FlyTrapCare Forums

Hi again,
I wrote a post yesterday about my new Spatulatas whose color seemed a bit washed out to me. (They were brought into my house from a very humid greenhouse, so I'm assuming they have some stress from acclimation. Also I used "Safer end all insect killer" on them to kill a bunch of aphids. I promptly flushed the spatulatas with distlled water and have been doing so for the past 3 days, as well as repotting them into new mix and flushing that.)

attached are pics of the Spatulatas. I repotted them into new soil without the moss growing in top, so maybe the view of them is better. Can someone tell me if they look alright along with my capensis and adelae sundews? I believe the capensis alba and adelae are doing ok. The capensis alba came from a greenhouse that treated it like a cactus, and when they did water it it was with a garden hose. The adelae has new green growth, so im assuming the brown edges were just from transplanting them and taking them home.

My main quetion is if the set up they are in now is ok? I have moved all three into this terrarium this morning in order to increase the humidity around them to speed up their recovery. I'm hoping this set up is ok because I was worried about the temperature inside getting too hot. I left a bit of a gap in the saranwrap on the top for some heat-escape/ventilation purposes.

I can increase light if necessary by taking them outside, although it may be possible for temps to get into the 50s at night. Would they Adelae and capensis be ok with this?

Also, how long of a wait is expected until they start producing dew again?

attached are pics of the sundews and terrarium.

First of all, looking at your setting, you do not need the terrarium, the plants will do great in that window, as they are getting some direct sunlight, they are great right now, only stressed out by something, they only need some time to recover, the old leaves will never recover, the new growth is your objective, if it grows well, your plants are then doing great!

Your alba seems that is forming a hibernicula.

@ roarke
the capensis alba was bought in pretty much the same condition. I've had it for two maybe three weeks. It was the last green capensis they had at the nursery (the rest of them were completely black). As I mentioned before they did not water their sundews at all.

I'm assuming my capensis looks like it does because of a combination of dead leaves that were cut off and the extremely dry conditions it was in.

I bought it because I rarely see sundews in the nurserys around here. I went to a nursery an hour away last weekend (where i bought my spatulatas) and they had the capensis variety with red dew-hairs. Kinda wish I could return my capensis alba and get the red ones from the other nursery...

What nursery name was ?

I would ditch the terrarium. High humidity and low air flow might cause fungal problems, which can easily kill a weakened plant. If anything, I would take off the plastic wrap.
D. adelae benefits from higher humidity, but will also adapt very well to low humidity levels. Be careful of burning the leaves though, they need time to adapt to direct sun.

I could also say take the plants out. Stagnant air always lead to rot

@roarke
I got my capensis alba at a mainly orchid growing nursery called Hausermann orchids. The better nursery I went to was Ted's greenhouse in Tinley Park IL, They had at least five 30-foot tables of carnivorous plants. All in great care. He and his employees knew their stuff about plants.

@Fattytuna & beck

I did remove the plastic wrap after an hour. The temperature inside soared really high after only a short time. I decided not to cook them. I figured a higher humidity was better for their recovery, but if you guys say they're fine growing on the window sill then I'll put them back to the original set-up of just out on a saucer.

Although when I move these sundews outside (for more light I was thinking...but if it's too stressful for them I'll leave them on the window), could they go back inside this terrarium? or in a larger 10 gallon terrarium? I found the aquarium option appealing because it's easy for me to keep all my carnivores in one place outside.

You may have all the plants in the same place and for much less $$ in a water tray

@coline

I was thinking that too. I have shallow black tubs (about 2 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, 5 inches deep) but also a few aquariums, largest is 20 gallons. So if and when I move the sundews outside I could put them in whichever one is better. I'm not sure, but I suppose I should choose the black tubs for better for airflow, like fattytuna said.

Exactly, that is the point, all the plants may go outside, except the adelae, which is sensitive to high levels of sun rays and would burn. But first they need to be in an excelent condition as I told you before, let them for almost a month in the window until they look great, and then decide wether or not you want to take them out.