Blast. Apparently I do NOT know how to post images to this forum.

:/

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Found out how to post pics. The above show the problem Drosera. It's in the middle of the two others.

Below is my solitary Drosera.

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Hello Cp-arclight,

Congratulations getting those pics to work, it takes a few hours of tinkering to make the pics work even with the instructions they give.

Also, good work researching and figuring out to stop using tap water. It is always best to repot them after having used tap water or tainted soil (washing off the roots with distilled water to ensure a clean transfer) as the minerals will build up in the old soil and remain if you just move the entire soil ball with the roots.

Lance Leaf Sundews also do not like direct sun as you found out, but do not mind some window light, particularly if they are getting indirect light all day. Ultraviolet light can burn their leaves badly.

In any case, your plants are suffering from too little light. Their wide green leaves, tiny tentacles, no dew, and lanky stems indicate that they are a bit starved. If you want to use florescent lights you will want to step the lumen output up to 6000-12000 by using several shop light tubes, 40 watt variety, or several compact florescent energy saver bulbs that say 23 watt (100 watt equivalent).

I keep mine under 12000 lumens of shop light tubes, thats four 40 watt 4 foot long tubes, only 5 inches from the plants. Under such light, they grow narrow reddish leaves with a huge amount of dew. Keep on using distilled water, peat/perlite, NO fertilizers at all, and a bit more light. You could also just set the plants near a window with good light, but little direct sun, and keep the florescent light over them as a supplement. Also, set the timer for 12 hours a day during winter, 16 hours in the growing season.

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What Mutant Hybrid said! To supplement, sundews are very variable as to their conditions. Some are real easy and some are high maintenance. The one you have is an easy, tissue culture species (likely a "Lowes Cube Of Death") specimen (as are mine). This is also an enigmatic species and you might experience an unexpected and (for no apparent reason)decline and death to what is above the surface. However, the roots are resilient and I can see plantlets in your pictures. The leaves of the plantlets are round, while the more mature plants have that "lanceleaf" shape. Believe it or not, you have several plants in there!

Your growing conditions are fine. Don't change them. Too much tinkering doesn't allow the plants to acclimate and it is highly likely that what you bought had been in a state of neglect and weakness. Give it time to adjust and the new leaves should be fine, with lots of dew on them.

They really do, do well at window sills or under artificial lighting, open tray method, distilled water. This species also needs space - horizontally and vertically.

Here's an old picture:

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Many thanks for the info! However, I'm getting crossed signals. Mutant Hybrid diagnosed not enough light and prescribed an increase in lumen, while Petiolaris said my growing conditions are fine.

I could interpret this to mean "leave things as they are." Or "your growing medium is acceptable" but still have room to fit in more light.

One thing that I just learned is that the minerals of hard water can become lodged in the potting mix. What are the symptoms of hard water on Drosera?

Another possible ailment I may be (or may not be) facing is overwatering. The Drosera that is doing poorly is growing in a self-watering orchid bowl. What would the symptoms be of overwatering?

And a random question: does the lance-leaf sundew live well in an office setting? I work in a cube, and there are fluorescent fixtures about 1.5 ft. off the desktop. My ivy thrives in this environment...but so do the little flying bugs.

Thanks again!

BRIGHT light, no direct sun unless VERY late afternoon or VERY early morning. Distilled or rainwater ONLY. It's THAT easy.

Notice that my plants aren't as red. They aren't getting as much light. For this species, lighting isn't as much of an issue. But too much light too fast would be an issue. I'm sure that Mutant Hybrid either acclimmated them to brighter light or lived through a period of burning but not killing them.

For lighting to be effective, a fluorescent light ought be ~4-6" away from the plants. Fixtures that are at the ceiling won't be enough. If you can put together a small setu with a light that is a few inches away, then it would work.

Since I'm in Austin too, I feel little remorse in advising you to toss the buggers. I find them to be interminably prissy and unable to cope with the rigors of the real world. Everywhere I turn, I see websites and whatnot stating that the plant is indestructable, and it is, to the extent that it is hard to turn it into a shriveled brown clump of leaves, but the caveat is that in order to have big healthy dewey leaves, one has to conform to a relatively narrow sliver of the "cultural spectrum". At least thats my experience here in Austin.

