FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi
I am in Scotland, UK. Have large tray of Drosera Capensis (see pictures). These were doing very well, having grown to approx 3 inches and were flowering as well. However, this year has been a poor summer and I am wondering what is wrong with then.

The issue is that the leaves are turning brown and seem to be dying back.

There is a lot of moss on the substrate now. Could that be the issue? They have been outside since approx april. Could it be too much rain? Have brought inside now.

I have another species that seems to be surviving ok outside but there is not the moss on that.

How long have they been in that soil? The soil might be souring.

Hi, All their lives. That will be two to three years now. Just noticed lots of green aphids on them tho they dont seem to move when prodded.Photos attached

So, the soil may be souring. I would recommend a repot. And when you do that, you should be able to flush any aphids off of the plants with a stream of water.

I agree with Panman. Since Capes don't have a dormancy period, you can repot them at any time. I repot every 12-18 months. Sometimes they can surprise you, though, I was getting ready to repot a couple of large Capes that were looking shabby. A couple of days later they revived and are doing great.
Capes are weird.

This is awesome advice folks. Thanks. Anything to know about repotting? have never done it before? Just take them out, bin the old CP mix and replant in holes in new mix?

Also, does anyone know what actually goes wrong with the soil? Is it losing nutrients or actually gaining them that is the problem?

Hi, I had a bag of CP mix and just bit the bullet and did the repot. Fingers crossed they start feeling a bit better. The moss was VERY thick and deep however. Splitting the CAPS from that was a challenge.I take it moss tends to grow around caps?

Moss tends to grow in Sphagnum moss peat, the clue is in the name really, however the moss you have isn't Sphagnum that looks to be a mixture of carpet and star mosses and it does get thick, and invasive, which in itself isn't a problem so long as you aren't trying to grow seedlings in it. If you want Sphagnum, if you keep the medium wetter (not so much now but spring and summer) it will grow naturally from the spores already in the medium.
There is new growth on your plants so they should be fine, but I presume you are now growing them indoors? If so you may need to consider light and heat.
The soil type you need for them is acidic and nutrient deficient, so in answer to your question, too many nutrients is the problem you have. When you repot in peat, the PH of the medium is likely somewhere between 4 - 5.5, and this acidic level stops things from decaying (picture corpses found in bogs thousands of years old, wood walkways, or stores of bog butter), but after repeated watering and washing of the soil, as the soil, unlike peat bogs, cannot make itself acidic anymore, the PH starts to rise, and as the acidity lessens this then allows the medium to decay, this process releases nutrients (picture now a compost heap developing a nutritional medium) and starts to burn your plant's roots.
Cheeers
Steve

Hi Andy

Yes, the Sphagnum normally has heads about 1 cm in diamater or slightly larger,and grows very loosely in about 100mm long green strands, these take almost no energy to pull it out, as if it has no anchor to the soil. Over the 100mm the lower portions of the strand start dying off as the light level down there reduces, it goes brown and starts peat. Sphagnum is always wet (or goes white as it dries) as it is nonvascular and is composed of hollow cells, whereas the other mosses are dry (so are useless as a carnivorous plant medium) and as you say form a hard mat as they grow creating a drier barrier between the medium and the surface. Sphagnum also creates the acidic conditions the plants need by cation exchange, creating organic acids, which is of course why carnivorous plants love it.
Cheers
Steve

Thanks y'all for reminding me. All mine need a repot bad for the same sour soil reason. They will have to wait until after the hurricane...