more judiciously.

Just an update: The humic acid seems to have cleared from the crown of my D. aliciae. It's regaining some dew and I can't tell for sure but it may have even started growing again. I lost the two smallest plants, unfortunately, but I do notice some seedlings popping up from under them. Ah, the circle of life!!

The D. adelae... still not so hot. How do I keep killing this (supposedly) easy-to-grow plant??

The D. spatulata doesn't look much different. As for the D. venusta, some of the older leaves seem to have died but it seems like new growth is happening slowly.

Thanks again for all your advice, everyone. I'll keep you posted.

[CPlantaholic]

Glad to hear things are turning around. Sounds like most of your dews should be happy by the end of the month.

As for the "nifty automatic watering setup" it's pretty much as boring as you can get, using the water inversion trick... lol. I'm only trying to make it a bit more large-scale- Here are 2 pics:
(Sorry if this is way off topic. I should probably have started a new thread in another section)


big filesize to see up close: http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/s...ter_hi_res.JPG



You can get an idea from the top pic how the larger culligan container is working (by looking at the bottled water to the bottom left corner)- I basically took a few of those smaller pots (those green ones) and attached them to the neck of the 3-gallon culligan jug so that it raises up the jug .5 inches or so from the water tray level. I put the jug inside of a larger pot so that it stands up straight and prevents it from falling over.
I can go about 2 months without having to fill up the culligan jug, but I need to fill the liter bottle up every 2 weeks. Basically, the only reason i have the 2 liter pop bottle is that I haven't had time to buy a larger tray and that's the main problem at this point...i'll get one over break though.

I was thinking about making a rig using a longer pvc pipe- my idea was that you could put a screw cap on one end (the bottom) while you were filling it from the top, which could be sealed off when you were done filling it up) but this will take a bit of tinkering. As of now, I have to hold the end of the pop bottle until I get it in the water, and it spills out a bit, but it's not too much of a problem. The culligan jug is actually easier since the pots form a tight fit onto the neck of the bottle so that only a little water gets out before I get it situated.

[jimscott]

That's a great idea! And to think we have that for the cat....