Tag: spoon-leaved sundews

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Maintenance: Plant Propagation.

I’ve had some difficulties with propagations with my “string of turtles”. It’s more because of its placement, and to add to that, the humidity had dipped well below 50%. Understandable, at this point, there’s the solutions going towards giving this plant a humidity dome, or any covering that traps the humidity. This can be as simple as using plastic wrap to cover the tops of the plant pot. For some plants, this works. For others, it doesn’t and often results in the development of mold, and the end of the plant’s life will soon follow.

I’ve gone the route of looking through the pot with the “string of turtles”, and what I’ve seen is that the plant is well rooted into the top soil, and is still currently growing. For the vines and exposed leaves on the vines, I chose to remove those and put them in another location.

This location, was another terrarium, where I filled it with both sphagnum moss and sheet moss. I of course soaked and squeezed out the excess water, prior to placing them inside of the terrarium, followed by the “string of turtle” cuttings. Since the humidity levels are still quite low, it has to be covered at all times, maybe I’ll remove the cover for an hour or so, on a weekly basis. I’ve decided to do so once a week, after discovering one terrarium I didn’t open for a bit, and well, the smell wasn’t pleasant. Now, it’s not to say that terrariums should always be aired out, because some terrarium designs are permanent, and they are closed permanently. When this happens, you need something extra for its longevity. This is for another topic, and I will discuss this in another entry.

This isn’t the only set of changes with propagations I’ve looked at. The sundews, a good majority of my spoon-leaved sundews died, but from what I found out, sundews of most varieties, can be propagated easily, because they really don’t need much to multiply themselves. In the right conditions, sundews can create clusters of themselves. I know this, because my first, and second, set of spoon-leaved sundews, came in clusters when they were shipped to me.

The conditions I had some of my sundews in, were an open terrarium, where the bottom and surroundings were made up of a similar combination of what I chose for my “string of turtle” cuttings. I used those, with also a couple of parlor palms, just for a different look. I didn’t see what was coming, which were ferns growing out of the sheet moss. Since the terrariums are clear glass, I can fill the bottoms just enough with water, so that the mosses can be soaked in water, along with the sundews. The sundews are also comfortable in boggy conditions, and the sphagnum moss holds lots of moisture, this is perfect to protect the plants from the drops in humidity outside of the terrarium. Win-win!

This worked so well, I’m trying the same template with some more sundews, that are separated from the ones in that open terrarium I just discussed. Since those developed clusters of sundews, all the more reasons to try this out, in another setting. Granted, this will be a bit smaller, but they will still have wet sphagnum moss, and sheet moss, as the base of the setup. For this however, I’ve placed some plastic wrap over the top of the container to start.

Before I’ve tried all of what I mentioned, I also had some other sundew propagations in water, that I transitioned in a mixture of sand and peat moss, and a lot of water. This was placed in a clear container with a lid. For a bit, I had them covered, but as soon as I removed the cover, many started drying out very fast. This may be due to the very low humidity, which made the timing quite bad, so, I replaced the lid that covered these plants. I periodically check on them to see if they will recover. If not, then I know what my mistake was, and I won’t make that mistake again.

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Successes: Propagations.

So far, propagations haven’t been my best results, but as always, this takes practice. For some plants compared to others, this method of making new plants, through the leaf cuttings of a bigger plant, often should work, if you do things right.

With the coleus plants, this has never failed me, and I’ve used water propagations to make this work. It is possible to use soil propagations, which have also worked with my coleus plants, but it hasn’t really worked for me with other plants, such as any of my carnivorous plants.

It’s been hit or miss, for most of my efforts with carnivorous plants, especially for my venus fly traps; none of which has shown a successful propagation for me just yet. The sundews haven’t been so successful either, until recently.

I’ve went through putting some remaining leaf propagations, and this of course requires three things, besides the leaf cuttings: a small container with a lid, distilled water (which may need to be refreshed every now and again), and some patience. It’s also best to have them under some adequate light source, to aid in making the propagations happen a bit faster. Often it takes well into a month before seeing any results.

What I did was take a cutting from a cape sundew, and it has to be a healthy leaf for it to work. Then, I placed it into distilled water, and then just wait. If I check back and see any murkiness, then it’s time to change the water. After a while, should there be anything different, such as seeing a little something on the leaf or leaves that wasn’t there before, that’s a good sign. Now, it’s a matter of how long do I leave it, before I bring it out to transfer into a plant pot. I’ll have to do a bit more research, to figure that out for myself.

What’s interesting about sundews, they can propagate in many different ways, which makes them easy to replicate and multiply. It can happen with growing flower stalks and begin flowering. These flowers self-pollinate, which means it doesn’t need to mix with other flowers, through standard pollination, either by insects or by hand. This will create the seeds, and all that’s needed is to collect them, or to let them spread out on their own.
Sundews can also replicate new sundews through the flower stalks, which helps. I haven’t seen this work, but I’ll definitely try it sometime.

To add to this, some sundews have been known for multiplying on their own, where under an existing sundew, will appear a smaller one. I’ve seen this with my spoon-leaved sundews, on several occasions.

So, just know that if there are successful periods of growth, you’ll experience the likelihood of continuous sundew growth and replication, for some time. The propagations will only aid in making this result happen even more. You just need the right conditions, and you’ll be good.

