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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#416891
Hey all,

I just picked up a Drosera adelae from petflytrap.com, and it hasn't arrived yet, but I was just wondering what are the best growing conditions I can give it out of the two options I have? I was doing some reading on them and they seem to be easy to take care of, but sometimes picky with their growing conditions.

I live in Georgia in a 7b zone, and its currently summer and around 90 degrees everyday, with humidity in the 65-80% range so far. All of my VFTs, sarracenia, and one drosera binata are outside on the deck getting hours and hours of direct sun all day without any issues there.

Inside, I have a steel storage rack set up with multiple shelves with 2 Yescom 225s, one on each shelf. It's usually around 75-80 degrees and around 45-50% humidity inside this room.

I was planning on just putting the adelae inside under the growlights, would that be fine for them? Or would outside be better for them, and just take them inside under the growlights for winter?

Also for media, do they just do best in LFSM?

Thanks in advance!
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By NightRaider
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Joined:  Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:01 am
#416906
My whole tray of them is outside but under nearly full shade in 6b/7a, 85-95F during the day and 55-75% humidity. Think I used 1:1 peat perlite when I divided them a while back. They've greened up some since I moved them out, so I'd say they'd probably be fine with dappled shade or 4, maybe 6 hours of direct sunlight AFTER acclimation. For the record though, they actually did best for me indoors under yescoms with a slightly higher water level than I give most of my drosera, and I didn't notice a significant difference between 90%+ humidity versus just indoors with no added humidity. They just multiply so ridiculously fast that it wasn't sustainable to keep them inside. When I partially divided a 6-month-old small plant turned 2.5" pot full a while back, I got over 20 plants from it and could've easily gotten 30 more from a 3.5" pot from another earlier division of the same plant.
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#416907
NightRaider wrote:My whole tray of them is outside but under nearly full shade in 6b/7a, 85-95F during the day and 55-75% humidity. Think I used 1:1 peat perlite when I divided them a while back. They've greened up some since I moved them out, so I'd say they'd probably be fine with dappled shade or 4, maybe 6 hours of direct sunlight AFTER acclimation. For the record though, they actually did best for me indoors under yescoms with a slightly higher water level than I give most of my drosera, and I didn't notice a significant difference between 90%+ humidity versus just indoors with no added humidity. They just multiply so ridiculously fast that it wasn't sustainable to keep them inside. When I partially divided a 6-month-old small plant turned 2.5" pot full a while back, I got over 20 plants from it and could've easily gotten 30 more from a 3.5" pot from another earlier division of the same plant.
Awesome, that's just what I wanted to hear! I guess I'll just start them off inside and see what happens haha.

I ordered off of petflytrap so I'm assuming I'm going to get a tiny plant in a small pot, do you think I should start it off in the pot it comes with, or should I immediately it move it into like a 6 inch pot or something?
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By NightRaider
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#416910
Nikson wrote:I ordered off of petflytrap so I'm assuming I'm going to get a tiny plant in a small pot, do you think I should start it off in the pot it comes with, or should I immediately it move it into like a 6 inch pot or something?
It's up to you, I've grown to really dislike PFT's soil so I'd repot even just for a different mix personally. You'd be fine leaving it in the same pot or going slightly larger as it literally does not care whatsoever if it gets root bound, but you should also be fine going to a larger pot immediately as it should fill it within a matter of months if it's happy.
My one recommendation though would be to be careful especially if it's a small plant and either dome or bag it at first and gradually acclimate it to household humidity. I actually lost my first adelae (and only typical) for what I believe to be that reason, so my next one went straight into my Heliamphora chamber until it outgrew it in less than a month, at which point it was big enough to not be bothered about immediately dropping from 90+%H to probably 50-60ish.
EDIT: Actually another minor recommendation would be to use a taller pot as well. In the standard 3.5" deep pots, mine were growing 2-3" long roots out the bottom and sprouting plantlets off them, so they'd probably appreciate 5" or more of depth. Again, not that they really care either way. Very small plants aside, these things are by far the tankiest plants I've grown. Even capes have given me more issues and spread less than these.
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By Carnies
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Joined:  Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:48 pm
#416913
I left some roots off of a dead adelae (i let it dry out :( ) and the roots have 20 plants now!
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#416935
NightRaider wrote:
Nikson wrote:I ordered off of petflytrap so I'm assuming I'm going to get a tiny plant in a small pot, do you think I should start it off in the pot it comes with, or should I immediately it move it into like a 6 inch pot or something?
It's up to you, I've grown to really dislike PFT's soil so I'd repot even just for a different mix personally. You'd be fine leaving it in the same pot or going slightly larger as it literally does not care whatsoever if it gets root bound, but you should also be fine going to a larger pot immediately as it should fill it within a matter of months if it's happy.
My one recommendation though would be to be careful especially if it's a small plant and either dome or bag it at first and gradually acclimate it to household humidity. I actually lost my first adelae (and only typical) for what I believe to be that reason, so my next one went straight into my Heliamphora chamber until it outgrew it in less than a month, at which point it was big enough to not be bothered about immediately dropping from 90+%H to probably 50-60ish.
EDIT: Actually another minor recommendation would be to use a taller pot as well. In the standard 3.5" deep pots, mine were growing 2-3" long roots out the bottom and sprouting plantlets off them, so they'd probably appreciate 5" or more of depth. Again, not that they really care either way. Very small plants aside, these things are by far the tankiest plants I've grown. Even capes have given me more issues and spread less than these.
Ooooo, good call on the bagging thing. I feel like that always seems to be an issue early on with some of these plants. I guess I'll just do it like you and just keep it inside a bag until it gets really big and then just slowly transition it out into regular humidity. That's wild how it outgrew in in less than a month!
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#417773
It's been about two weeks and I've slowly been opening the ziplock bag I put it in over time, and during its stay in the ziplock bag it put out 3 new leaves!

