FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Its been 3 months since i planted this drosera capensis in my terrarium, but it losses its color and dews.
The terrarium is a 3gallon volume 30 cm height and diameter of 20.1cm. the light is 34 watts which is open for 12 hrs and setting 6 inches from the plant. This is LED light. Water is rainwater boiled in tempered glass pot and allowed to cool. It send forth flower stalks but i cut them of every time.

losing color and dew sounds like a light issue. I just keep mine in a west facing window.

Ken Tadashii wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:23 pm Its been 3 months since i planted this drosera capensis in my terrarium, but it losses its color and dews.
The terrarium is a 3gallon volume 30 cm height and diameter of 20.1cm. the light is 34 watts which is open for 12 hrs and setting 6 inches from the plant. This is LED light. Water is rainwater boiled in tempered glass pot and allowed to cool. It send forth flower stalks but i cut them of every time.

What is your temperature, is there a heat buildup?
Do you have the top covered, is there adequate air circulation?
What is the TDS of the water standing in your water tray?
What is your media mix and how does it look?
How high is the water level in your tray?
Do you have a picture or two of your setup?

Thanks,
Mike

Terrarium temp ranges from 20-24°C daily.
It is an open terrarium with ample airflow from a mini fan.
Water ppm is around 88 and is only sprayed with distilled rain water ( rain water is catched and then distilled, re cooled and store in a room temp gallon)
My media mix for the first layer is peat and perlites but i still use the original media from the plant ( the same potting media the seller use, i transfer the whole pot to avoid shocking the plant from repotting.)
The water level in the reservoir is 1 inch ( the reservoir is used to maintain the upper media moist) but the water level reaches another 2 inches or so, enough to reach the surface of the media without flooding.

optique wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:17 pm losing color and dew sounds like a light issue. I just keep mine in a west facing window.

Is the 34 watts in 12 hours light not enough? I have read that a 34 watt LED light produces 36,000 lumens.

I am totally lost when it comes to terrarium's and none natural lighting, I am anti terrarium =p. just was commenting on when most say lack of color and dew is usually lack of light. The photo looks really interesting i would be afraid the light requirements some of the full sun plants would turn that thing into a oven.

I live i an apartment building with no place for the plants outside. So i keep them in a room, and since i also have a cat who love munching on the leaves of anything green, the only solution for this is to put them in a terrarium. It is not like everyone can create a place for them to enjoy the hobby. And also the inside temp of the terrarium ranges from 20-24°C almost similar in their natural habitat and a constant wind flow( it is an open terrarium) i also place a small fan to stimulate the wind in the wild. For lighting, it is under a 34watt ( 36K lumens) LED light that produces little to no heat. And this is a 8 months old terrarium ( other CPs are doing fine) the drosera is just recently bought last january.

A couple of my observations.
Aside from most of those plants being ill suited for a terrarium, I'm surprised you report your capensis is the one suffering. I would caution you that the VFT's and Sarracenia will eventually, inevitably, and slowly die in this setup as even their basic, long term needs aren't being met.
That being said, I can see many pitchers showing signs of decline due to suboptimal conditions. I also see the beginning of what could be mineral burn on the flytrap in the middle.
Last, you say your capensis is suffering? I do not see a capensis in the picture. Yes, I'm old, and my eyes aren't what they used to be, but I'm pretty confident that I know what a capensis looks like, and I'm not seeing it.

Ken Tadashii wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 4:02 am Terrarium temp ranges from 20-24°C daily.
It is an open terrarium with ample airflow from a mini fan.
Water ppm is around 88 and is only sprayed with distilled rain water ( rain water is catched and then distilled, re cooled and store in a room temp gallon)
My media mix for the first layer is peat and perlites but i still use the original media from the plant ( the same potting media the seller use, i transfer the whole pot to avoid shocking the plant from repotting.)
The water level in the reservoir is 1 inch ( the reservoir is used to maintain the upper media moist) but the water level reaches another 2 inches or so, enough to reach the surface of the media without flooding.

I think we went through the restraints that you are growing under...north-facing apartment and a rabid cat in this thread: HELP!!! MY SUNDEWS ARE DISSOLVING.

Are you misting or spraying your plant? That could be one thing causing the drosera capensis problems...as it could dilute or even wash away the dew drops...it takes them several days to form. But, I'm like Chef...I don't actually see one in your photo...could you point it out to us?

