FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I tried to sow the seeds I got from Shadowtski (Thanks, Shadowtski!) immediately after I got them, but it was outside and rainy and dark and I was holding two things at once, plus the pot I was sowing in got broken... needless to say, there were a few mishaps and I had to resort to last-minute water germination in a bag... That delayed my ambitions for a bit. I left the seedlings too long in the bag and they had started to look stretched, so I wasn't sure if they would be able to make the transition to soil. However, they took the shock in stride and now are starting to really grow! Now, I've heard that finlaysonia in particular is sensitive of water once mature. When should I start cutting back on the water? Is there a point where there shouldn't be standing water in the tray at all? I have literally no experience with this complex, so any help is appreciated.

Once again, thank you Shadowtski for your great generosity, and I will be sure to hold a giveaway of some of the seeds once the plants produce some.

Mine seem to do fine sitting in a tray like the rest of my drosera. When the tray dries, i refill it. Although it may just be my conditions here, i dont let mine dry out too much, and they are rather big and also healthy. Ive heard to let them dry out too, but i didnt heed that warning.

D. finlaysoniana is not very sensitive to moisture levels as long as it gets enough light, I grow mine in deep water trays with my Sarracenia outdoors during the summer.

Thanks, it's good to know that I have some wiggle room! I might try to do an experiment and put two pots in different trays. There's just that perennial space problem, though...

Oh, and thank you for confirming me on the spelling of the species - spell check is ok with "finlaysoniana," but I have seen people use "finlaysonia."

Your finlaysoniana seedlings look good. Glad they survived their misadventures. They are pretty tough and resilient.

I grow mine, watering them by the tray method. I grow them in 6 inch deep pots and I only keep 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of water in the tray. I let it go almost dry then I refill it. I've heard that they don't like their roots under water all the time. Some science minded individual should grow a pot under each condition and verify that.

Good growing,
Mike

The one on the left stays in water 24/7. The one on the right goes dry for a day or two before i add 1/4 of an inch or so of water. Although it's not long before I water the tray on the right, the soil however is quite dry in comparison to the one on the left. I actually forgot i was experimenting with that when this topic got brought up. I just forgot to really document everything that i had read about, and with my personal experiment lol. Imo, it can be treated as a typical sundew, or it can also be allowed to dry quite a bit. These two plants still look pretty much the same up close, and theres not much of a significant difference between the two.

Were those two plants from the same batch of seeds?

mo_carnivore wrote:Were those two plants from the same batch of seeds?

Yes indeed

Hmmm... I think the ICPS website is overdue for an update then...

"When the plants get to a few cm tall, Drosera finlaysoniana tends to prefer drier soil and can die if the plants are too wet. However watch your plants carefully. There can be major differences in preferences depending on the source location of the seeds."

--ICPS Drosera indica complex care sheet

No clue on that one. Mine seem to be fine either sopping wet, or semi dry either way...