FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Ok, well I'm surprised to see it is coloring up as well as it is with only growing by the window. If it can survive well enough without additional lighting by the window during the winter, then you can grow it outside during the summer where it should definitely take off if you find a good spot for it. But i'd say your plant looks decent right now. Perhaps a small compact fluorescent bulb would help it, but you shouldn't have to go through the hassle if you don't want to...

But if you want to feed it, you can feel free to use any variety of recommended food you want---crushed Betta Bites fish food pellets do the job for my plants and they shouldn't need too much dew to digest them. But fruit flies and fungus gnats seem to be best. I always leave the flowers on. When the plant is really happy, it will produce boatloads of seeds. When it's unhappy, it will barely produce any seeds...I have a ton of plants that are growing in an extremely dim section of a greenhouse and they are completely green and they only produce 10-20 seeds on a full stalk compared to the 1000+ seeds per stalk that I was able to get on the healthiest plants.

Btw and this is kinda offtopic, but close to what you are saying, the flower and the seed process is not a stress for drosera capensis ?

well I moved my plant last night, to a spot on the window where it gets plenty of light, at least 5 hours direct. It is producing lots of dew. I also repotted it, and it looks like it doesn't care about shock, it is eating lots of bugs and is nice and healthy!

Roarke, a healthy plant will never be stressed by flowering, why would it be? Just like a healthy fruit tree won't be stressed to grow fruit.

sounds good. glad it's getting a good meal

As for flowering, D. capensis is not adversely affected by flowering when it is in a healthy condition- but the healthier the plant is, the more seed it will produce. This is not the case for all sundews, though. After flowering, some species, like D. tomentosa, nearly die back completely after flowering and come back from the roots. Snipping off the flower buds before they open interestingly prevents this from occurring.

But in a case that a D. capensis plant doesn't have red tentacles and has sickly leaves, I'd recommend cutting the flower stalk off, although D. capensis usually does just fine after flowering even when green.

the pictures you previously posted make me extremely jealous.

hegory wrote:it needs more light and more water. It may also be the leaf folding over a bug. humidity can be a problem to, it needs some good humidity, after all they are from south africa BTW, the humidity needs to be at about 50% roughly.

I live in South Africa....have all my life....haha and its dry as hell...definitely not humid where these guys grow!

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