If that is too extreme, don't be afraid of giving it a haircut...all the way down to the mix. Just cut the whole thing off. (It shouldn't look like a mini palm tree) If you keep the media moist, the roots will send up new shoots within a month or two.

I may sound a bit disgruntled, but sundews are the only CP's I have tried to tackle that really havent performed up to par no matter what I do.

I had a few indoors under compact fluorescents, but the dew on the leaves would dry up within a few days of the leaf opening. I assume this was due to high temps in my room. Anything over 85 degrees is shaky ground, and hard to avoid in texas.

I had a few outdoors too, and I had the best results putting them where they only got sun that had filtered through an oak tree and a nepenthes. It has gotten too cold, I think, because they look pretty ratty now.

That being said, if you are determined to forge down this (futile) path, the above advice is sound.

Good Luck
Bob

Thank you all for the helpful feedback!

I thought I would share with you some pictures of the arrangement I have for my Droseras...Droserae...plants.

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This shows the Drosera I've been having the most trouble with, and the life support system I've built up around it. Clipped onto an old CD rack are two work lights, each sporting a (recently purchased) high intensity CFL that is equivalent to 100W. Combined they put out 3000 lumens, which acts to supplement the light coming through the large windows I have in my living room. The windows face NW.

In the little plastic deathbox in front and to the left of the self-watering orchid pot is yet ANOTHER sundew. This one I swore I'd do right. It looked good in the store, and the polymer container was solid, so I'm using this as a temporary terrarium / tray watering unit. The lid to the deathbox is gradually being opened further and further to ease the humidity down to the ambient levels.

I've had the new Drosera for about a week, and it's just as green and dew-laced as the day I bought it.

Temperatures in my living room hover around 75F.

The next picture shows the other Drosera, the one doing the palm tree impression.

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This is the dining room / atrium of my house. The window faces SE, and catches the morning sun. I relocated the Drosera so that it is closer to the window, but took some precautions by arranging my ivy so that its biggest leaves provide a filtering / shade source. We'll see how that works out.

What are the symptoms of sun burn on Drosera? I want to be able to move quick if I spot this as a problem.

My little Drosera palm tree has developed more pronounced hairs on its leaves, which I think is a good sign.

To the right is a plastic jack-o-lantern that one of my neighbors tossed onto their garbage can. A gust of wind knocked it into the street, and I picked it up, fixed it, and added some improvements.

On the windowsill to the left of the plants is the guts of what is soon to be a "sunjar." They're fun, cheap to make, and make good hand-made gifts.

Anyway, comments and advice are always welcome! I'll let you know how things are progressing.

Happy Halloween!

Get the sundew in the deathcube OUT of the cube. Put the sundews in BRIGHT LIGHT no direct sun. NO TAP WATER!!! Rain or distilled ONLY. The one getting the 2 lights over head, get them (the lights) away, heat from those may be a problem as well.

Note to Bob, they ARE indestructable!

Tommy,

The sundew is under CFLs. They produce minimal heat.

I'll be removing the sundew from the deathcube soon. The lid is almost entirely open now. I just need to find a suitable tray for watering it.

Bob: I think what you have been exdperiencing is simply that the sundews were being placed into an environment just past their respective comfort zones and they reacted. 85 F isn't too hot at all. I had mine at window sills where the temps were in the upper 80's to low 90's in the afternoon. But since they were acclimated to those conditions, they weren't fazed. Acclimation and stability are the keys.

Good on the CFLs! I appologize if I came across too strong!

Petiolaris,

Yes, on the acclimatization for my adelaes. When I first got the one adult I had it about 8 inches from the florescent lights (12000 lumens then too). As time went on I moved it closer to the lights until it (them) is/are less than 5 inches away. No leaf burn experienced (minimal chances in any case with florescent light). When I noticed the reddish coloring on the leaves I just started placing them closer to see what they would do next.

There are mixed signals on that red coloration on adelaes. One site sells them in two cultivars, a green form and an all red form for twice the price of the greens. Funny, I got mine for half the price of their greens from somewhere else and mine started off all green... interesting. The mix up seems to be that some people say that their is a genetic cultivar and others say their is simply one type that develops red coloration in brighter light and little pigment in lower light levels like most sundews do. There probably is a genetic all green variant and a red pigment normal stock as some people report that their adelaes never turn red in brighter light.