FlyTrapCare Forums

Hello,

I managed to grow a few Drosera rotundifolia plants from seed.

They've been doing nicely outside under sheltered sunlight since their sowing (I'm in temperate zone so climate fits their needs), never kept them inside a dome (so that I wouldn't have to worry about mold) but always used an open tray filled with 1/4 inch (6mm) of water (TDS 18 ppm). The soil is pure blonde peat fit inside an icetray (with holes drilled in the bottom).

I just fed them with insects and watched them grow. My largest ones (shown in this picture) are about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter leaftip-to-leaftip.
Fungus gnats did often fly above them and I watched sometimes small worms swimming (maybe their larvae) in the shallow water but they never seem to have bothered them in months.
Now all of a sudden the once oblique leaves flattened on peat and the center of their rosette somewhat turned brown.

What could it be? Could you please tell me how to save them?

Thank you

Alfred

I don't see anything wrong. The color of the one your arrow points to looks normal enough, they're not always completely green. Yours look healthy.

I wouldn't worry too much about root rot on rotundifolia, the roots should do fine even submerged in muck and even if they didn't the plant has all it's vigor in the crown, very under-developed roots.

If you plant to keep them outside all winter though I wouldn't try to winter them in an ice cube tray. It should be fine for spring/summer/fall though, they really don't need much room.

entropy81 wrote:I don't see anything wrong. The color of the one your arrow points to looks normal enough, they're not always completely green. Yours look healthy.

I wouldn't worry too much about root rot on rotundifolia, the roots should do fine even submerged in muck and even if they didn't the plant has all it's vigor in the crown, very under-developed roots.

If you plant to keep them outside all winter though I wouldn't try to winter them in an ice cube tray. It should be fine for spring/summer/fall though, they really don't need much room.

I see, thank you. My problem is that they wilted all of a sudden, in like 1 or 2 days, those leaves were previously oblique/upright (surely not flattened on peat as if they were dead) and the traps had dew while now they're quite dry.
Also they were greener and not brown. That's what worries me.

Well, they look like they're still developing new leaves, although flat. Most of my rotundifolia stays pretty flat all the time, they usually are. I have only 1 rotundifolia that likes to go upright, and only during the early-middle part of the growing season. (Although I remember as a seedling that one was very upright it's first year.) It is a temperate plant so it does have seasonal variation. I could be wrong but I suspect yours is just going through the normal changes of the year.

As for color, I would say green, yellow, red and brown are all normal colors especially at the base of the petiole. Most of mine look like that except maybe early in the spring.

Keep an eye on them to see if the dew comes back, that could be an indicator it's not pleased with something.