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New to sundews, new to terraforums: hi everyone

hey everyone

i've been here once or twice, but finally decided to register and become part of the community. i've been fascinated by these plants since i was four or five years old, when i watched a documentary about venus flytraps and sundews.

i'm really excited now because, about a week ago i bought two sundew spathulata growing in two separate 3 inch pots.

i don't have a terrarium for them yet so i have been maintaining humidity and water levels inside starbucks cups, haha. i actually plan to buy a kit from here pretty soon.

do you guys have any additional pearls of wisdom, apart from moving them out of the cups as soon as possible? (honestly though, it made a pretty good make-shift terrarium)

p.s. - i live in seattle, so sunlight is pretty hard to maintaiin. i heard adelae's are pretty good w/ minimal light conditions.
 
First of all, WELCOME to the forums!
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   Secondly, if sunlight is hard to maintain where you live, you might want to consider a grow light. Third of all, if you are looking for plants that don't need much direct sunlight, adelae would be a great choice.
 
but on a sunny day that baby will fry
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you should get artificial lights. you can grow ... anything with the right lights.
 
Even in Seattle, you can grow many CPs outdoors. Here in San Francisco I grow a lot of them despite foggy conditions. I grow VFTs, many sundews, Cephalotus, and Sarracenia outdoors year round, and our conditions are very similar to Seattle's. I suspect growing these things will be easier for you than you think! Your air is plenty humid, and you get enough sun, even on cloudy days.

Capslock
 
welcome to the forums!! Drosera are great beginers plants, and D. spatulata is high on the list for most hardy sundew for beginers, great choice. however this species doesnt require high humidity, you can take the tops off. as a newbie i did far more damage to sundews by giving them lots of humidity and poor air circulation. D. spatulata does fine in average household humidity as do most Drosera. good light and good air circulation will do alot more for this species than high humidity will. trust me, ive got far lower humidity than you or Capslock and 99% of the Drosera species ive tried grow fine in my house without covers.

welcome to our plesent addiction!
 
hey guys, thanks for all your replies and welcomes.

i took off the lids on my plants before i left my room, i'm glad i did. i only knocked up the humidity factor because they arrived to me incredibly dry.

a couple of leaves on both plants don't look like they have recovered as well as others, how much do i clip off - if that's what i have to do?

also, if i buy a terrarium, i'm not sure about the soil mix. right now, it doesn't look like i have any of that peat moss that these plants love. is there a good source of reading to find out how to transfer my sundews to a terrarium with a different soil mix?
 
Welcome to the forums! Just to add another contrasting opinion.... As a newbie a year-and-ahalf ago, I purchased a "clump" of what I later learned to be D. spatulata. I brought it to work and placed it open tray, on a window sill. After a few weeks, I noticed that there were more plants than I though I originally counted. I started taking planst from the perimeter and put them in new pots. After a half year or so, I had 6 pots of them - and the original clump looked no narrower. Here's a pic, with two more pots added from half price purchases, down the road:

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Welcome to the forums.

Here's a picture of a 4" pot of my D. spatulata. This plant grows outside spring to fall then inside as a windowsill plant over the winter. As is on a windowsill, no humidity dome or anything. This picture was taken before I placed it back outside. It gets a deep red color when out in the sun.
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Hi, and welcome to the group.

Before continuing, I suggest you purchase "The Savage Garden" by Peter D'Amato. This is a WONDERFUL, very easy to read, and picture-filled book for the beginner. It's also cheap and very easy to find.

If you're planning to grow all or some of your plants in a terrarium, I suggest you read some of the posts in the terrarium section. There, you can find detailed answers almost every conceivable question you might have--trust me!

As far as "pearls," a few very important things to consider (IMHO) regarding terraria are:

1. It's best to keep plants in their individual pots in the terrarium. This will make it easier to grow a larger variety (different species need different soil mixes), will enable you to temporarily move some of your plants if they need dormancy, and will prevent potential diseases (soil fungi/mold) from spreading to your entire collection. If you're worried about aesthetics, there are plenty of ways to make your terrarium look great and still keep your plants individually potted. Look at some of the pictures in the terrarium forum.

2. Don't bother with terraria smaller than 10gal. Anything less than this will fit only a tiny number of plants and won't be worth the time and effort you'll put into setting it up.

3. Lighting: For most plants, you need to provide A LOT of light, and they need to be VERY near the lights (6-8", some even closer). Fluorescent bulbs are about the only way to get enough light into a terrarium without cooking your plants. Most people use a mix of cool and warm bulbs, but I've been growing all my plants under cool whites only for a while and most have done just fine.

4. Temperature: Even with fluorescents, terraria can heat up quickly (especially the smaller ones). Buy yourself a digital temperature/humidity gauge (Lowes or home depot).

5. AIR CIRCULATION: Next to light, this is probably the most important terrarium condition. Without good air circulation, I can almost guarantee you that your plants will die (probably of a fungal infection). A computer fan is a MUST for the terrarium. You can buy these at radioshak. I suggest buying those that are "AC" power....if you buy the "DC" type, you'll have to splice them to a converter (that you have to buy) in order to get them to run on your electrical outlets.

Good luck.
 
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