FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Can anyone help me? I am new to carnivorous plants, i am growing mine inva terrarium. I bought drosera spatulata from a local breeder. There used to be a field of red drosera's in my terrarium but now they are all gone. I used a 1000 lumens growlight full spectrum and red and blue LED strip lights 6 inches above the plants but i dont know what is happening. The also stopped producing dews and the sarracenia which used to be red now turn into green. Please help.

Welcome to the forum! Before I get to your question, we need to talk about the pitcher plant you've got! Typically that kind of pitcher plant (Sarracenia) aren't great in a terrarium. That is a Sarracenia purpurea and it is native to the US. During the winters where it lives naturally, it experiences cold temperatures making the plant go dormant. This dormancy period of three months is absolutely essential for the plant's survival. If it doesn't get the reduced photoperiod and cooler temperatures, over time it will slowly decline and die. So what I think you should do is research what dormancy is for pitcher plants and get a new, tropical pitcher plant that doesn't need it, if possible. I understand you may live out of the US, but there are vendors out there that can help too.

Ok, to your main question. What soil are you using and what type of water? Generally you only want to use mineral free peat moss and perlite mix or long-fibered sphagnum moss.For water you only want to use distilled, RO, and rain water.

Thanks!!! I use distilled water and rain water for my terrarium and long sphagnum moss as my media.

Losing Red coloration and losing tentacles and dew is almost always a sign of inadequate light level.
Carnivorous plants are happiest with full sunlight.
Artificial light is OK but it must be equally bright to be effective.
Plants usually do better outside of terrariums.
Light is more important than humidity.
Note: Drosera spatulata is Tropical, growing year-round with favorable conditions; Sarracenia purpurea is temperature and needs dormancy, but should remain Red with adequate light.
Follow the Big 4 and your CP should thrive.
1) Lotsa, Lotsa, Lotsa, Light.
2) Very Pure Water with TDS below 50.
3) Nutrient Poor/Free Acidic Growth Medium.
4) Respect Dormancy Requirements of Temperate Plants.

Those Drosera all definitely need more light, and the S. purpurea you’ve got growing in there is best suited as an outdoor potted/bog garden plant opposed to an indoor tropical terrarium. A lot of people underestimate exactly how much light is required to make many CPs (particularly Drosera and Sarracenia) happy. Here’s a good guide to adequate Sarracenia culture:

https://www.carnivorousplants.org/grow/ ... Sarracenia

They are just sold in terrariums to keep hands off and bad water out, the amount of light they want would turn a terrarium in to a oven.

If you want the colors to pop you cant beat all day direct sun, like in this photo from my back yard. =)

I live in a north facing apartment which doesn't have an outdoor area, so i am placing my terrarium inside with the growlights. But i can't seem to keep my drosera from dissolving or losing its dew.

What size is your terrarium? 10 inches diameter....13-14 inches tall???? 1000 lumens isn't going to do it. The folks recommending more light are giving you very good advice. A closed terrarium is good for some plants, but not so much for most CPs. They need fresh air...think of how they grow in the wild.

Could you post a photo of the entire setup showing the entire container? It looks las you're using a large jar with a knobbed lid to it (going by a reflection that I see). If your lights are shining through the lid then you are losing some light energy in the glass.

Lumens are usually not used to calculate light sources for grow/plant lights. BUT, that's all I've gone by for years growing vegetable seedlings (and I feel I have great results). I've predominately used 48" twin-tube shop lights, fluorescent fixtures for years and now I'm using LED shop lights. These are much larger than what you are using, but I choose ones that produce a minimum of 5000 lumens...but, I use three of these fixtures side-by-side. It gets pretty bright beneath them. I also have a couple of LED "garage" lights that I'm using...each of these have three small 2"x4" LED panels and are rated at 8000 lumens each...they are BRIGHT and for plant use I cover roughly an 18"x18" area very nicely with them, they are strong. The 48" shop lights sit from four inches to maybe eight inches above the plants. The garage lights sit probably 12" or so above the plants (they give off a good bit of heat. All the plants appear to be doing well, though I believe they did better under direct sun. You really need more than 1000 lumens and you need the light closer to your sundews.

You state that the light is 6" from the plants. It appears to be 6 inches from the pitcher plant, but maybe twice that distance from the sundews....???

My recommendation for using your current setup is to remove the lid (if there's one there) so that the glass isn't filtering out any of the light. That will also allow more air inside. Heavy humidity is desired when propagating very young plants, leaf-cuttings, seed-germinating, etc., but not when growing established, adult plants. The adult plants want a moist to soggy growing medium with usually average humidity, say in the 50-60% range. Do you know what the humidity level is inside the terrarium? There is a lot of algae apparently growing, too,...fresh air/air movement will help with that some, too. Also, if you've fertilized any that could be encouraging the algae.

Pay attention to the points that Shadowtski mentioned and you will do well. The only thing I might add is give the plants fresh air...without the lid more light will be utilized and fresh air will be available...and the humidity level should be fine, especially with the pool of water inside.

Where are you located? USA? Europe? ???

Best wishes!

