Expert: Christopher Littrell - 1/17/2009

Question
I have a question.

My Drosera Adelae doesn't produce any dew anymore.  It has about 5 hrs. of light per day.  It also isn't rolling up anymore.  Is it dying?  It is also producing two other plants off the sides.  What is happening and what can i do about it?

Answer
Hello Bill,

By 5 hours of light, I take it you have it in a window where it gets 5 hours of sun each day and plenty of ambient light the rest of the day for at least 12 hours? Just 5 hours of light all day would be insufficient in length of photoperiod. Drosera Adelae does not need near as much light as many other carnivorous plants, however, a good morning sun window should be sufficient. I have mine in a south window, however; I place them just around the right corner so they get morning sun and I use 12000 lumens of florescent shop lights 5 inches over them for 12 hours a day during winter. They develop very reddish leaves and produce heavy dew in such light. Direct sun would cook them however.

If you have had your Drosera adelae for over a year or so it could be dying as they are biennials. They will continue producing plantlets from their roots indefinitely, but the parent plants will die off every two years. Repotting the entire plant, making sure to collect any long roots as cuttings, will spur the plantlets into greater growth. It seems the more you repot and take root cuttings, the better such Drosera do as they grow like weeds normally. Just take the root cuttings as several inch long clippings from long roots and place them on the surface of a pot of sphagnum peat and perlite. Cover them with about 1/4 inch of moss and keep them moist. In a few weeks you will have even more plants growing. you can also just cut back old, sickly growth that fails to prosper without repotting and new plants will spring up from the roots in time.

It could also be that the adult is in a semi-dormant state. Yes, Drosera adelae are tropical plants technically, but adult plants occasionally go into a resting state for a few months and simply stop growing and producing dew for a while. They often spring back to life and develop several new plantlets at the same time after a couple of months.

If you repot the plants, make sure to check the plantlets. If they have well developed roots and are an inch or two tall you can clip them off and pot them separately.

Drosera adelae is an extemely tough little plant so long as it gets enough light and clean mineral free water as well as acidic sphagnum peat for soil. It can be almost impossible to kill them if their environment meets the basic requirements.

Christopher