Question

Sundews   QUESTION: Per our conversation at the market today Jeff here is a picture of the sundews.  We don't know if we are doing anything wrong, they are two year old plants, and they are about 20" below the 6-40 watt hortilux lamps.

ANSWER: Hi Fred,

I strongly suspect something is wrong with the soil.  This looks very much like what happens when sundews are planted in regular potting soil.  What was the brand of your soil ingredients?  What was the mix?  I noticed that you have a Phalenopsis orchid right next to the sundews.  Were they ever inadvertently fertilized?  I forgot, but do you have any other carnivorous plants in the same area?  How do they look?  Let me know and we'll see if we can help you get this turned around.

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Jeff, it's in the mixture of half peat and half perlite from Whitney Farms.  We have no other carnivorous plants in the house.  I know not to fertilize them, however Kevin may not have been so carefull, he now says he doesn't fertilize them, unless it was from overspray.

Answer
Hi Fred,

It's starting to look like it might be a combination of both things.  It's very common for small bags of soil amendments to have either fertilizer, pH adjustment (lime) or both in them.  We've had dozens of customers report problems from using small bags of peat moss.  It's always best to use peat moss in the bales since that is just compressed peat and nothing else.  If you're around next weekend come down to the Saturday Market and I'll give you a bag of ours free to transplant.  I'm curious to see if they perk-up.

On the issue of the overspray, I did notice that the plant closest to the orchid is darker green than the one further away, and has more leaf burn.  That screams fertilizer.  Try fertilizing the orchid away from the sundews, or just do a dip with the orchid.  We used to have many Phalenopsis and got great results by giving them a quick soak once every two weeks in 1/4 tsp. per gallon of water solution of orchid fertilizer.


Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com