FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone! I'm the new guy again hahaha (really new to CP culture).

I just bought a D. Capensis (yesterday and it was labelled that way) and read a lot of stater guides (here in the forum and other websites). But I'm a little worried because I've always seen this plant tentacles or dew with a red coloration, but this one is completely pale (They were all like this in the store, or were they all D. Capensis Albino? ).I've read that one of the main problems might be the lack of direct sun, for that matter I'm thinking to buy a desk lamp for her but what specs -Watts, light temperature, distance to the plant, type (incandescent, led, fluorescent)- should I look for the light bulb? (Yes, plant is on my desk).
One second thing that worries me is that every plant I see from you is just one plant/stem per pot, but this little girl came with a lot of friends that makes a huge mess with the leaves, should I separate them? (pics below). Finally, yesterday a tiny fly got caught by the plant but it didn't wrap it, just a few tentacles got adhered to the fly and that's all, is that normal?


Many plants - messy leaves


Dew - poor and pale... Is it normal? Will it get better with a lamp for her?


Non-wrapped fly... normal?

Plant conditions:
Location: Indoor
Sunlight: After midday, filtered by a window.
Water: Water tray system (Yes, distilled water)
Soil: Mixture indicated for CP (My VFT and Sar are doing pretty well with that)
Air humidity: Ranging from 60 to 80% (Summer - Winter)

Thanks for reading and helping this newbie again!!

As you were suspecting, your plant needs much more sun. As for the type of your sundew it’s most likely a typical form. For your artificial light question I can’t provide any help with that. I grow my plants under some t5s and some leds and I don’t use any single bulb fixtures. But if you could, it would be better to find a sunnier spot for it.

It looks to be D. capensis Alba to me, the albino form. Or it’s possible that it’s a typical that will get red that just needs more light. A CFL bulb in a lamp will be fine for that pot. You want to get as many lumens as possible, at least 800, or more is even better. 100 watt equivalent or more usually does the trick. You will want the color temperature to be 6500K, also sold under the description “Daylight”. 4-5 inches above the plant will work well.

You can separate the plants or just leave them as is. Whatever you think looks better. But the plants don’t care.

Sometimes leaves curl over the prey if it is large and sometimes they don’t. Nothing to worry about.