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I just moved everything to a new set up by necessity, and I am having problems with a number of plants I have not had trouble with before. New set up is a wire shelf wrapped in panda film (4 sides), lit with 4 2' T5 lights. Air movement/cooling by small computer fan. Temps low to high 80's during the day, low 70's at night. Watered wig either distilled water or water with less than 30 ppm. Also, in my area we have had a heat wave with day time temps between 98-100 F.


I am having trouble with my drosera, even the weedy ones. Specifically capensis and spatulata. The capensis hasn't looked good for a while. The petioles are green, but the leaves are yellowish, and often have a pronounced droop. It's growing in a 1:1:1 peat perlite sand mix in a four inch pot. It is under potted for the size of its roots. It often produces small, crumpled leaves. Temps are 85/60s-70s. It is worth noting this problem existed prior to set up change.





Drosera spatulata
Looked good until a few days ago, when after a watering it died back dramatically. It had been in the same media for 2.5 years so I repotted it in 1:1 peat perlite.



Im thinking heat and air movement are factors, any advice is very much appreciated.
 
The D. capensis looks fine to me. I have one that grew from seed produced by my larger plant that grows strongly arched leaves like that too. I don't see any deformities or signs of stress here.

For the D. spatulata, I wonder if the plant died back as a response to the heat wave. As long as the crowns don't die they should start growing again shortly.
 
The issue on the capensis is "wind-burn," i.e. the dry circulating air (probably caused by your heat wave, or if your fan is in an open region it's not needed; both plants you show could not care less about humidity in general if acclimated so an enclosed area is really unnecessary) is pulling moisture out of the tips of the leaves and they're drying out, otherwise the plant is fine. Your other plant is D. tokaiensis, not spatulata, going by the small, okay looking one on the side of the pot. It may be dying back in response to the high heat, but tokaiensis and its relatives also have a tendency to die back for no good reason just because as well, and then come back from the central point or roots. Cut off the dead material and let it be.
 
Interesting abt the ID. Thanks for the info also, now that you mention it the capensis did start acting up when I introduced a fan.
 
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