Carnivorous Plants/drosera adelae

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Expert: - 2/4/2012


Question
Is it a good idea to separate drosera adelae from each other? Mine grow fine in clumps, they they seem to start to rot. Would it be better to spread them out?

Answer
Hello Craig,

Drosera adelae does grow well alone and in clumps. As a clump grows, you can separate out the plants and repot them. You will find that when you do that every 6 months to a year that you soon have hundreds more plants than you know what to do with. They regenerate from even small broken roots and can quickly form large clumps.

Another consideration about D. adelae is that it is basically an annual weed. What you could be seeing is simply older plants dying back while younger plants in the clump continue growing to fill in the spaces left by dead plants. I left a clump of D. adelae alone for over a year and had a huge clod of dead leaves with live plants interspersed. After I repotted them and all the root sections that were left over, I had a large number of baby D. adelae clumping up again in several pots. The more you repot them, the more you will have.  

Carnivorous Plants

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Christopher Littrell

Expertise

I am capable of answering questions about the most common carnivorous plants found in cultivation. I have no personal experience with Byblis, Drosophyllum, Aldrovanda, and Heliamphora. I have not cultivated gemmae forming pygmy sundews nor tuberous sundews. For information regarding those aforementioned species, I would suggest contacting other experts. I can answer questions regarding most species of Nepenthes, tropical and temperate Drosera, Mexican Pinguicula, Sarracenias, and Dionaea. I have some limited experience with growing Utricularia, Cephalotus, and Darlingtonia.

Experience

I have grown carnivorous plants off and on for about 27 years. I have made the same mistakes and suffered the same mishaps that many growers make as they attempt to separate the myths from the realities of growing these plants. Currently, I am successfully growing a variety of tropical sundews, a Nepenthes, several Venus Flytraps of varying ages, and Sarracenias. I have been successful in stratifying Sarracenia seeds and providing artificial dormancy requirements for my temperate plants when needed.

Education/Credentials
I hold a Master's degree in Educational Psychology. Over my lifetime, I have constantly read books involving the growing conditions of carnivorous plants. I hope to incorporate the educational aspects involved in psychology with teaching other people how to cultivate carnivorous plants.

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