Dying Sundew help!!
All of Ada Lovelace's leaves are turning this weird brown colour and falling off!
8” pot without drainage
Last watered 3 years ago
6
I decided to go ahead and type out a few things coz the info is handy for everyone 😊 usually browning is an environmental reaction. Too hot, too cold, too bright, not bright enough, sudden changes in humidity. They also brown when going dormant. Sundews are highly adaptable in general but take a decent amount of time to acclimate to any changes so bringing them inside for winter can cause browning, bringing them home can cause browning and sudden changes in light and heat. Even though they’re a “Sun” dew they’re a teeny tiny ground plant and often in a lot of bright but indirect light which doesn’t seem to be in a lot of sundew info. A lot of the time browning isn’t so bad, it just doesn’t look great and the plant is kinda hibernating a little and focusing on the new growth. It still needs the older leaves for photosynthesis though so leave them unless they’re dead dead dead. The good news is usually they turn yellow if the media or water is bad! My best guess is it’s a big of transplant/transport shock. Try a humidity hut? They don’t need super high like nepenthes or pitchers but a tall glass vase would do, I like to use glass marbles for my carnivorous plants humidity trays, I can sterilise those 😊 and they’re not as effective but they make a decent substitute for stones
@selphietrabia perfect! You may need to fiddle with light a little but generally as long as he gets around 14 hours of light he should come good within a couple weeks. If you really want you can go the whole hog and have light for 16hrs to trick him into thinking it’s summer and time to grow 😊 lots of good water and I would also probably add more peat to the media, they like boggy soggy ground and wet feet. Not block peat coir though!! It has to be loose for carnivorous plants. Something about the exact ingredients used in block peat, I don’t remember atm what it was but block is bad 😅 They can also tolerate a very VERY diluted fertiliser. Around 1% of a fern dilution which is usually around 1/2 strength of a standard Im pretty sure I use liquid fertiliser that’s “add 20ml in 9L of water” and I use 1ml in 9L (RO water) for sundews every couple months just for a kick because they live in greenhouses or inside. It should be a balanced fertiliser, nice even ratio. High Phosphorus fertilizer is for flowers and carnivores need perfect balance. But I would avoid that for now!!! Only fertilise if he doesn’t come good or actively declines within 4 weeks after adjusting the environment 😊
Ada is entirely in spagnum moss, which hopefully holds enough water for her. It's a cloudy day here so I'll shove her out in the sun. She used to live in a room with a skylight but she started getting those weird leaves and I thought she was dying from too much sun. I'm good at sarracenias and nepenthes but I've never tried sundews before so I started freaking out.
@selphietrabia they can be a little dramatic but I think it’s because they’re so vibrant that the changes are a lot more noticeable. Definitely add peat if it’s entirely sphagnum. Usually I go with 2:1:1 peat:sphagnum:perlite for fly traps and sundews. Fly traps like to be less wet but they have similar home conditions