FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Please help, I got a Drosera Capensis from California Carnivores a while ago, about a few months to a year ago. It’s not doing very well though. It won’t produce flowers, its leaves don’t curl up when it catches something, and it hasn’t grown any larger since I got it, and it clearly isn’t its maximum size.

What am I doing wrong? Please help me if you can.

Here’s an Image:

looks pretty healthy to me. Capensis leaves don't curl up as much as some of the longer leaved sundews unless it catches something big. I might repot it into a deeper pot the shock might trick it into blooming and the extra room would be good for it.

m80torpedo3 wrote:looks pretty healthy to me. Capensis leaves don't curl up as much as some of the longer leaved sundews unless it catches something big. I might repot it into a deeper pot the shock might trick it into blooming and the extra room would be good for it.

oh ok.

The older leaves have a new Red color to the tentacles.
It's hard to tell from the photo but the newer leaves do not appear to be coloring up well.
If that's the case, you may want to increase your light level.
Leaf movement after prey capture varies quite a bit.
Catch a bug and smash it a bit so it's nice and wet and gushy. Put that on the tentacles and see how they react.

Good growing,
Mike

If there's no dew on the leaves you won't have much luck with feeding. I can't tell from the pic if there is or not. The plant overall looks healthy, but from what I can see I think Mike may have hit the nail on the head. It needs more light.

The typical capensis really isn't that big, yours appears full vegetative maturity to me, although I am looking at a pic which can skew perception.

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would it be ok to have the plant outside? I live in Cambridge Mass.

boarderlib wrote:If there's no dew on the leaves you won't have much luck with feeding. I can't tell from the pic if there is or not. The plant overall looks healthy, but from what I can see I think Mike may have hit the nail on the head. It needs more light.

The typical capensis really isn't that big, yours appears full vegetative maturity to me, although I am looking at a pic which can skew perception.

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ah it's just that with all the images I've seen of it looks much bigger than it actually is, but now that I take a second glance it does look to be about that size on average. But how do I get it to flower? I would like to be able to try growing seedlings, or sell the seeds and/or seedlings.

but if I put them outside I'm worried that someone might steal them.

First thing is to get the plant completely healthy, then flowers will come in abundance. I wouldn't worry about someone stealing it, that seems to be a very infrequent occurrence. I've only hard of one person who had a few plants that got burglarized. Now I have heard of a few large scale growers getting robbed, but those are usually the people who have mass collections with lots of rare, high dollar plants.

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ZeGamingCuber wrote:Here’s an Image:

Is that a wide leaf Capensis? I have had issues with D. capensis 'narrow leaf' red also from California Carnivores. Unfortunately for me, the plant was used for experimentation with light levels and type of light. At first, I had the plant in a south exposure window, then I put it about 8" under a 6 tube, 4' T5 fixture. I started getting lots of drying and black leaf tips, dew production was variable and eventually the leaves died back and did not come back. I've since put the plant outside, in a water tray, with the VFTs, still no leaves. It is still in the same media and same pot it came in, I've not tried to look at the roots. Either way, your plant looks lots better than mine. Perhaps I over-watered it but I also will say that California Carnivores media retains water almost too well, IMO, it almost becomes 'muddy'. Sorry, not much help for you.

tmann51 wrote:

ZeGamingCuber wrote:Here’s an Image:

Is that a wide leaf Capensis? I have had issues with D. capensis 'narrow leaf' red also from California Carnivores. Unfortunately for me, the plant was used for experimentation with light levels and type of light. At first, I had the plant in a south exposure window, then I put it about 8" under a 6 tube, 4' T5 fixture. I started getting lots of drying and black leaf tips, dew production was variable and eventually the leaves died back and did not come back. I've since put the plant outside, in a water tray, with the VFTs, still no leaves. It is still in the same media and same pot it came in, I've not tried to look at the roots. Either way, your plant looks lots better than mine. Perhaps I over-watered it but I also will say that California Carnivores media retains water almost too well, IMO, it almost becomes 'muddy'. Sorry, not much help for you.

I think it’s either a normal drosera capensis or a normal narrow leaf.

You can clip a few older leaves into a couple pieces and float them in RO/distilled water in a small, clean container and they'll produce plantlets in a few weeks that are considerably larger than ones grown from seed. You've got plenty of leaves to work with there, and the plant looks pretty healthy to me.

when I put it outside the plant lost all of its mucilage. Is this normal?