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watering south african sundews

Even after 2 years, i have hard times trying to find a good watering cycle.
This morning, i look at my sundews's soil and everything looked great; the media was moist, and the plants beautiful. Tonight i look at my sundews, and all the flower are dry. Some leaves ends was dry too. The soil was almost dry.
I cannot leave the plants on standing water on my setup, because everything rot. I lost many sundews last year because of overwatering.

I know it will sound very basic for you guys, but how do you water your sundews? Everyday? Standing water without roots rot?
 
Everything except highlanders like D. regia and D. glabripes sits in water. Anywhere from 1/2 inch to nearly up to level of the soil. Naturally winter growers like D. trinervia and D. cistiflora are allowed to dry out completely during dormancy. Highlanders get top watered daily usually in the morning and again in the afternoon on particularly hot dry days we get once in a while.
 
Thanks for your reply. Why dont you let the highlanders in standing water ?
 
Same with NaN, all my South Africans sit in water (tray method) sometimes almost all the way to the soil level. Done this with D. affinis, aliciae, capensis and its varities, madagascarensis, and venusta.
 
I see.
Do you provide some ventilation to your plants? Its the problerm in my setup. I cannot let my plant in standing water because i have not enough air running in the room..
 
Not really, being a grow rack its open to all the air movement the room gets. At times when I had it in more confined places I would use a small fan, but that was more for temp control. Even in open top aquariums/terrariums I didn't worry too much about it...
 
Mine are on windowsills (east and west facing) and outdoors on a west facing balcony. The east facing ones could probably do with a little more light. Care must be taken in the summer that the west facing ones don't get cooked when the weather gets hot. Outdoor plants are out there all year around. If the temperatures dip below 40F I'll bring them indoors until the cold snap passes. D. regia and D. glabripes can usually stay outdoors unless the ultra-rare chance of frost happens.
 
mine are all on the tray method ,have not tried a high water level yet but then my dews seem to grow well enough for me in half inch and most the time less than half inch of water(quite often drying out),mine are out side in a open front plastic propagator in the summer,they get put inside on a south facing window sill in winter,my regias are standing in water about half inch to an inch deep and are growing great,standing regias in water seems to be standard in the uk for some reason
 
Thanks a lot for all your reply guys, i think i will add a lil more ventilation, and keep the soil more on the dry side, addding water when needed.
 
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  • #10
I currently have a regia and graomogolensis all happily sitting in a half inch of water. I do have an air cooler pushing air through the tank all day while away.
 
  • #11
I see.. Do you allow the tray get dry for a day or so before¥ adding water again?
 
  • #12
Yeah, I let it dry for a day as a rule for all my water trays.
 
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