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Drosera filiformis "red" - a short living plant?


Guest Andreas Eils

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Guest Andreas Eils

Good morning!

Every winter I experience the same with Drosera filiformis "red" (or "all red" - not sure what´s the official name now)! When the plants are older than 1.5 years they use to rot in winter! :( Note: Younger plants are not affected by rotting in exactly the same conditions!

I try to keep the plants on the balcony as long as possible but of course don´t expose them to frost. Sure, the light is not the best at this season outside. But as it´s relatively cold anyway the plants use to build their resting bud and stop growing.

Since the new coldness has appeared in the beginning of January the plants are kept permanently indoors in an unheated room below grow lights {my artificial supernova :wink: (a 250 W metal halide lamp)}. The first plants have started to rot already on the balcony. Others looked fine but have finally rot after putting them indoors, too!

The plants are standing among my Lithops and currently the metal halide lamp is 1.4 m away from them. This is because to slowly adapt the Lithops to the more intense light (they spent their time on the balcony before as well!). I will decrease the distance to the lamp to 1 m in a few days. For the Drosera the lamp is a little too far away, okay, I understand this.

Last year in winter I lived in my old flat which didn´t have a balcony. The plants were kept below a large South-West facing roof window with no additional light. Fairly different conditions than now. However I experienced the same with plants older than 1.5 years. They just rot while the seedlings next to them were still fine!

I wonder if this is perhaps a natural behaviour of D. filiformis "red". I think that Amar has lost his old plants the same way. Amar?

Is there anyone else with the same experience?

Temperatures on the balcony ranged between 1 and 10°C while the plants have been kept outside.

In my unheated sleeping room it is much warmer: ~15°C at daytime and ~10°C in the night. The plants have started to grow new leaves again. 4 have rot nonetheless. And now I have only three survivors which I´ve transplanted yesterday evening. I keep the soil only moist, not wet for the whole dark season.

Finally: Of formerly 10 plants I have only 3 left at the moment. Not sure if they´ll survive at all. AND: I´ve NEVER had D. filiformis "red" older than barely two years! :confused:

You cannot say the plants below the roof window would have had "dormancy conditions".

Perhaps the key is to keep them growing below strong artificial light in winter?

Your opinions and experiences desired! Thank you!

Andreas

PS: Looks like I have to sow seeds of D. filiformis "red" again....

PPS: Interesting: Smilies are not shown between square brackets! [ :wink: ]

Edited by Andreas Eils
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Hey Andreas,

this year also my normal D. filiformis ssp. tracyi are suffering grey-mould outside, due to the mild winter here and the wet weather in our upper Rhein-valley. D. filiformis "Florida red" is different, don't grow it outside in Germany because despite of its obvious dormancy, it needs higher temperatures. I keep it all the year inside our tropical greenhouse together with Nepenthes and it grows, flowers and set seeds very nicely since 2009. At the moment most plants are dormant, one starts thriving again, but show no mould even with the high humidity inside the tropical greenhouse. Temperatures are about 19-28°C during day (depending on sun or not) and about 13-15°C during night. This species (or hybrid between D. filiformis and D. capillaris??) needs simply higher temperatures.

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This species (or hybrid between D. filiformis and D. capillaris??) needs simply higher temperatures.

Forgive me and away from the focus of this question, but as well a hybrid between D. filiformis and D. capillaris? This crossing is possible between these species?

Best Regards,

Rodrigo

Edited by Rodrigo
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Guest Andreas Eils

Hi Siggi,

thank you very much for your astounding information. I´d never expected this "species" should be kept THAT warm! :blink: Uuuh, then I face a problem! Because even my unheated sleeping room where my pygmy Droserae and the tuberous Droserae are thriving (among others) would be too cool for the red Filiformis. :dry: I have a heated lowland Nepenthes tank but there is no more space inside. Au weia!

I was thinking Chris Klein told me just not to expose the 'Filiformis red' (it is now officially called "Florida red"?) to frost.... Well, I clearly have to install grow lights above my window sill in the living room. My energy supplier will be pleased! :sad: But at least it´s nicely warm in the living room. ;-)

But interesting...as I have heard the story about D. filiformis "Florida red" is supposed to be a hybrid between D. filiformis and D. capillaris before - although nothing reminds me on D. capillaris on this plant =D - ...my adult D. capillaris have rot as well! There are only seedlings in the pot now. Sounds a bit like seedlings of both, D. capillaris and D. filiformis "Florida red", would be a little more "hardy".

I´ll try to save my remaining plants and will improve the conditions for next winter.

Thanks again.

Kind regards

Andreas

Edited by Andreas Eils
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Sorry to hear that Andreas.

My plants grow also year-round inside without any problems, i water them permanently and they even do not go into dormacy, since 6-7 years i grow them by this method.

In the past i tried it also outside but during winter they normally die.

From time to time they devide into 2 or more growing points, in the moment the longest leafes are about 25cm.

