Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 6/27/2010

Question
When I buy a sundew and get it home, thats about as good as its ever going to look. I get them at flower shops, Lowes, etc. They're in the cube. I follow the instructions of Cobraplant.com DVDs to the letter, I've tried changing things but I get the same results. First the dew stops,  then the plant seems to stop growing and very slowly dies, maybe in the course of a few months. I lost a D.Adelae last month, a new D. Spatulata this week. All symptoms point to not enough sun/light. So I put the spathulata outside after first acclimating it in an open window, outside under a tree-dappled sunlight, and it bakes to death. Can't win. I tried flourescent light and it doesn't seem to improve. I live in a house on a suburban street with lots of tall trees.My house averages 68degrees all year. Its dry in the winter. I live in zone 6, southeastern PA. Right now the  temp. is about 95 degrees and humid.
 The drosera adelae I tried to keep cooler with less sunlight, but it just stops growing and slowly withers away. All sundews do that for me.

Answer
Hi Craig,

You have several issues happening here.

First, the symptoms you're describing on how the plants decline screams hard water or fertilizer such as being re-potted in potting soil.  What's your water source?  If you're using tap water, switch to rainwater or distilled water.  If you've repotted your plants, make sure you're using recommended soil media.  If you mix your own be sure to only use peat moss in bales, not from small bags since they often contain fertilizer.

The other problem is sounds like you're having is a common mistake new plant growers have that I call the "Move it here, Move it there Syndrome".  Plants (all plants, not just carnivorous) hate being moved from place to place.  They can't get up and change location in nature, so they are not used to having conditions change on them frequently.  They never get a chance to adapt to the microclimate of a location.  It's best to find a spot where the plant is going to be and leave them there.  I tend to see this most often with new Nepenthes owners where they move their plants to different windows, inside and outside, then complain about it never making pitchers.  The reality is that the moving with the constant changing humidity is what is keeping it from making pitchers.  Sundews can have similar problems.  Let's look at how that applies to your plants.

With your Drosera spatulata, a spot outside in a sunny location, would have been ideal.  Like we mentioned in the video, leaf burn will occur, even after hardening off, which would have been minimal since your weather is so humid anyway.  This is always the point where people get panicky, but you need to stay the course.  Just cut off the burned leaves and wait.  In about two weeks you would have seen bright red sticky new leaves develop (provided the water wasn't the issue).  In nature D. spatulata is a full sun plant.  They never grow in the shade.

The Drosera adelae is a different creature.  These are one of the few sundews that grow in cooler shady areas in Queensland, Australia.  With them, once leaves have been damaged they never recover.  However, this plant is so prolific from the roots, the simplest thing to do is to decapitate the plant, place it in a bright window, and leave it alone.  Make sure it always has water in the tray.  It would also do great under fluorescent lights, but you have to leave it in one spot.  Once cut off, it takes around a month for lots of new little shoots to form.  I have several plants in the nursery I've cut back to the ground that come back with a fury.  I don't recomend this plant for outdoor growing even during the summer, since it doesn't respond well to high heat and rapid changes.  It's way more shade tolerant than most carnivorous plants, so just find an appropriate spot and leave it.

Let me know about your water source and if you've done any transplanting with these.  Also, if you have any green showing on your current plants, you may still be able to get them growing properly.  Let me know what happens.


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

Addendum:

Thanks for giving me that information.  That helps to be able to rule that out.  Your plants may be able to recover still.  This really does sound like them needing more time to recover.  With the D. adelae, cut it right back to the ground like I described.  Give it about a month.  The fluorescent lights will be best for it.  With the D. spatulata, cut all the leaves off except the crown.  Leave the very center growing point intact.  Place it in a sunny spot outside in a tray of water.  You should see it recover more rapidly if your temperatures are warm.  I wouldn't be surprised if you see a couple new healthy leaves in about a week.  Send me a photo if you can.

Everything you have dealt with is exactly why you heard me say in the video that those little cubes are the bane of our existence.

Good Growing!

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