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Petiolaris-complex Drosera

Hi,

I am currently growing a single plant (the only one surviving of 25... A cat went throught their way...) of D. dilato-petiolaris, and 5 seedlings of D. ordensis x ?? and well... they aren't growing pretty fast! Both are in 1:1 peat:sand, in a heated terrarium at 80°F and water is near the substrate surface (I know, surely too high, but i haven't find a grid to stack them yet). Although the D.dilato-petiolaris is a survivor still stressed by some agressive events, it is not growing pretty fast... So here is the question: How do you grow your petiolaris-complex sundews?
 
I have a beta tank... 6 inch deep 24 inch long and 11 inch tall.. I have 5 3 inch pots on the bottom then that grid that goes over fluorescent lights over the pots. A aquarium heater sits in the bottom in the water at about 98 degrees. The plants (D. ordensis 'Mulligans Lagoon') sit on top the grid potted in 6 inch pots with 2 parts sand 1 part washed peat. I fill the water up to about 1/3 the pot and allow it to fall well below the pots before refilling... Right now though it is warm enough here where I just have the plant sitting on the normal shelves with my other plants. It is currently in bloom also.
Andrew
 
Mine are in terraria, no tray watering. These sit beneath the HID light which warms them during the day. I top water enough to keep the medium moist. At night I remove the terraria and put them in as warm a spot as I can find. I currently am running an 18H daylength to discourage a noticed tendency towards dormancy (hopefully this will work). I use this system Oct - May afterwhich I put the terrariums outside and in tray watering provided the plants are in active growth.

I use a LFS/pearlite mix, about 50/50 with a tablespoon or 2 of laterite mixed in per pot, along with a topdressing of laterite about 3 cm deep.

From my very limited experience with seedlings, I too have found them slow growers.
 
Hey,
I dont have huge experience with the petiolaris complex. I do grow D. petiolaris and D. falconeri. I have grown my D. petiolaris plants from seed twice now. I have good germination rates if I give them LOTS OF HEAT. I tried germinating them in the winter, and it took about 4 months. Mine grow faster if 1) I give them lots of heat(plant in summer) and 2) I planted them in milled LFS. I have them all right up to the lights. I love the whole complex! They are cool plants.

Cole
 
<span style='font-size:13pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:green'>I grow mine in plastic boxes under fluorescent lights, 15 hour photoperiod. No lids, trays are open to the air. Media is mostly thoroughly rinsed peat moss with about 10% silica sand. I keep water in the trays so the bottom 1/4 inch of the pots are in the water. Sometimes I enclose some of them in ziploc plastic bags but with the pots just damp, no water to sit in. I am curently caring for D. ordensis, D. falconeri, D. paradoxa, and D. dilatatopetiolaris.</span></span>
 
My indestructible D.Petiolaris.


This little plant has had a rough time.He was grown from seed and was the sole plant that sprouted after about  8 months.   I was surprised to see some thing sprout after so long of a time.  In fact I was so excited that I reached in the tank to pick him up for a good look and knocked over the container.  I had to dig and find him in the mess. He was replanted into a bowel terrarium. After a couple months I went on vacation and my wife over watered him. I came home and he had been  covered  in water for a week. I poured out the extra water and he recovered. Then lastly my parrot attacked the bowel terrarium, he was uprooted in the attack.  I was sure he was done for but replanted him into a 4 inch pot.  I moved him into a terrarium with my other Drosera and yet again he has recovered and is growing faster then ever.

petiolaris.jpg
 
Lol seedling, and I was thinking that a bad cat attack and a hard sunstroke was a real bad time for my plant... wow! You got worse than me on this one :p Even though, your one is better looking than my dilato-petiolaris
tounge.gif
I will try the LFS media and see the results
smile.gif
 
I grow my petiolaris dews outdoors year-round in a sealed terrarium. I have been able to grow Drosera paradoxa from seed to 3in plants in around 6-8 months.
 
Goodness! Eight months for the seeds to germinate! Looks like I would have a long wait infront of me. Some of my petiolaris-complex seeds had been sitting in their pots for over four months already.
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  • #10
Gugin,

Don't give up on that seed! Mine took nearly a year to germinate, and it did so on one of the hottest days of summer. Heat seems to be the thing when it comes to these plants, and that is why is is so unjust that I should have lost so many species last summer in a brutal heatwave! Arrrrgh.

I really liked the story seedling tells. He must have gone to the same cultivation school as I did!

Like Tom says, "it's always the cat". Ahhh, the stories I could tell.....
 
  • #11
I have some "seedling" of D. paradoxa that germinated in about march (I think) and are currenty flowering. They largest plant is about 2 1/2" across. I keep these in a fishtank with a heater keeping water in the bottom at about 30c. The plants get watered when they look a bit dry and are not sitting in water. They are growing in a pet 50:50 peat/perlite mix.