It´s really hard to believe that these plants should by hybrids with D. capillaris, from where do you have this information?

Best regards,

Dani

Edited by Daniel O.
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Guest Andreas Eils

It´s really hard to believe that these plants should by hybrids with D. capillaris, from where do you have this information?

Do you mean me or Siggi? :D

Thomas Carow was the first one who mentioned there are taxonomists who believe it would be a hybrid with D. capillaris. I have no clue who these taxonomists are. (Andreas Fleischmann & Jan Schlauer perhaps???)

I see! D. filiformis "red" should be kept comfortably warm and bright all year... Good to know!

Thanks for your reply, Dani! :)

Andreas

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Do you mean me or Siggi? :D

I ment both of you. :wink:

The other natural hybrids with D. filiformis do have much shorter and wider leafes so somehow i cannot believe that these plants should be hybrids with D. capillaris after the leafes are in fact very long and they are not a bit wider.

BTW, if you loose them i can send you some seed.

Best regards,

Dani

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Guest Andreas Eils

Hey Dani,

already up again or still awake?

I agree with you. It is confusing to imagine that plant should be a hybrid with D. capillaris if you consider the shape of the leaves! I would too have expected shorter and somewhat broader leaves on such a hybrid. Or else the genes of D. filiformis (var. tracyi?) must be more dominant than those of D. capillaris.... :laugh:

Thank you for your offer. I think I still have seeds in the fridge of this erm....hybrid or whatever. Unless you want to send me a few D. roraimae seeds as well! *hint* You know, I have managed to break the flower scape of my D. roraimae "Gran Sabana"! :eek:

So, as this is my 1,111th post I should stop writing for awhile! That figure looks so funny under my profile.... :lol:

Greetings

Andreas

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Not sure what the correct nomenclature is either, but acording to this page: http://www.carnivoro..._filiformis.php there is a Florida all red which is now just called Florida. I believe the "all red" must then be the "Florida". I've also had lots of problems in culitvating my "all red", but I never gave it a dormancy, as I am informed, it does not need one. It just died away sometime in May. I am now cultivating it practically tropically, in my terrarium, under grow-lights, always wet. It's thriving at the moment...I will see what happens in Spring, when I put it outside!

But not only have I had problems with the "all red", but also with the filiformis var. tracyi, the less cold-hardy of the two basic variations, filiformis var. filiformis being the cold-hardy plant. Every single year my tracyi died in the Winter months. So here's what I did towards the end of the 2011 season: I took some leave cuttings and laid them out on fresh peat and kept them inside under growlights in the Winter of 2011/12. They "sprouted" nicely so I had a very healthy tracyi in 2012. Now I didn't do the same thing at the end of the 2012 growing season. Nope. I did something very bold......*drum-roll*.....

No more dormancy for you, Mr.-always-dies-on-me-when-given-dormancy-D. filiformis var. tracyi !!

I took the whole plant and put it under my growlights, depriving it of dormancy, something I don't really know if it is actually needed for this plant. The plant is thriving at the moment...we will see if this remains so...

:chiffa:

Edited by Amar
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This plant is from the most southern range of the species. And it grows in pure quartz sand in an acidic seapage system. The natural setting helps protect it from rotting. It can be more difficult in cultivation, especially if your soil has a lot of peatmoss or you live further north than Florida and have longer winters.

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Guest Andreas Eils

Thank you, Dave!

It becomes more and more interesting with this species! I have to admit that my soil mix for D. filiformis "red" contains mainly peat moss (additions are perlite, lava rock pieces and coarse quartz sand). I have just transplanted the remaining three plants. But I will try a sandier mix when I sow new seeds in spring. And I will keep it warmer in future and of course below grow lights. :yes: I hope I can maintain them as long as Siggi and Daniel then.

Regards

Andreas

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D. filiformis typically grows in sand. D. intermedia typically grows in muck (you'd call it mud, but it is all peat stuff). D. rotundifolia like peat/sand mixes and living Sphagnum moss, by the end of the growing season all you can see are the flower stem stick up out of the hummocks. Down in the Gulf Coast, D. filiformsis subsp. tracyi sometimes grows in muckier soils, but even there the D. filiformis subsp. filiformis form xxx grows only on quartz sand.

Edited by Dave Evans
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Plants from the Gulf coast probably only need about two week in the fridge to complete their dormancy. This is probably true for S. rosea as well. They have a long growing season and a very short dormancy.

Oh yeah, S. purpurea is the most cold hardy Sarracenia, while S. rosea is the least cold hardy Sarracenia species. I just like to pick with folks that are still under the impression they are the same species :wall3:

Edited by Dave Evans
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Has the cold hardiness of S purpurea ssp. venosa var. burkii been definitively tested relative to other Sarracenia? I have a plant from a reliable source (Mike King) which survived a winter outside in the UK and was frozen solid for quite some time (although it has grown much better under glass, and is clearly not as suited to cold temps as some other Sarracenia forms).

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