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Drosera Neocaledonica


Tuberous D

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Anyone out there grow this species?

Two months back I had the good fortune of acquiring a single mature D. neocaledonica. I have it in a 5" pot with a peat/sphagnum/sand mix as substrate. The plant gets direct sun for about 5 hours a day, the rest of the time open shade. Watering is done via the tray system with the pot sitting in about an inch of water. Temperatures are typical summer conditions for the midwestern US: 80-90f day and 60-70f at night.

The plant puts out new leaves on a regular basis - albeit very slowly.

Now here's the thing. Very little dew is produced from the lamina even though other drosera species that grow in the same tray have no problem with this!

Not much cultural information is out there largely due to the fact that this species is quite rare. The tips I could find are often conflicted. Some say it needs highland conditions while others report good results growing it in a lowland Petiolaris tank! Some say wet and others say just moist.

If anyone has experience with this species please post your advice. Thanks!

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Anyone out there grow this species?

Two months back I had the good fortune of acquiring a single mature D. neocaledonica. I have it in a 5" pot with a peat/sphagnum/sand mix as substrate. The plant gets direct sun for about 5 hours a day, the rest of the time open shade. Watering is done via the tray system with the pot sitting in about an inch of water. Temperatures are typical summer conditions for the midwestern US: 80-90f day and 60-70f at night.

The plant puts out new leaves on a regular basis - albeit very slowly.

Now here's the thing. Very little dew is produced from the lamina even though other drosera species that grow in the same tray have no problem with this!

Not much cultural information is out there largely due to the fact that this species is quite rare. The tips I could find are often conflicted. Some say it needs highland conditions while others report good results growing it in a lowland Petiolaris tank! Some say wet and others say just moist.

If anyone has experience with this species please post your advice. Thanks!

They were growing it in a high humidity plus high temp tank. The humidity is key here. It will do better with moderate temps.

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This plant is one of the trickiest species for me. So far i have quite good results with temps around 23°C in a room aquarium, but it is still not the best. It did not grow well with petiolaris drosera, nor in hihgland conditions. But as Dave recommends high humidity, i will try it, maybe thats the trick. I just wanted to recommend you this: make some "backup plants", this species is easily propagable by leaf cuttings in water. My first plant did not live long and just because i made small plants, i still have it in my collection.

Good luck

Adam

Edited by Zlatokrt
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It's very easy to grow for me, I grow it since 2007 and I never had problems. It flower every year in spring.

I grow it in full sun during the summer with always some water in the tray, and under a 400w metal halide during the winter with the pot wet, but without water in the tray.

In my greenhouse in summer is very hot during the day, but the plant tolerate very well temperatures up to 40-45°C, the umidity is very high during the night but not during the day; in winter I grow it in highland condition (15°C-25°C) with very low umidity.

You can use simply a mix of peat/perlite 50/50%.

DSCF2963.jpg

DSCF2950.jpg

Edited by .Pico.
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Thanks to everyone that responded to my original post. The pictures of well-grown plants are an inspiration!

I have moved the pot to an area that is much more humid so we'll see if that does the trick with dew production. One thing that I wasn't aware of is the apparent ease of getting plantlets from leaf cuttings. I have taken several and will use the water float method under lights.

Photos of the plant in habitat are a real eye opener. They grow in what appears to be massive amounts of laterite gravel and loam soil. I wonder to what extent this has, if any, on overall growth. In the past I grew several species of tuberous drosera whose habitats contain this substrate in a mix containing laterite. I found absolutely no difference in plant vigor or coloration.

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Well, Pico's plants look better than mine, so I would take his advice.

The hybrid with D. spatulata is much easier, weed-like almost.

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Well' date=' Pico's plants look better than mine, so I would take his advice.

The hybrid with D. spatulata is much easier, weed-like almost.

[/quote']

Never heard of such hybrid! Have any pics?

Edited by Deadly Weapon
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  • 2 years later...

Here is an update on my growing adventures with D. neocaledonica - 2 1/2 years later! First off I would like to sincerely thank everyone who responded to my original post way back. Your advice gave me something solid to start off with.

After experimenting with different growing areas including lowland, highland, and intermediate conditions I have found that this species grows very well for me in an intermediate room-temperature tank under lights. This is basically 15 - 25c. Humidity is not all that high, alternating between 40-70%. Lighting is provided by 4 40-watt standard shop light tubes, 2 cool white and 2 warm white. They are kept 15cm above the crown of the dews.

I use a substrate of mostly New Zealand sphagnum mixed with some silica sand. In these conditions my original plant has grown to almost 4cm across and has flowered once, producing viable seed. Leaf cuttings have a medium strike rate and have produced additional plants.

The most noticeable characteristic of D. neocaledonica is how slow it grows - about at the same rate of Cephalotus!

Edited by Tuberous D
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