FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

An already existing topic on feeding drosera got me to thinking about how I should feed my D. spatulata "Tamlin" seedlings. Can I crush some dried bloodworms up and sprinkle them on top of the tentacles? Would the seedlings respond by growing faster? I'm curious!

I think you could do that and the seedlings would grow faster. I have a bunch of burmannii seedlings and I'm just putting some hair on them as an attempt to feed them.

sanguinearocks101 wrote:I think you could do that and the seedlings would grow faster. I have a bunch of burmannii seedlings and I'm just putting some hair on them as an attempt to feed them.

Thanks. I crushed some dried bloodworms with my fingers over a plastic lid from some old plastic food container I found and cleaned off beforehand. Then I applied a single drop of water using a pipette I had laying around. I mixed the crushed bloodworms in the water droplet to rehydrate them using a toothpick and then grabbed tiny blobs of the rehydrated bloodworms with the end of the tooth pick and placed them carefully in one of the "arms" or "tentacles" of as many of the seedlings as I could. I couldn't exactly feed the smallest seedlings yet but in time, when they get bigger, I will.

I think a few small insects have made their home in the pot as well as I do see an occasional tentacle closed around something it caught, and sometimes see small insects flying around the pot. Either that or this is how new tentacles grow from the growth point before opening wide to entice and ensnare their prey with their "dewy" tips. I've never grown drosera before, much less from seed, so this is all very new to me.

Regarding when the seedlings begin feeding, should the arms or tentacles close around the blobs of rehydrated bloodworms all at once, or a little at a time? I noticed some plants were a bit slower than others to close up.

Some of the tentacles will be slower to close around the food than other tentacles. It mainly depends on the species, where the food was placed, and the genetics of the plant.

Well, my seedlings are feasting now. I went back to look at how they were getting on and they've all closed up!

I use a small blunt tip syringe and maxsea to feed mine.

Some people have reported having an allergic reaction to dried blood worms, so that might be something to be aware of.
When my seedlings get big enough, I actually feed them with tiny specks of nutritional yeast. You can usually find it in the baking aisle of the grocery store, and 1 jar will be all you need for decades.
Another option.