Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 12/21/2010

Question
Hi, my name is David and i live in Riverton, Wyoming. I have a Cape Sundew that i bought from walmart about a month ago. When i bought it, it had two sundews growing in a death cube. I took it out of its box an i put it into a terrarium, and it seemed to do fine. Then i put it in the sun and i noticed that it looked like it was dieing after one day in the sun so i put it back in the terrarium and it has been in there for about 3 weeks. Now one of the plants has no green on it at all and it looks like a dried up twig, and the other one almost looks the same except for 2 green leaves about an inch in length. It has been like that for 2 of the 3 weeks and it doesn't seem to be dieing or growing. The sundew is about 8 inches from 2 florescent plant lights in a terrarium and the temp is around 76 to 81 degrees and the humidity is from 60 to 72 %. I am using distilled water and the sundew is in a mixture of 50/50 Sphagnum peat moss and perlite. Do you know what it is doing and how i can keep it healthy?

Thanx, David :)

Answer
Hi David,

I'm going to start at the end and work backwards here.  Go to our website and read our directions on growing tropical sundews:  http://cobraplant.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=26  Also consider our DVD, "Grow Carnivorous Plants" volume #2.  It's on sale this month, and it would give you a full course on growing tropical sundews and butterworts.

Because of being in those cubes in the store the leaves are too soft to be salvaged.  Cut off all leaves on your surviving plant, except the very crown of the plant.  Most of your current problems are from lack of light, and the weakend leaves.  It's not worth trying to salvage those leaves, and they will cause excess transpiration.  

Place the plant in a sunny window with the pot sitting in a small amount of water.  Cape Sundews need bright sun to grow healthy leaves.  The water should be either distilled water or melted snow, unless you know for sure your tap water is very low in minerals. (Not hard)  Give the plant at least two weeks, and you should see some new growth.   Avoid the terrarium.  It will cause more problems than it will cure as you're already discovering.

Your regular house temperatures will be fine for it.  Dont' worry about the humidity.  It will adapt when new leaves grow.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com