FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone,

I recently developed an interest in carnivorous plants and spent time reading up on them. Decided to buy a couple sundews online, one of which was a Drosera graomogolensis.

It seems to be healthy since it is producing dew and growing new leaves. However, I'm a bit concerned about it; while it is now growing new leaves, the back of the leaves turn a rusty brown, which gradually becomes black. The leaves still unfurl and the tentacles appear healthy so far, but pretty much the entire back of the leaf becomes black. An interesting note is the perlite on the surface of the media seems to be having the same color change, rusty brown to dark brown/black. (Here are some photos)

My personal thought is it couldn't be sunburn, since admittedly, it probably doesn't get the optimal amount of direct sunlight. It is on a north-facing garden window and only gets direct sun in the evening for a few hours at most. The rest of the day is bright indirect light.

I have rinsed the media and am watering it using the tray method with reverse osmosis water. Daytime temperature is roughly 80 F, nighttime around 70 F. Not sure what the humidity in my home is.. subjectively I would describe it as not humid.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this?

It's crashing. Graomo is one picky sundew. You should grow them like a highland Nepenthes and from your temperatures I'd say they're just fine. You have a great nighttime drop and your temperatures are very close to mine. Only issue I can think of would be your humidity. While mine is grown in household humidity (40-45%?) you can't just blop it on the windowsill and leave it. Judging by the pot and plant tag I'm going to guess you bought this from an online nursery in Portland, OR? If so, they grow their SA sundews in a very humid greenhouse.

Here's what I did with my Graomo. Got it in the mail and stuck the whole pot in a large ziplock bag and put a little bit of water inside the bag for it to sit in. Once a week I would open the bag a little bit until it was opened completely. With this you're slowly adjusting it to your household humidity instead of just dumping it into 30-40% humidity from the 70+ it probably was used to. Secondly, you need more light. Your new growth is pale green compared to the old red growth. Now, you don't need to get it blood red like the old growth but it does need more. Try a West or South facing windowsill. Lastly, don't keep it to waterlogged. I'll fill the tray up on mine about 1/4" of an inch and let the tray dry out for a day or two before re-watering.

Put your little guy in a ziplock bag with a tiny bit of water and seal it up. If the newest growth doesn't turn black you'll know it was just crashing from the humidity.

It looks like it's acclimating to me. Whenever I move my graos or latifolias to a new setup, they grow that nasty black stuff on the underside of their leaves for two or so weeks and then it suddenly goes away. Temps seem fine, although it would really like it if you could get nights maybe a little cooler.

@Ping, I did indeed get it from the nursery you are thinking of. Also, I should have mentioned this, but I did follow some tips I read somewhere to acclimate it to humidity by placing it in a large sandwich bag and gradually opening it up. Although I opened the bag up completely over the course of 1 week. Another thing to note is I've had this sundew for almost 2 weeks now. As for water, I will make sure to do that, I currently keep the water in the saucer closer to 1/2 inch.

@Nepenthes0260, that's good to hear that you had a similar experience and they ended up being alright.

I suppose my next question would then be, if I were to bag it again and move it to the west-facing window in my home, would that cause it to re-acclimate to different conditions and prolong the period of time which its new leaves (potentially) turn black? I live in a 800 sq ft condo, so I don't have many options for direct sunlight other than taking it outside. This window is also next to the main return vent for the HVAC system, so there would be significantly more airflow. (Which might actually help with the slight mold problem I'm having on the Drosera x Marston Dragon...)

ok7770 wrote:I suppose my next question would then be, if I were to bag it again and move it to the west-facing window in my home, would that cause it to re-acclimate to different conditions and prolong the period of time which its new leaves (potentially) turn black? I live in a 800 sq ft condo, so I don't have many options for direct sunlight other than taking it outside. This window is also next to the main return vent for the HVAC system, so there would be significantly more airflow. (Which might actually help with the slight mold problem I'm having on the Drosera x Marston Dragon...)

West would be better and airflow is always a plus. I had the exact same problem as you when I first received mine (mine crashed harder too) and I just re-bagged it. I'm currently acclimating a Regia to household humidity and granted Regia might be a bit more fussy but I'm at week 3 and the bag is still over the pot. I'm sure some people would suggest letting it ride it out but I wouldn't. If it is an acclimating issue once you bag it your new growth should be fine.

Thanks, I decided to follow your advice and hopefully they will bounce back better than before. There's still new growth coming out so I will monitor and see if they continue to turn black.

Moved my new plants to the west-facing window and bagged them all back up. Left the bag about half open since they've already been somewhat acclimated to my household humidity. The garden window I had them at did have a west-facing side, but there were too many trees in the way and impeded the sunlight. They will definitely get at least 5 hours of sunlight now at this window. Aesthetically, it is not as pleasing since it's a bit awkward with the vertical blinds. But I suppose it will do until they get bigger and then I'll probably decide to move them outside on my patio.

I think at this point it's safe to say the plant is definitely improving. In fact, the leaves that grew out black have mostly recovered and are green again. 2 out of the 3 new growth is still turning brown/black, the third one is actually fine so far.

It's been a couple months and I want to update this thread. Unfortunately the sundew has really been throwing in the towel. I eventually moved all my plants outside so they can get the proper amount of sunlight they need. While they all loved it, the D. graomogolensis eventually just stopped growing altogether. The blackening of the new growth never went away either. At one point, the sundew began growing new leaves again, but quickly stopped and they turned black too. Now all of its leaves have become a sickly brownish color and it appears to be dormant. Or even dead.

Well, I moved it to a shaded spot a while back, and recently I noticed some bright green coming out. Looks like it's finally coming around! https://imgur.com/a/VTszvlv