FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So these are my Drosera Capensis', and as you can see they dont look too good... That would most likely be because of me trying to grow them in a terrarium for a month or so! Anywhoo... I was wondering if the direct sun they recieve might be too hot and intense? Here in South Africa ,in summer, our days reach 35 °C and up each day! Thats hot! Over here it's also a desert climate so its not very humid! The peat moss tends to dry up and looks like it got cooked in the sun! It gets like REALLY hard! That leads to all my utricularia dying... Well now I'd like to know if I should try and figure out a way to give them enough sun, but not too much or too little...mayby like some sort of net? Would that give them enough light? If so, does this apply to my flytraps as well? Thanks in advance!

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You do realize this species is native to South Africa, right? It's very tolerant of a wide range of conditions as long as it has water. I wouldn't expect to see any problems below 40C, maybe even higher.

nimbulan wrote:You do realize this species is native to South Africa, right? It's very tolerant of a wide range of conditions as long as it has water. I wouldn't expect to see any problems below 40C, maybe even higher.

I do realize that yes...I'm also from here...the thing is, Cape Town is a LOT cooler in summer than where I'm from! Its desert here and coast there...so that means a lot less humid and a lot more heat and sun! I know they are extremely hardy, but I would like to give them some relief! Would a net or something work?

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If the plant does show signs of stress on a hot day, you can use shade cloth to protect it. People do that in desert areas here in the US to protect their temperate plants when it gets up to 45+C and <10% humidity in the blazing hot sun.

nimbulan wrote:If the plant does show signs of stress on a hot day, you can use shade cloth to protect it. People do that in desert areas here in the US to protect their temperate plants when it gets up to 45+C and <10% humidity in the blazing hot sun.

Okei thanks!

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Use cloth to protect the plant and soak towels with distilled water to bring up the humidity level

It has been a while since this question, but if anyone else is struggling to keep drosera alive in hot weather, I live in Bombay where day time is over 30 degrees celcius almost always and summer nights can reach 30 too on occasion. I find that keeping the plants in bright shade and out of the way of hot breezes helps. Also watering with cool water (NOT cold or you'll kill them) in the evening after sunset and around noon if temperatures are over 35 helps.

Peat has never worked for me for any plant in our climate. Sphagnum helps a lot. Live would be best I suppose, but I have lots of plants and not enough live sphagnum, so I use dry sphag and it seems to work just fine.

Some plants will die. That can't be helped. But most will make it, even if grumbling.

If your humidity is low, maybe rig up some sort of evaporative cooling setup.

Just speculating here: If you grow them in wet Sphagnum and put a fan blowing over the Sphagnum, it may act as a swamp cooler, lowering the air temperature around the plant.

I'd turn the fan on when the sun goes down to simulate a night time temperature drop.

Just my two cents worth.

BTW, my D capensis all get temperamental and sulk for me in the Summer here. I just live with it, knowing that they'll look OK when the temperature comes down.

Shadowtski wrote:If your humidity is low, maybe rig up some sort of evaporative cooling setup.

Just speculating here: If you grow them in wet Sphagnum and put a fan blowing over the Sphagnum, it may act as a swamp cooler, lowering the air temperature around the plant.

I'd turn the fan on when the sun goes down to simulate a night time temperature drop.

Just my two cents worth.

BTW, my D capensis all get temperamental and sulk for me in the Summer here. I just live with it, knowing that they'll look OK when the temperature comes down.

Hey yeah this is an old thread, and I must say that my capensis' actually looked very very good at a certain point!! They were at their best in the Winter, but so far have been able to take high temps! So yeah scratch everything I said back then, Drosera Capensis can grow in full sun here!!

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