FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Two weeks ago, my Drosera Spatulata arrived from Amazon. I did not arrive home for a few days due to a camp I got into, so my family put it in some distilled water (thankfully). I arrived home to see that there was only a flower stalk protruding from somewhere near the edge of the pot. I dug down maybe two inches to see my spatulata, completely buried. Due to the plant being smushed against the side of the pot where neither sun nor water could reach it without a mini avalanche of dirt burying it again, I chose to repot it while it was already in shock. the only peat I could find was the dreadful miracle gro stuff, so I bought a carnivorous plant collection from lowes to get the right soil. The flytrap it came with was dead, but the pitcher plant was trying to escape the bag. I also found some actual sphagnum moss in a pet store that was untreated. Result: 50/50 peat- sphagnum mix and a dormant pitcher plant. possible contamination with miracle- kill perlite- which was spilled into the vicinity while I was mixing the soil. I replace the water every few days to remove any possible fertilizer in there.

Fast forward to now. I have them in pretty wet soil, and things are going... Ok. Their light schedule is as follows: 1-3 hours of direct sun from my room's east facing window, bright diffused light till around 12, then a bright 2500 lumen cfl light in the afternoon till around 6 or 7, when I put a warm incandescent spotlight on it till 10 to build up the humidity and have a nice cool down overnight. I also have a red/blue led grow light, but it hurts my eyes and makes everything look green. The sundew is growing, and has two new leaves with a bunch on the way, however the tips of some new leaves are brown, and one is deformed ( visible in pic1). The pitcher is coming out of dormancy, and has three leaflets coming up (pic2). The water has nothing floating around in it, but looks exactly like sweet tea! (visible in pic 3, along with my tray setup) some leaf buds on the sundew are brown tipped, and a developing leaf died at the tip very minute amounts of dew on leaves. the roots seemed pretty healthy when I repotted it, but I am not an experienced grower of these, and would like one of your guys' opinions.
Houston, do we have a problem? -- T
pic1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0T3ge ... sp=sharing
pic2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0T3ge ... sp=sharing
pic3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0T3ge ... sp=sharing

It might bounce back but will likely have some catching up to do first. But Miracle Gro peat has fertilizer that will kill your plant; I'm not quite clear on whether you used some of that or not. Your light is probably fine for the sundew. The pitcher plant would do a lot better outdoors really. They can do okay under lights for a while but they want intense light and then there's the winter dormancy to think about too. I try to have soil on hand for plants before they arrive. And also talk to Amazon about the condition your plant arrived in.


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I did not use anything miracle gro branded, but thanks for responding. I see now about the dormancy thing with the pitcher plant. What they likely did before I bought it was force the plants into dormancy so they can survive on the shelf longer. The current leaves are indicative of that, as they are non carnivorous leaves. Where I live, there are many squirrels that like to dig up plants from pots- I don't want to take that risk. There's also rabbits that would find both of these plants a tasty snack.
Worst case scenario, I dig up the pitcher plant and put it into dormancy later on, but for now, I think it should be ok. I'll go talk to amazon about the plant too.
Thanks, -- T