FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone,
I have just gotten 4 new sundews about 3 weeks ago and was wondering how to increase the amount of dew on them. They are sticky but even still have a very minimal amount of dew. Every few hours I spray it with reverse osmosis water. I see pics of sundews with tons of dew on them. I spray them with water and they certainly have a lot of humidity. I try to keep them in sunlight but we don't always have a lot. I'll upload some pics of the four of them When we do though, I let them get at least ten hours of sunlight every weekend, and about 6 hours of sunlight every weekday. It always gets direct sunlight. Also, how much should I water newly planted seeds?

Thanks,
Liam

Here's the first one it's a Capensis.

Two of the three spatulata's

And the last one

Dew tends to be an indicator of healthy, thriving conditions. If you can meet the sundew's ideal conditions, it'll produce dew within a few days I believe.

any idea what those conditions are? Is it just lots of sunlight?
Also how big do the droplets tend to become?

I'm not much of a Drosera expert but from my understanding their ideal conditions are similar to a venus flytrap's.


Lots of sunlight - direct / indirect depending on species. I have a Capensis, Nidiformis, and Capillaris sitting outside in full sun thriving. I'm not sure about your spatulata. Try indirect or partially shaded sunlight for now. Give it a decent photoperiod (at least 6 hours). Most of the time when sundews are in direct sunlight, they don't exhibit much dew because most of the moisture is evaporating. You're more likely to see dew in the early morning, around sunset, or in the shade.

Water - I use the tray method but I don't keep them waterlogged. I treat them like a VFT; the soil should be moist to the touch in that if you do touch the soil, a few particles of peat moss should stick to your finger.

Humidity - not a huge issue IMO. But then again I live in NYC, where summers are naturally humid. I think as long as humidity isn't below 30%, you should be alright.

soil - it looks like you have soil down right. 50/50 ish perlite / peat moss.


Based on your post though, it sounds like you're moving your plants around a lot? Try to keep them in the same spot that gives it consistent light each day. Moving the pot to different spots may confuse the plant and/or stress it, thus reducing dew output.

Other than that, I suppose just give it time. Where do you live? Some sundews prefer mild temperatures and will produce much more dew within that ideal range. I've seen my capillaris and capensis produce a lot more dew on a 65-75 degree day compared to a 88-93 degree day.

Dew droplets don't get extremely huge, but they're noticeable. I'd guesstimate about 1-2mm diameter for a full dewdrop.

Like I said though, I'm no expert on this stuff. Most of what I know and told you came from what I've read on sundews in the past. One of my major sources is this site:
http://www.growsundews.com/

Perhaps it can help you a lot more than I can.

Full sun and keep the soil wet. The leaves that are on the plant now may not make anymore dew but the new leaves should be very dewy. Most dews grow like weeds they just need lots of water and light. Not saying BLoos advice is wrong because I have grown my dews a lil drier and they were fine but after seeing dews in the wild growing under water and in completely waterlogged conditions I decided to try going a lil wetter and my pants seem to like it. I grow them with my sarracenia.

I have my dews, sarracenias, and dioneas outside in the same conditions. I brought my capensis inside though, to let it keep growing thoughout the winter

It seems that the plant isn't properly adapted to the environment :/. Try wrapping it up with satan wrap and make sure that it doesn't overheat. And open the wrap bit by bit everyday.

The massive drops of dew you see sometimes may actually be real dew (i.e. early morning condensation). Often, the plants are dewier in the morning, probably due to water condensing out of the atmosphere in the previous night.

I would avoid trying to raise the humidity through saran wrap etc. Both D. capensis and D. spatulata grow very well in natural humidity levels and it will probably be better in the long run to allow it to adapt to natural humidity levels. Adapting takes time. SInce both are hardy species, just leave it in the growing conditions (provided they aren't exteme) and give them a few weeks to adjust.

This is the example I'm talking about. In addition to the sundew dew droplets at the end of the stalk, morning dew has also formed on the plant

Thanks guys for the comments. I live in Connecticut where we have pretty high humidity and usually good sunlight. Unfortunately the only leaves that are producing dew is the ones which are newly growing. When I first got my sundew, I took it out right away which put it into shock, and now the leaves from before don't produce any dew. When a leaf is first growing, is it ok to put a bug where the dew is? Meaning if it isn't fully developed can I still put a bug in it? Also, you guys said it wasn't good to move my plant around a lot. Should I just leave them in the same spot? I'm asking this because I also have a Sarracenia and a Venus Flytrap. I move those and they're both growing extremely well.

Oh and one more thing. As you might've seen in the pics, my spatulatas have had a flower stalk growing. When should I take off the seed pods? Then how many seeds should I put in each pot? I'm thinking of putting all the pots in a big tray with water in the bottom (tray method). Should I just keep the seeds in direct sunlight just as I'm doing with my fully grown sundews? Sorry for asking so many questions. I have just one more. Does using the tray method ever over water your plants?

Thanks so much everyone,
Liam

Part of your problem may be the misting. I keep mine on the tray watering system and never mist them. I have some outside and some indoors and I have noticed that the ones outdoors look less dewy then the ones indoors right after it has rained. Your continuous misting is probably simulating rain, so if you stop doing that it may help quite a bit. So my advice would be to quit misting them and keep the soil on the wetter side.

Thanks Marcus I was thinking that was part of the problem too. How much water do you think I should use when doing the tray method. I have two 4 inch pots and one 7 inch pot (or something like that). Have you ever overwatered your plants doing that? Any tips to prevent that?