The problem is if you take the plants out to photograph the flowers they close in the cooler air!! AHHH!

George
 
  • #12
I find D. paradoxa easier to maintain than D. petiolaris. I leave my D. paradoxa in a cup of water and the plant usually has the base of the stem covered in water. It is grown like a semi-aquatic plant!

I have to be very careful with D. petiolaris. I keep it like D. paradoxa, but I always make sure that there is always water in the cup. When there isn't sufficient water, it will stop producing dew and start to complain. As it is now, it produces very little dew.

I keep the soil flooded after seeing a picture of the growing conditions of D. petiolaris in the wild in A. Lowrie's third volume.
 
  • #13
Guqin: Mine germinated fast, but mostly due to heat : 25 out of ? (not very much than that) germinated in 2 weeks after sowing, but they were sown in a clear plastic container with a lid (the ones commonly used in grocery stores: they are stackable!!), and putted in a 25°C (80°F) area. This heat give the go for others seeds as well: D.burmannii which didn't want to sprout for 1 month... And Byblis now... Heat is really a friend when it comes to germination ;).

The D.paradoxa x ?? germinate in 2 weeks too, in heated water (80°F)...

Heat, heat, HEAT! :p lol So it should help yours to germinate faster...
 
  • #14
I find that some bottom heat for germination works well with nearly eveything (exceptions being the Australian tuberous and South African winter growers). Others have said they got good Petiolaris complex seed germination under normal temperatures. It probably all depends on the color of your thumb anyways!

I sure wish they did grow faster. It seems like there is no generalizing about growth rates though. I had a D. ordensis seedling that went from a 3.5 cm baby rosette to a lush full plant filling a 4 inch pot in a matter of a couple of months. My D. dilatato-petiolaris grew huge quickly, then split into 8 plants, then went dormant, and died. Some sit there looking great, but not growing much at all. I have had 3 traps unfold over night in D. darwiniensis, but D. petiolaris shrunk from a full rosette of many arms to a ghost of itself after flowering. Now it is returning with 4 offsets: all of which look small and frail. I find them hard to generalize about. Mine have survived being frozen solid, and baked to where all the arms withered both in the same year.

The longer I grow them, the more I am convinced that they are very locked into a cyclic seasonal growth pattern very much photoperiod related. Their growth is a spiral dance outwards, and then back inwards as the days get shorter. More and more I begin to question the wisdom of forestalling dormancy in these plants although it is true that they will forego it if they have enough light, warmth and moisture. I just feel that they want something more natural, and they sort of "see through" whatever photoperiod I provide. Even with my current 18H photoperiod, the spiral effect is noted in my plants, almost like they were ignoring the puny flourescent lights in favor of the sun. The arms are spiraling downwards, getting smaller and it reminds me very much of pygmy gemmae formation.

I have only grown these plants for 2 years, but this is how they are speaking to me. They seem to be very responsive plants, and they communicate what they do and do not like fairly evidently and quickly unlike some other plants which one moment are great looking and the next withered memories (Heliamphora come to mind here :-()
 
  • #15
What do you usualy do with your plants when they begin asking for dormancy? I will give it to my plants if they look like they need it, but If they dont, I wont force it on them.


Cole
 
  • #16
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Tamlin Dawnstar @ Nov. 02 2003,11:37)]one moment are great looking and the next withered memories (Heliamphora come to mind here :-()
I still have yet to master those.....
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I know what you are saying William.
 
  • #17
What do you usualy do with your plants when they begin asking for dormancy? I will give it to my plants if they look like they need it, but If they dont, I wont force it on them.

Thanks,
Cole
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  • #18
Colieo,

I don't do anything to initiate dormancy, if it is going to happen, it will happen and I have yet to be able to forestall the process (although I am still trying!). When they do go dormant, I keep the medium just damp to moist, and never wet. I know in habitat the substrate bakes hard as a rock with no moisture, but I have lost plants from keeping them bone dry. The good thing about dormancy is that IF the plants return to growth, they do so with renewed strength and vigor, and usually offset. The down side is the length of time the rosette is inactive appears to be variable, not like with a VFT where you put it back into cultivation and it grows. I have had D. lanata dormant for close to a year before it decided to wake up and grow. I wish I could evolve a protocol for this process that gives more sure results, but I am still feeling my way with the members of this complex.

I have heard others say that D. paradoxa needs more water than other species, so I usually increase the sphagnum content in my mix, and kept the plant wet enough for the moss to "just" grow. It did well like this, but did not survive the freeze of last winter.

I am still trying to figure out if the dormncy is really trmperature induced (as I have heard others speculate may be the case) or if the process is light determined (which I am inclined to believe), since reduced photoperiod correlates with seasonal cold as well.
 
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