However, now that it's completely out of the bag, the dew is slowly starting to go away on some of the leaves. Is this alright? Is it just part of the growth cycle like with other sundews where the old leaves are just dying off now, or do I need to put it back into the bag?

I've read that lower humidity levels will make the dew droplets smaller of course too, does it look alright?

Temp in the room is about 76-80 degrees, and its a nice 50% humidity all day long.

Image
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By NightRaider
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Joined:  Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:01 am
#417780
Based on the color, I think you'd be getting more dew under stronger lighting though I wouldn't be that concerned as long as it looks how it does currently. I'd still expect it to have a little more dew than that though, but it may also just need a bit of time to get used to being unbagged. Mine made the most dew under lighting strong enough to turn the whole plant maroon, but since I moved all of them outside in full shade a few months back they look very similar to yours now, just a tinge more red and (consequently, I suspect) a little more dew. Mine also typically only hold 3-5 leaves with dew at a time, if that helps.
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#417787
optique wrote:I have been just plucking them out of the main pot some times no root. no bag or dome just pushing it down in the peat and they do fine.
I got mine in the mail like 2 weeks ago so I'm always worried that something weird will happen to them haha. I'm not worried about cape sundews or spatulata since I've grown them before, but this is my first adelae and I just want to make sure they grow a bunch so even if I lose one I don't come up short!
NightRaider wrote:Based on the color, I think you'd be getting more dew under stronger lighting though I wouldn't be that concerned as long as it looks how it does currently. I'd still expect it to have a little more dew than that though, but it may also just need a bit of time to get used to being unbagged. Mine made the most dew under lighting strong enough to turn the whole plant maroon, but since I moved all of them outside in full shade a few months back they look very similar to yours now, just a tinge more red and (consequently, I suspect) a little more dew. Mine also typically only hold 3-5 leaves with dew at a time, if that helps.
Sounds good man, thanks! Yeah I currently have them about 10 inches under a Yescom 225, but they were originally on the "edge" of the grow panel since they were in a big freezer ziplock bag and it was getting in the way of my other plants, so maybe that's why.

I JUST took them out of the bag today after opening up the ziplock bag about 20% every day after a week, before then they had a lot of big dew drops, but I think it was just from the humidity.

Do you think I should elevate the plant closer to the grow light? I think I could put like a box or something under it to get it closer to the lights.

The leaves on the bottom are the ones that came with the plant, and the ones pointing upwards are the new ones, so hopefully it keeps on trucking along.

Good to know how many leaves typically hold dew, too!
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By NightRaider
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Joined:  Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:01 am
#417789
Mine actually developed a fairly decent amount of red in nearly the same conditions - 10" under the edge of a yescom panel - but they turned completely red around 6-7" below. That said, they're perfectly fine with lower lighting so I wouldn't worry about moving them closer especially if you already moved it closer to the middle of the panel. For now I'd just let it get used to the lower humidity for a couple weeks and then see if you want to adjust anything after that, but I doubt you'll need to. If you're worried about the actual health of the plant in the meantime, the plantlet(s) next to the main plant pictured might be a little more sensitive and make better indicators, but for now I'm not seeing anything I would be concerned about at all.
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By Nikson
Posts:  422
Joined:  Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:47 am
#417790
NightRaider wrote:Mine actually developed a fairly decent amount of red in nearly the same conditions - 10" under the edge of a yescom panel - but they turned completely red around 6-7" below. That said, they're perfectly fine with lower lighting so I wouldn't worry about moving them closer especially if you already moved it closer to the middle of the panel. For now I'd just let it get used to the lower humidity for a couple weeks and then see if you want to adjust anything after that, but I doubt you'll need to. If you're worried about the actual health of the plant in the meantime, the plantlet(s) next to the main plant pictured might be a little more sensitive and make better indicators, but for now I'm not seeing anything I would be concerned about at all.
Awesome, thanks so much for your help! It's always a relief when someone who really understands the plant in question from personal experience that comes in to explain their growing experience!

I definitely think the plant is healthy because those plantlets weren't there 2 weeks ago and popped up pretty quickly. They're not really dewy, but I guess it just needs to get used to the lower humidity as well.

Can't wait to eventually move it to a huge pot and have it take over!
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