FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Pic: https://imgur.com/a/DQEkm6h

I'm sorry guys. I'm brand new to carnivorous plants. We had just bought our plants from a local seller on Sept. 13th. On the evening of Sept. 14th, we went out and bought some Betta fish flakes, and fed them to our sundew. Which was a bad idea, I now know. Because their previous owner kept them outside and so they were probably fed very recently.

It seems like the sundew isn't eating the flakes. I know it may be hard to tell from the picture, but the little dewy hands are holding on to the flakes, and the flakes do seem to be disintegrating. But now I'm getting worried because I've read that if you leave food on there for too long it will rot and ruin the leaves/plant. It's currently Sept. 16th, so it's been nearly two days since I tried to feed him.

Any help is appreciated. I swear that after this I will wait at least a month before trying to feed this poor guy again.

Sepzane wrote:On the evening of Sept. 14th, we went out and bought some Betta fish flakes, and fed them to our sundew.

I beleive that your drosera Adelae is stressed out from acclimating and the extra feeding it isn't helping.
Drosera Adelae is very sensitive to overfeeding, please don't feed it more than once a month.
For now, you should try to make your Adelae comfortable by properly acclimating it.

Should I try to remove the food before it rots though? And if so, how? Tweezers don't work.

How would we go about properly acclimating it? It gets roughly 10 hours of semi-partial (artificial) light, and I'm keeping it in a tray with distilled water at the bottom. It's under the light because I was told not to induce dormancy for it this year, so I didn't want to leave it outside since it is starting to get colder here. (For dormancy they just put it in a windowless basement without any light) It was in someone's backyard roughly 10 minutes away from me. Since it was outside, should I be putting it outside instead and then slowly moving it to the lamp?

Drosera adelae is a Tropical Sundew from Queensland, Australia.
It does not need dormancy.
Adelae likes less light, year-round warmish temperatures, and more humidity than the average Sundew.
It is one of the few species that likes indoor terrarium growing.

To get rid of excess food on the leaf, use a spray bottle of distilled water and gently blast off any fish flakes or detritus.

Good growing,
Mike

Thank you! We have him in a greenhouse inside under 10 hours of a grow light. (I also grow my African Violets in there) The dormancy thing is good to know. We were told to just "skip" it since it was so young.

Sepzane wrote:Since it was outside, should I be putting it outside instead and then slowly moving it to the lamp?

Your water and soil conditons seem fine, but I'm concerned about your lighting.
What kind of lamp are you using?
Many lamps don't provide enough light for carnivorous plants, even for shade loving D. Adelae.
If your area doesn't snow, I'd advise that you leave it outside at a shady location.
If it does snow, a sunny windowsill would work.

CPhunter101 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 4:59 pm

Sepzane wrote:Since it was outside, should I be putting it outside instead and then slowly moving it to the lamp?

Your water and soil conditons seem fine, but I'm concerned about your lighting.
What kind of lamp are you using?
Many lamps don't provide enough light for carnivorous plants, even for shade loving D. Adelae.
If your area doesn't snow, I'd advise that you leave it outside at a shady location.
If it does snow, a sunny windowsill would work.

Oh I just learned how to reply with quotes, fancy!

We do get a lot of snow here unfortunately. It's still warm for now but the temperatures are coming down. (I'm in Canada) I'm using a F15 T8 Daylight 15 watt bulb (With both red and blue wavelengths). Most of my violets are on the upper tier of the greenhouse. We have the Drosera on the 2nd tier, roughly 18" away from the light, shaded by the violets. The light is on for 10-12 hours a day.

Sepzane wrote:We do get a lot of snow here unfortunately. It's still warm for now but the temperatures are coming down.

Just try keeping temperatures above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sepzane wrote:e have the Drosera on the 2nd tier, roughly 18" away from the light, shaded by the violets.

It shouldn't be shaded too much. Drosera need a lot of light.
Your artificial lights should be fine.

CPhunter101 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 5:54 pm Just try keeping temperatures above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

It shouldn't be shaded too much. Drosera need a lot of light.
Your artificial lights should be fine.

No worries! The Drosera is inside so it won't get that cold. I could put it outside for now but soon I would need to bring it indoors. It's getting a partial shade. It's hard to describe but it's not completely shaded, yet it's not getting the full brunt of the lamp either.

So spraying the plant with water did help a bit. (The flakes were too gooey to get off with tweezers to begin with.) But it didn't remove the food completely. I feel like my only option is to wet the leaf with distilled water again and gently scrape the food off of the leaf. Obviously that would hurt the little dewy hands that are holding on to this food.

Will this completely kill my plant or just the leaves that I tried (and failed) to feed? Sorry guys...

I would say it has a high % chance to recover as long as it is in a favorable environment.

mine is happy in a west facing window, it gets a little red but grows well.

If it were me, I'd use a wet Q-Tip to gently slide the excess food off the leaf. And I wouldn't worry about cleaning every bit of it off.

optique wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:05 pm I would say it has a high % chance to recover as long as it is in a favorable environment.

mine is happy in a west facing window, it gets a little red but grows well.

That's good, thanks! I will have to scrape the food off then. I feel so bad for hurting it but the food looks like it might be starting to mold since it's been a few days in a humid warm environment. I think I have it in a pretty good spot. But I'm sure I'll find out soon enough if it's no good.