Hi.
I got into CPs only a few months ago. I've read the Savage Garden and some stuff online, so I think I'm only mostly clueless.
I got some D. Capensis seeds about a month ago. I sewed them, put the pot in a tray of distilled water on the window sill, and then put a plastic bag over it. After a few weeks the tiny beginnings of the sundews appeared, but algae started spreading everywhere.
So I used an xacto knife, tweezers, and a magnifying glass to scrape out the algae, and then I sprinkled some spagnum over everything, thinking that the Drosera could push their way through it, but any surviving algae would expire without light. I also removed the plastic bag from around the pot.
This was a few days ago. There hasn't been any real change since. Some of the soil looked faintly like the darker algae green yesterday, so I removed it with tweezers, but it may have been my imagination.
Will this work? Have I smothered my Drosera?
I got into CPs only a few months ago. I've read the Savage Garden and some stuff online, so I think I'm only mostly clueless.
I got some D. Capensis seeds about a month ago. I sewed them, put the pot in a tray of distilled water on the window sill, and then put a plastic bag over it. After a few weeks the tiny beginnings of the sundews appeared, but algae started spreading everywhere.
So I used an xacto knife, tweezers, and a magnifying glass to scrape out the algae, and then I sprinkled some spagnum over everything, thinking that the Drosera could push their way through it, but any surviving algae would expire without light. I also removed the plastic bag from around the pot.
This was a few days ago. There hasn't been any real change since. Some of the soil looked faintly like the darker algae green yesterday, so I removed it with tweezers, but it may have been my imagination.
Will this work? Have I smothered my Drosera?
For seedlings, this is good to worry about. Some algaes will grow right over the top of seedlings and smother them out. Some algaes will not. If it were me, I would have dried down the medium a little. That is the most effective way to handle algae. Dry'em down. It is tough to watch seedlings die from algae invasion, but it goes with the territory when you grow these plants. The sphagnum idea sounds bad to me, but experimentation is how we learn anyway, so have at it and post your results. We all are continually learning about our babies, and new information always helps. NO ONE knows everything there is to know about these plants, and I am always happy to learn something new.
