HELP! Drooping Capensis with no dew!

[peterstaines]

I need help!

I've had my Drosera Capensis for nearly two weeks now and after the first week it started to look like this. It is sitting in a south facing window getting a fair amount of direct sunlight each day. I am using de ionised water which it sits in most of the time as i let the dish dry up before watering it again. I am hoping that I can revive it back to its strong pointy leaves like it had the day I bought it.

 

Thanks!

[SoLongFairWell]

Keep it in the water all the time and keep it in the sun.  It's just adapting to your growing conditions and will sort itself out in a few weeks. Between being stored in warehouses and shipped and then in a garden centre it wouldn't have had much direct sunlight.  

[carambola]

It's possible that the older leaves won't regain their dew and will die off eventually, but all new leaves should be dewy again.

[Gaz]

I'd agree with Richard and Carambola on this, just a temporary set back whilst the plant settles into it's new environment.  Keep the humidity high, whilst it settles, by keeping the dish topped up.  It can be disheartening to see new plants seeming to decline like this and it's especially noticeable on Drosera which look so sad without any dew but I find D capensis is a tough plant which will likely soon rebound. 

[peterstaines]

Thanks guys, today has been sunny and it has been sat in water and the plant is seeming to regain dew on its leaves but the leaves are still droopy especially the older dark red ones. Do you know if the plant can get too hot in the windowsill?

[carambola]

It gets up to 40 degrees in Cape Town so I doubt a UK windowsill would be too hot. Your windowsill is just less ideal than the environment it was growing in prior to being sent off to the shop and sold. Don't worry too much about it, it will start looking better soon.

[Gaz]

4 hours ago, peterstaines said:

Do you know if the plant can get too hot in the windowsill?

Long term I found it difficult to grow sticky CPs like Drosera and Pinguiculas indoors due to the dry atmosphere caused, or at least not helped, by central heating, i.e. radiators in front of the windowsills.  So it may not be too hot but could be too dry. 

The only way round this I found was to increase the humidity by putting some kind of lid over the plant.  I know many people do grow their plants successfully indoors but I now keep all my CPs in the greenhouse and brighten windowsills with succulent plants instead.

[Tropicat]

I noticed the air here is more humid than in the uk, to my surprise. I have no problem growing drosera, both in my windowsil and outside. Im experimenting to test its boundaries, but its a very hardy plant in my environment. humidity doesn't get below 50% where i live.

I did some (non scientific) experimenting with my cape sundews:
I tried different soils, the normal cp mixes are fine, just when i mixed an unknown moss type in they died.
They survived the winter in very low light conditions. They did go into winterrest, which its not supposed to, but they came out fabulous when i placed them back in the light in the summer.
I have tried temps ranging from 10 C to about 40C and they did fine. I do notice they grow faster in warmer temps
I have had sundews stand in water at all times and sundews drying out for a bit before i watered them again, and that made very little difference for me.

In my case the moss had the biggest impact, after that light and temp.

[manders]

I find capensis does best outside in deep pots so that the compost is more damp than wet.  Much bigger healthier plants.

Edited July 27, 2017 by manders

[manders]

double post...

Edited July 27, 2017 by manders