Thank you all for the advices, i really appreciate it, especially from me who is new to this.
My terrarium is 7.5inches diameter and 12 inches in height. The top of my terrarium is open and i only use distilled water ( expensive in my country) a 5v LED grow light in sunlight color and a red and blue grow lights, i am alternating them. It is always rainy here during december up to january but intense summer after those months. I plant them all in the terraeium since i own a cat.
I live in the philippines , a lot of breeder here are growing theirs in the sun but i lived in a rented room facing north.

Good job with the pictures! They help a lot. But, could you add a photo of the other light. You mentioned 5v/1000 lumen. That sounds like a USB connected light which I'm afraid might be very underpowered. Look for something in the 5000k range if you can find it. Even a regular, "white" LED light with lots of lumens would be better than a too weak full-spectrum, in my humble opinion.

First thing is that those purple strip grow lights aren't doing a lot of good pointing toward each other, they need to be aimed at the plants. LEDs are mostly directional...from my feeble knowledge, to me it looks like your plants are only getting reduced, scattered light off the sides of the lights. It looks cool that way, but I don't believe they're efficient at all in that orientation.

I see you have other plants growing without protection, but I understand the problem a cat could cause...ever thought about trading it in for something like a turtle or something.

Im also planning to put my other carnivorous plants in the terrarium to protect it from my cats, when my sarrs flower my cat bite the flower stalk off, and it is a hustle for me to keep on putting my plants in the terrace window for a couple of hours and then bringing them back inside when i leave for work everyday. It is very difficult to find a light source that is 5000k lumens in my country. But anyways thank you all for the help. You all sure helped this beginner with this new hobby.

P.s. carnivorous plants here in the philippines is expensive. Drosera burmanii here cost 5 usd. And that is the small one.

The plants will not do well in that terrarium.

They've *GOT* to have sufficient light or they will simply dwindle away to not being much. You've already experienced this happening...as you wrote, "There used to be a field of red drosera's in my terrarium but now they are all gone. I used a 1000 lumens growlight...".

You could get two regular, household 100-watt-equivalent LED lights. These would use roughly 23-25 watts of actual power. Choose a daylight temp, maybe in the 4500k-5000k temperature range. These would generate roughly 1600 lumens each, so 3200 lumens side-by-side. Line the top edge of the jar (where you have the strip lights) with aluminum foil so as to direct stray light downward to the plants. A very small fan would be a nice touch to move the air a little.

Just did a browsing for burmanii here in the states and it looks like they sell for $8 to $10 here, so $5 isn't a bad deal. Check out the seed bank, if you haven't yet. You can grow your own from seeds for only postage to and from the USA. BUT, the seedlings will need good light.

Seriously, I know I keep recommending better lighting but in the outdoors carnivorous plants grow out in full sun. If you have to grow them indoors then you will have to have a good light source for them...or they just won't do well.

I would second-think putting all of your plants in the terrarium...that's a small area for all those plants.

What about a large cage of some sort? A wire dog crate or something? Put the plants inside it, they get plenty of air and you have easy places to hang lights from inside. Around here, when I have plants outside, I have to be on the lookout for squirrels and birds that like to tear the plants up for one reason or another. I ended up making some very crude cages for them. Made from wire mesh that I had...you could use larger mesh, though if the cat was really devilish it could reach in through a large mesh opening. To make the vertical round cages simply figure the diameter you want and "roll" the amount of wire into a "ring"...attach the ends together with either heavy string or strands of wire. You can calculate the length of wire needed for a given radius (half the circle's diameter) by using the equation: C=2*π*r . For a 20" diameter cage it would be C=2*π*10 ≈ 62.83185 inches of wire. For a 16" diameter cage it would be C=2*π*8 ≈ 50.26548 inches of wire. For a 10" diameter cage it would be C=2*π*5 ≈ 31.41593 inches of wire. There's calculators online for that (where I got the figures from, I'm no brain.<grin>).

The problem with a cat is they might want to climb to the top just for the sake of climbing. I think it's only a matter of time before the cat finds the top of your jar. Maybe this summer I can build so "nicer" ones, but the cages in the photos I've attached work well for out on the old deck. Maybe dress them up a bit for indoors.

Bottom line, again, is more light...more air...and did I say...more light?
Best wishes!

Thanks for the tips but cage won't do good with my carnivorous plants, it's not just the cats that is causing me problems but ( not to talk ill to my country but, carnivorous plants are expensive and a opportunity for thief) if i leave it outside my room while im at work. So every day i place them under the sun for a few hours before bringing them back again inside while i am at work.

You couldn't make a portable cage for them? You can build a cage no bigger than the terrarium. Sure, it won't look the same but at least the plants would have a chance. Whatever you do, I wish you the best.

Hello again, i have changed the lights in my terrarium and have opted for a 12W( 1,300lumens) LED ceiling light that is place 5 inches from the tip of the sarracenia and 10 inches to the bottom of the terrarium. They are in the constant light from 6pm until 7am.
It is the only round shaped lighting that i could find from my local hardware. It emits a temperature of 35°C. So far the plants especially the only remaining drosera spatulata is doing fine and seems to be recovering.
I'll attach some pics to give you the idea. Hope i could get more tips and advice from you. Thanks.