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A Bit More About (My) Sundews.

For the ones that I have, there are some that may be a bit fickle, which is fine, because for the many others, they will not have such issues in just staying alive. There are many of my spoon-leaved sundews that have flowered, and some that have not flowered, but instead have withered away, and dried up. There are some that were in a similar situation, but something else occurred. That something else, was to introduce a smaller sundew underneath or besides itself. This is where I have to keep a keen eye on them, to see some of these changes.

When looking at my other sundews, the cape sundews, they are now beginning to push a flower stalk for each of those. I think it’s great to finally see this. Now, I need to feed them a bit now.

I may have stated in another journal entry, that I fed them with dried bloodworms. It is quite easy for the capes, but the spoon-leaved ones, unless they get a little bigger, that might be a bit of a challenge. To an extent, I’m almost grateful for the lingering fungus gnats that haven’t been caught by the sticky traps, or their larvae weren’t completely destroyed by the mosquito bits just yet.

There’s a part of me that now understands why it’s been said, by plant owners before me, that sundews are the easiest of carnivorous plants to care for.

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Flowering Part Two.

Most of us have seen plants flower, and it can be quite exciting, especially if you don’t see this very often, or haven’t seen this before. We should think of plants flowering, as both a good thing, and a bad thing. I will explain why this is.

You have many varieties of plants that do flower, and some that don’t. However, when you do see a plant flower, in your home, it often means you are doing something to aid in making the plant reach this goal. In some instances, it can be on purpose, versus, unintentionally. If you have a grow light, which can aid in making plants flower quite easy and fast, you will see this happen very fast. For some plants, like carnivorous plants for example, look at the venus fly trap, when the plant flowers, it will result in something both good and bad.

The good first. What’s good about seeing a VFT flower, is that you will see a different phase that this plant will experience. It takes a bit for the flower stalk to form, and that results in the next section, the bad. The bad, is that when you allow the flower stalk to grow, and depending on how you are growing your VFT, it can grow very tall, or maybe a few inches tall; 2 to 3 inches tall. It doesn’t take much, but allowing the flower stalk to grow, will take away from the traps growing, especially to full size. In some instances, the traps will stop growing, or slow down significantly, until the flower stalk is removed.

Although I did discuss most of this in the previous journal, the emphasis here, is more about the use of grow lights to speed up the process. Under other conditions, natural without such use of grow lights, this will not occur as fast, unless they are by a sunny window sill, or getting enough sun light nearest to whatever window is bringing in that sunlight.
In order to have the VFT grow traps properly, you need to cut the flower stalk, but also remember, if you have a grow light, refrain from using the setting that leads to pushing flowers in plants like these. Now, it’s not to say that you can’t use the flower stalk for propagation, which you can. I haven’t been successful with this – yet, but when I am, I’ll discuss it here.

Can I say this about other carnivorous plants? Maybe. I have sundews that have this same issue, but in a slightly different set of results. The sundews I have that are flowering right now, are of the drosera spatulata variety – the spoon-leaved sundews. These I have separated in several pots, and what I see currently, for these, are most of them pushing flower stalks. Some are continuously growing, while the leaves aren’t developing dew, or are developing dew at a very slow rate. For many of the sundew plants, when the leaves develop dew, the stems holding the dew will change to a reddish color with the dew staying clear looking more like water droplets; not all of them are this way, but I’ll explain what I mean.

There are other types of sundews, like the cape sundews, where they have some that do the same as the others, while there are some species that don’t change from green to red. The dew will be the same where they appear similar to water droplets. I have the white form cape sundew, where its leaves stay green, and the stems holding the dew, stays white. The typical cape sundew, the stems will turn red around the leaves that stay green. Now, I haven’t seen the cape sundews create flowers just yet, but when I do, I’ll discuss it here.

THIS JUST IN: My cape sundews are starting to push flower stalks. It’s curly at first, but it’s likely to stretch out and show something. In its curled state, I’m still seeing some beginnings to a flower developing, so it looks like it’s going to flower on both of my capes.

Point is, the sundews may slow down their dew production, when pushing flower stalks. Some are capable of both, while others, not so much.

We also have this issue more with pitcher plants, but I haven’t seen this for myself; not yet anyway. This does not just affect the growth of pitchers, but also the development of digestive fluid in existing pitchers. When I see this, I’ll discuss what I find here.

Having flowers grow, is often a trade-off of producing dew, or traps, which can be bad on the surface. Removing the stalks can be a quick enough fix, so that we can see the plants grow like they normally would. It’s even better for propagation, if it’s possible. VFT flower stalks are good for propagation, whereas sundew or pitcher plant flower stalks may not be. This isn’t about propagation, so I’ll move on.

For some other types of plants, non-carnivorous, you may not see this problem. I haven’t come across plants other than carnivorous ones that I’ve encountered with this problem. My coleus plants seem to be just fine, and I don’t feed them anything like fertilizer either. I’ve had some tropical plants or those that are in that setting, which is my big terrarium, “the tank”, where this isn’t the case. As stated, this may be an issue with the carnivorous plants making their ability to capture prey, being compromised from producing flowers. Since I haven’t see this with other types of plants, that I know of, it’s not really a trade-off in the same way it would be for carnivorous plants.