Question

Drosera red leaf Black  

Another drosera   Hello

Sorry my english

my drosera have new born
Leaves  black and they apparently see it as a fungus because white powder. I put them
Outside in greenhouse whit alot of humidity for she can produce more
Muscilago and is doig great, but I think that maybe thats why maybe can have fungus  see the picture an let me know thanks !!

Another thing I have another drosera and the leae are twisting why that happen ?

And how can my drosera red leaf turn into red again with out lossing te muscilago how do you guys do that? When she arrieve to PR was red leaf now is like green leae :(

Thanks guys

Answer
Hello Gabriel,

When young leaves die back on D. capensis, it can be for a number of reasons.

1. You may have pests, like aphids deep in the young leaves where you can't see them. They cause young leaves to be deformed (twisted), and to die back.

2. Humidity changes could be a problem. D. capensis is a very tolerant, easy to grow plant, however; very fast changes in humidity can sicken the plant.

3. Light could be too dim. This is seen in your red leaves turning green. D. capensis needs partial to full sun to produce good coloration and muscilage. The muscilage is not dew, it is sugar produced by the plant when it is the sun.

Some things to fix would be to ensure that the plants are getting very bright light, near full sunlight, but kept under 80 degrees temperatures. They like cool weather.

Try to stabilize the plants' humidity levels. Find a place to grow the plants and keep them there. Let them adjust slowly to humidity drops. Humidity shock can kill them if they are in high humidity to begin with and then placed in a very low humidity room. D. capensis can grow in low humidity, but you must make gradual changes to lower the humidity around the plant over a few weeks until the plant graduates to lower humidity living. You placed the plants in high humidity, but before that, they may have been in a high humidity nursery, then shipped to your location where you may have a lower humidity initially.

Look closely at the young leaves and on the underside of the adult leaves. Tiny insects might be hiding under there. You may not even know they are insects by looking at them, but anything stuck on the leaves that was not there before is not supposed to be there, unless the plant grabbed it of course.

Grow the plants open pot and in open air to minimize fungus. White spots on dead leaves is likely fungus, but so long as it does not move to living leaves, it is not generally a problem. It is just opportunistic fungus growing on dead leaves. The leaves may have died from another cause, probably humidity shock or lack of light.

Remember to keep these plants in a tray of water up to 1/4 the pot in depth. They are bog plants and need a lot of water. Make sure the water is mineral free as minerals in the water can kill these plants very quickly. It must be distilled, reverse osmosis, rain, or some other source of very soft water for these plants. Never use spring water, hard tap water, or mineral enhanced water to water these plants.