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Drosera alicae stalled

Hi all,

I got this plant about a month ago. Came lush, green, and healthy. I potted it in 45/45/10 peat/sand/lfs and put it out in a tray in full sun.

First it turned bright red - looked happy. Lots of dew. Then, one day, I noticed the leaves were disintegrating.

Any ideas?

Thanks all in advance for your help with this plant.

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Ouch, the roots might still be viable. You could try uproot the plant and check the roots and try and regrow the plant from it.
Do you know what type of conditions the original grower kept the plant in?

I don't have Aliciae in my collection but I have heard from a few growers here in South Africa that Aliciae and Admirabilis tend to die off for no apparent reason, could be heat stress or other factors. I have got Admirabilis and I struggle with it, it will grow fine and all of a sudden start to decline, I re-pot and try to change a little in the growing environment (heat usually) and it will start to grow back only to decline again a few months later :crazy: I also try and keep the pot its planted in a bit drier and not water logged all the time. Not sure if this will be the same with Aliciae though.
 
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Half the sundews I get in the mail don't make it in the end. The first thing I always do is take a couple of leaf cuttings to grow new plants, which always do well. This way, even if I end up losing the original plant, I still have it the backups.

Too late for that now, of course. I agree with Brollocks: try re-growing it from a root cutting.

Was it the first time you used this particular batch of sand? Could it be "dirty"?
 
Marcus could be onto something with the sand. If it was not well washed, salts could have accumulated an killed the plant.
 
If you received this Drosera as a bare-rooted plant (indications are you did) and then potted it and placed it immediately into a full sun location, its no wonder it succumbed. Drosera don't typically do well when shipped bare root (as someone else pointed out) and many don't survive - especially if not treated with great care to get the plants re-established. That means providing good humidity and moderate temperatures, and avoiding stressful lighting conditions! IE: it should have been placed where it got bright indirect light, and no exposure to drying breezes until it was re-established.
Better luck next time.
 
My experience with this species (as well a nearly all other rosetted species) this phenomenon usually happens with the media is bad or breaking down. Repotting in fresh medium usually saves the day. As noted before this species and some of the other rosetted South African Drosera tend to "crash" and die down to the root. More often than not you will get new growth from the root after several weeks. So don't stop watering and toss them out for a couple of months.

Since these South African Drosera are so prolific from seed and hardy from root regeneration I have not taken the time to see if it is simply a matter of nutrition - e.g. plants capturing enough prey.

If you lose the plant, no big deal as I can replace it for you if needed.
 
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