FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi,

My D. capensis "orange sherbet" only opens its new leaves about halfway. The lower half looks fuzzy and has some dew, but the top half is still a thin, pointy, and often still folded over. It has been here about a month, and it was doing better than this previously.

I also have a regular cape sundew, which has a 2-3 inch baby plant, plus two teeny babies which both have eaten a gnat or fruit fly. All of these appear to have normal leaves that open fully. Also its blooming right now. Both plants are in the same location with the same light conditions (window + grow lights on a 12-hour timer). Both have eaten but the regular one caught a lot more gnats initially due to getting here first.

The one thing for both these guys, is they had a tray lined with glass. With the weird leaves developing, I checked the TDS in the tray, and it was much higher than I would expect, despite never giving them tap water (I also verify the water going in is at zero, and I just put it in their tray, not watering from the top). So I checked run-through water and both were appallingly high. I was able to flush them through to reduce it. The regular D. capensis got to a decent level. The lowest I could get the orange one was still a bit above 100. Due to that, I have since repotted it, but this was all just recently, so too soon to see if that will fix it. It does have new growth coming forth, with new leaves forming and it still catches fruities on the open parts of the leaves.

I'm not sure if the stunted leaves could be from too much minerals? Or some other factor? It is cool on their shelf currently, but the other plant is not having this issue at all. Still, I wonder if it's too cold for it? I now have each plant in an individual plastic dish so I can monitor things. Since repotting, the dish water for the orange sundew is staying at zero or low single digits. Water left in the otherwise empty glass lined tray has slowly climbing TDS, which happens again if I change out the water so it appears something is leaching from it.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

What media are they in? Some carnivorous media on Amazon has really high tds when water run through it. In particular this one: It almost killed my sundews.

I'm not sure what it was in, because it was in the pot I got it in. Actually, repotted it with the pictured type of soil (just a few days ago) but I rinse water through it repeatedly until it's reading single digits before potting with it. I still had some left from repotting two VFTs last summer so that's what I used. I'd love a recommendation for a better brand. With the plant in there, I tried running some water through, and it's reading 12 right now.

monica wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2024 4:11 pm I'm not sure what it was in, because it was in the pot I got it in. Actually, repotted it with the pictured type of soil (just a few days ago) but I rinse water through it repeatedly until it's reading single digits before potting with it. I still had some left from repotting two VFTs last summer so that's what I used. I'd love a recommendation for a better brand. With the plant in there, I tried running some water through, and it's reading 12 right now.

I would flush my pot and the tds would drop very low until the next watering when it was extremely high again. I would repot if that is what it is in.

I make my own media from perlite, sand, and peat moss.

monica wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2024 4:11 pm I'd love a recommendation for a better brand.

It's much cheaper to make your own soil. Plus, you have control over the quality of the ingredients. Do you have an Ace Hardware store in the area? If so, check their garden center for SunGro peat moss (or peat moss plus) and perlite. An 8-quart bag of each normally runs $8-10.

If you want dried sphagnum moss, check the indoor garden sections of Home Depot or Lowe's for this: A bag costs $6.

MikeB wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2024 5:24 pm

monica wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2024 4:11 pm I'd love a recommendation for a better brand.

It's much cheaper to make your own soil. Plus, you have control over the quality of the ingredients. Do you have an Ace Hardware store in the area? If so, check their garden center for SunGro peat moss (or peat moss plus) and perlite. An 8-quart bag of each normally runs $8-10.

If you want dried sphagnum moss, check the indoor garden sections of Home Depot or Lowe's for this:
Better-Gro moss.jpg
A bag costs $6.

Premier brand sphagnum peat moss is also good and is available in stores in my area. You can get a 3cu ft bale for a reasonable price, and it will last a long time.
Perlite is available at any store with a garden center. Just don’t use anything Miracle Gro brand.
If the bricks of LFSM Mike B shows are not available in your store, they are also available on Amazon, usually for about the same price as at Lowe’s.

Thanks, I appreciate all the advice. I will definitely get going with some better soil. I will need to re-pot other plants when they are done with dormancy, so it would be good to learn to mix my own.