Nice job on the lighting upgrade from what you had. The lumen output of the light, though, isn't 36k...it more like between 2720-3400 lumens. But still, that probably is enough for the distance and area that you are covering. A question is...is this a "grow light"? Do you have the specifications for it that you could share? There's more to lighting than just lumens.

I would think that in a open-top terrarium and with water in the bottom of it that the humidity level would be high. Do you ever see condensation on the sides of the terrarium? I wonder if the constant fan blowing into the terrarium might be lowering the humidity too much. I understand that you need to remove the heat but are you sacrificing humidity to accomplish that?

As others have said, and was stated in the previous thread...a terrarium is not the best place for most of those plants but I understand that you are working with some physical growing limitations. It may be that you might have to do some study to find out what types of plants work well in an terrarium and focus on growing those plants. One question that pops up, for the future, is...will you be pulling the flytraps and pitchers up when fall/autumn arrives at your location and place them in a refrigerator for a dormancy period over "winter"?

I can see you've done a lot of work on your terrarium. Consider it a work in progress and keep working on it. You'll arrive at a solution that works for you and your plants!

Im sorry i mist have mislabel the spatulata with capensis. And in regards for their dormancy they have already undergone a 3 months dormancy period. I have placed them in a chiller ( lower part of a fridge) with a small LED lights, some of the vft died in the process and some emerges from the peat moss. And then i planted a drosera spatulata which thrive but losses color. The burmanii faded away from too much water before so i corrected it now. Thank you for the advice, it sure helps a lot.

OK. With that info, a couple other observations.
Typically, if a sundew isn't getting dewy, it's either not enough light or not enough water. Where it appears to not be a water issue, that leads to not enough light. If the sundew isn't getting enough light, you can be sure that none of the other plants are getting enough light. Another clue that this terrarium might not be the best setup of inhabitants.
Also, spatulata are tropical to subtropical, sharing a cold dormancy with Sarracenia and VFT's will likely kill it if it remains with them.
Last, the Pinguicula (if Mexi-Pings) in there have a summer dormancy period to escape the extreme heat, so will also suffer from a cold, temperate dormancy. If temperate Pings, a cold dormancy is good for them, however a low light terrarium isn't the best option for long term health.
Good luck.

Loss of color coupled with a lack of dew is a strong indication of insufficient light intensity. Is your media wet to the touch or just barely moist? (Can't tell from the photo. Attractive arrangement, by the way. ) As has already been mentioned, if the drosera aren't getting enough light, neither are most of the other plants in there. (The pings don't need as much as the dews but the others as much or more.)

I'll jump in and make a few notes here, even though I'm less experienced than everyone here:

Drosera isn't dewy and has no color on "hairs" (and isn't an Albino cultivar)

This probably is an issue of not enough light.

Drosera isn't dewy, but has color and medium is consistently wet

This just happened to me recently with the D. capensis x spatulata hybrid I have.

First thing to ask yourself is if it's too hot for the sundew. This could be that the plant is too close to a grow light (that was my problem) or if where the sundew is located is just too hot in general. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but the subtropical to tropical sundews do good in 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 64 at night is as low as you would be okay with it getting to. 90 degrees Fahrenheit could be possible if you've hardened the plant to it and if you've found a way to keep the medium moist during the time it's in that climate.

The other thing to check is if the air you're growing the plant in is bone dry or not. Cape sundews and spoon-leaf sundews don't need a ton of humidity, they can adjust to room level humidity. Having a cold-air humidifier won't hurt, though, so long as you're not turning the room the plant is in into a sauna and there's somehow zero airflow (that can lead to mold).

Drosera isn't as dewy, but has color and medium is consistently wet but there's black tips

This is possibly due to humic acid build up. You can gently pat the top of the medium, it's probably a peat and perlite mix that you have, with a paper towel and top water the next couple of days to wash out any excess humic acid. Don't wash it too much, though.


After those it's a matter of

• Have you repotted the plant recently?
• Are you watering it with distilled, reverse osmosis or rain water?
• Is the plant in the correct potting medium?
• Does the potting medium have any fertilizer in it?

Some Drosera are a bit of drama queens, Capes especially, but once you give them consistent bright but not super strong light, a moist medium, enough humidity and feed them every other week they'll do fine. You'll have some drama but eventually you get the hang of it and know how to handle them when they get whiny.

alecStewart1 wrote:You'll have some drama but eventually you get the hang of it and know how to handle them when they get whiny.

I agree with the drama, my capes came in the mail and they just died, and then a week later they started sprouting a million leaves