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| About a week and a half ago I bought a sundew from Missouri Botanical Gardens. When I got it, it looked like the tips of the leaves had dew on them. The next day, I took off its lid and put it outside in full sun in mid-50 degree weather. When I got home from work, the leaves had no drops on them. I let it sit outside the next day, and then brought it in because we had >20 mph wind. I've been leaving it in a south-east facing window where it gets sun in the mornings. After a week, the hairs on the leaves still did not have any dew.
I started putting the lid that it came in back on to keep the humidity up. I've done this for the past couple days, and now water is collecting on the hairs. I'm wondering if the drops I saw when I first got the sundew was water, not the sticky digestive stuff. However, there were already a couple dead insects on the leaves when I first bought it, it hasn't caught any since. Every day I water it with sprays of distilled water. I keep about a half inch of water in the bottom of the bowl the pot is sitting in. Does anyone have suggestions as to why it's not producing sticky drops on its hairs? It's trying to grow a flower, could this be sucking up all of the energy? I'm not too concerned with seeing the flower or propagating the plant, would it help the sundew grow if I cut the flower off? Here is a picture of the sundew with the lid on:
Photo of the flower: http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz155/dwake85/DSC_5941.jpg Overall picture of the sundew: http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz155/dwake85/DSC_5945.jpg |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by hunterkiller03 9 (My Page) on Wed, May 5, 10 at 2:33
| There's the problem, you just explained the mistake you did. You took off the lid and exposed the plant to dry air without letting it acclimate, so it's in shock. Fortunetly you had it's soil moist that it survived. What happened is the hair on the current leaves were damaged and its tentacles dried out, so they are not going to produce dew, you will have to wait for the new leaves to sprout to replace the damaged leaves. But sundews do recover from shock quickly and acclimate just as fast. All you have to do is simply wait for the new leaves to develop. |
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| Thanks for the response, hunterkiller. What should I do now to prevent any more damage? I've been keeping the lid on, should I take the lid off for a couple hours a day or just take it off completely now? |
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| I guess you both don't realize it needs to be acclimated to full sun also. It may not survive if it was in full sun the entire time you were gone. You need to acclimate it to less humidity first then to full sun. Prop the lid up with something and raise it a little every day. In about a week or so when it gets plenty of air, you can start acclimating it to full sun. Start with an hour or 2 in the morning and increase the amount of sun by an hour or 2 each day until it gets sun all day. Good luck and hope it survives after it's experience with sudden full sun. |
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- Posted by hunterkiller03 9 (My Page) on Wed, May 5, 10 at 22:20
| The reason I didn't said the plant needs to be acclimated like you said is... Well... to late for that. Despite the leaves tentacles were damaged by the dry air. The leaves look sturdy enough. The flower stalk is growing & doesn't seem wilted, plus the new leaves looks like they're developing healthy. So keeping it in the south-east facing window inside his house is a good move. It's just a matter of letting the sundew recover. Reading my post, I should learn to proof read it. I was laughing to myself: "hair on the current leaves were damaged and its tentacles dried out" I hope you understood I meant to say the air dried the tentacles of the current leaves... |
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