FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,
I'm new to these plants so I kinda have no clue what I'm doing. I've done research but it's still hard to figure out what's wrong. I got my Drosera Spathulata a few weeks ago and two days ago it started to brown. Does anyone know why? Any help would be appreciated. Also it looks like it's seeding can I clip that off and plant it? Thanks for any help.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First off, get it off that pot. Clay is horrible for carnivorous plants as it leaches minerals into the soil, slowly killing them.

It looks like it isn't getting enough light as well. I'd say the humidity is a bit too low too, making the leaves dry even faster with the mix of low light. I'd move it to a plastic pot, eventually to a sunnier spot and make sure it gets a bit more humidity until it recovers.

Where did the soil come from?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

I got it at lows it's just a mix of peat moss and perlite


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dematerialize wrote:First off, get it off that pot. Clay is horrible for carnivorous plants as it leaches minerals into the soil, slowly killing them.

It looks like it isn't getting enough light as well. I'd say the humidity is a bit too low too, making the leaves dry even faster with the mix of low light. I'd move it to a plastic pot, eventually to a sunnier spot and make sure it gets a bit more humidity until it recovers.

Ok thank you for the advise. I followed all your advise and hopefully it will get better. Thanks again!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How often do you water it? or do you use the tray method to water?

Well I got it like a week ago so I watered it like twice. It's been in the 80s all weeks and it was outside most of the time. I heard they like to get dry then watered until it leaked from the bottom. What's the tray method? I've never heard of it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Basically the tray method is placing water on the tray of the pot. Water from seep from bottom to top.

What you're doing now is top watering which is the opposite. Water goes from top to bottom (to the tray).

Here's a link that might explain it better

http://www.growsundews.com/tray_method_ ... lants.html

Oh wow that's really cool. Thank you for showing me that I'll have to try that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good luck!

Makre sure that the tray isn't made out of clay as well~

Beaver746 wrote:I got it at lows it's just a mix of peat moss and perlite


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What brand is on the packaging that the peat moss and perlite came from? I know that miracle gro sells peat moss and perlite individually for making your own mix with but they enrich it with fertilizer. It says "Enriched with Miracle Gro Plant Food" on the package. You have to be sure the dirt is pure, any fertilizer will kill a sundew.

Beaver746 wrote:Well I got it like a week ago so I watered it like twice. It's been in the 80s all weeks and it was outside most of the time. I heard they like to get dry then watered until it leaked from the bottom.

Sundews like to be kept pretty moist all the time. It probably just got shocked from putting it outside into lower humidity, higher temperatures, and more direct sunlight that it's used to. Make sure it's not fertilized soil like AaaaNinja said above. You can cut off the flower stalk and the flowers probably have seeds inside. They're extremely tiny like ground pepper.

xr280xr wrote:

Beaver746 wrote:Well I got it like a week ago so I watered it like twice. It's been in the 80s all weeks and it was outside most of the time. I heard they like to get dry then watered until it leaked from the bottom.

Sundews like to be kept pretty moist all the time. It probably just got shocked from putting it outside into lower humidity, higher temperatures, and more direct sunlight that it's used to. Make sure it's not fertilized soil like AaaaNinja said above. You can cut off the flower stalk and the flowers probably have seeds inside. They're extremely tiny like ground pepper.

Ok hopefully that's the problem... I put it in a higher humidity room that gets plenty of sun. Thanks for the advise!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

AaaaNinja wrote:

Beaver746 wrote:I got it at lows it's just a mix of peat moss and perlite


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What brand is on the packaging that the peat moss and perlite came from? I know that miracle gro sells peat moss and perlite individually for making your own mix with but they enrich it with fertilizer. It says "Enriched with Miracle Gro Plant Food" on the package. You have to be sure the dirt is pure, any fertilizer will kill a sundew.

I used miracle grow perlite.... Ugh why didn't I read the packaging. Also why would they add fertilizer in perlite. Do I need to completely take it out or can I wash it out with water? Here is the peat moss that I use. It's looks like it doesn't use fertilizer. Do you know this brand? Is it good? Any advise would be awesome.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah according to this post: http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/sunsh ... 23882.html the peat moss is good. You just need to find something to mix with it to make it less dense. I don't think you can wash the fertilizer out of perlite. You can use playbox sand (Quikcrete) but it comes in 50-lb. bags and you have to wash it, I only wash the little bit I'm actually going to use as I go through it. You can also see if they have different perlite and if you need to know, the package should have a 1-800 number and you can just ask them directly if they've added anything.

You can always just order soil from a carnivorous plant seller but you have to wait for it to ship.