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By Adriana
Posts:  126
Joined:  Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:47 pm
#362109
I blame optimusprime for this purchase. He piqued my curiosity and I ended up ordering from curious plants. I had a great experience, they shipped fast and gave me an extra baby Andromeda and the two pings I ordered also were a nice size and had some color.

The Andromeda is in a cloche (pictured) for humidity now, the pings should be fine at my room humidity at 52%.

Any one have Andromeda experience? I'm wondering especially about feeding, as I know the "three sisters" can be picky eaters in terms of artificial food. Happily I have gotten rid of fungus gnats in my houseplants, unhappily it means I have to feed my CPs.

Second question, if I acclimate it slowly, would room humidity of 50-60% be ok? Any other info on quirks is welcome too.
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By twitcher
Posts:  656
Joined:  Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:56 am
#362124
I'm the wrong person to be responding here as I always end up killing my Andromeda's. It is a beautiful sundew, probably the one I like the best and hope you do well with it. Longest time I've been able to keep one growing is about 6 months. I did notice that it seems to take them longer to digest food (fruit flies from me), so maybe there is some kinds of food that works better for them.
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By ChefDean
Location: 
Posts:  9207
Joined:  Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:44 am
#362134
I just did some research, and I've seen that, depending on where you are, Andromeda is often better suited as a terrarium dew due to higher humidity requirements.
The nurseries that gave their growing info all say they grow in 80%-90% humidity. In the wild near Queensland, Australia, they grow in the high 60% to high 70% humidity depending on the time of year.
Your 50%-60% might not be enough for long term. If you can maintain 60%, it might squeak by, but never look it's best. You might want to consider a terrarium for this guy.
Make optimus buy you a terrarium, he's the one who peer pressured you into buying "Andy".
By Adriana
Posts:  126
Joined:  Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:47 pm
#362139
Ha ha you hear that optimus?

I do have a Sunblaster nanodome and I can use that over the winter, or keep it in the cloche I pictured. I just wondered if it would be happy at 60% and that seems dicey. Right now we have 70% humidity (gotta love a NYC summer) but it's staying in the cloche to acclimate from shipping. I'm actually more worried about the rest of the summer when the temps go back up.

I am a little worried about the feeding, since I know the parent plants can be overwhelmed by bloodworms. I may have to just sit it out on the fire escape for a bit to catch no-see-ums.
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By evenwind
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Posts:  2153
Joined:  Sun Jul 07, 2013 4:16 pm
#362147
I feed both my pings and sundews with betta pellets, ground to dust in a pill crusher. Haven't actually tried feeding an Andromeda, I've given up on the three sisters - they start dying as fast as buy 'em.
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By tommyr
Location: 
Posts:  1747
Joined:  Mon Nov 02, 2009 1:38 am
#362153
I too just got an andromeda. From Calif. Carn. It's in what looks like a peat/perlite/sand mix. Mine is smaller than yours right now. Need to find a small cloche or something to stick it in.
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By twitcher
Posts:  656
Joined:  Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:56 am
#362180
I should also mention two things. First a post mortum of the plants that died revealed minimal roots, so I suspect root rot of some kind did me in. Secondly, I did try a high humidity environment for the last one, but did not seem to matter. I am watching my current one ( thanks to a trading partner that insisted I try again) very closely. At the first sign of any trouble its going into a net pot with lfsm larger than the plant would typically need based on size for a sundew. I'm hoping the greater air flow to the roots from a net pot will help and the overlarge sized pot will help establish a higher humidity micro environment around the plant.
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By ChefDean
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Posts:  9207
Joined:  Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:44 am
#362217
Another thing to try is, after the initial shock and recovery, feed the ever loving hell out of it. But use bugs, not fish food or something else "artificial".
Go get a flightless fruit fly colony from a pet store. Once a week, sprinkle the little buggers on "Andy". Real bugs might make a difference along with higher humidity.
Just a thought.
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By Apollyon
Location: 
Posts:  1663
Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#362231
Could also spray Andy with some Maxsea in place of trying to feed it the artificial food. Though I have to say I'm pretty jealous. I never got a freebie :( I just ordered 3 pygmies from them though, maybe they'll toss in something extra lol. Out here in florida, I've found mosquito larvae in my watering trays inside that ive pulled them and fed to my plants. Outdoors are tadpoles (though I feel kinda bad about that one). Sometimes nature provides.

I use a heavy duty 1020 tray with a vented humidity dome for more more finicky plants (a drosera, cephalotus, nepenthes). They're convenient for some pings too and you can fit a lot of pots in a tray. Use something like eggcrate(plastic) to create layers to keep water levels where you want for your different plants.
By Adriana
Posts:  126
Joined:  Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:47 pm
#362232
I had wingless fruit flies before because a friend found a frog in her potted plant shipment and I took it in to re-home it. I didn't enjoy having a jar of fruit flies in my house or the grain mites that often come in the bottle so I might just go outside with my plant. Sitting on a bench with a potted plant so it can get food would be a very NYC thing to do.

Since there are multiple mentions of the freebie, I should say that it's small and has tiny curled up leaves (maybe a tissue culture runt?) so it wasn't a sellable plant on its own. I hope it lives but it's not a prime specimen. I am grateful though to have two chances to kill a wishlist plant instead of just one ; - )
By twitcher
Posts:  656
Joined:  Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:56 am
#362236
I used dried fruit flies for my cp's as the food source, including Andromeda. I culture and dry the flies (first in the freezer to kill after harvesting, then air dry. Dried flies stored in the freezer). The dead Andromeda were all fed with the ff's. Andromeda is apparently a clumper. Watch the freeby closely. If it does not thrive and begins to decline, that is a sign you have a problem. BTW, do you know to re-hydrate dried foods before feeding? Makes them easier to digest, IMO.
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By Adriana
Posts:  126
Joined:  Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:47 pm
#362265
I'll just be honest here and say I feel bad for the fruit flies too, so I would rather use larval forms.

Like Matt I am a plant-eater myself. I have been soaking the dried bloodworms in distilled water before feeding, is this what you mean twitcher? If not can you share what you do?

I'm happy to report the Andromedas now have dew on the leaves! Thank you, $7 IKEA cloche!

(edited for typo)
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By optimus prime
Posts:  850
Joined:  Mon Jun 22, 2020 12:26 am
#362268
Looks good. I sometime see fruit flies on my sundew so I get some tweezers pull him off, smile then put him In the jaws of my vft
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By Apollyon
Location: 
Posts:  1663
Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#362283
Adriana wrote:I'll just be honest here and say I feel bad for the fruit flies too, so I would rather use larval forms.

Like Matt I am a plant-eater myself. I have been soaking the dried bloodworms in distilled water before feeding, is this what you mean twitcher? If not can you share what you do?

I'm happy to report the Andromedas now have dew on the leaves! Thank you, $7 IKEA cloche!

(edited for typo)
If it is already producing dew, that's a good sign. It may not even be a runt per se but more like they didn't house it in ideal conditions. I bought a drosera regia from them that looked like it had seen better days. It's a difficult plant to maintain if you don't know what they need or can't supply it so I don't fault them. I bought it for its genetics anyway and it was available. After I got it in closer to ideal the thing exploded. It went from 5 inches with mostly dead leaves to 11+ now in the matter of a few months. Yours may end up doing something similar now that it has great humidity(albeit much smaller lol).
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