Sundew Plant Care
Here are the main care requirements for growing a sundew plant.
Light
Sundew plants do best in full sun.
If growing indoors, a sunny window is a good location.
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This soil mixture will hold moisture well and provide the acidity preferred by sundew plants.
Till the soil well before planting and add plenty of sphagnum peat moss to increase acidity.
Water
Frequent watering of your sundews planted in containers will help keep the soil moist.
The Spruce / Phoebe Cheong
Placing a shallow dish of water with small pebbles nearby helps keep the air humid as well.
capensiswhich does not go dormant and keeps growing throughout the year.
Here are a few forms and cultivars ofD.
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Pruning
Prune out discolored, browning, or wilting leaves to keep your sundew healthy.
Propagating Sundew
Leaf cuttings or seeds can be easy ways to propagate sundew plants.
Leaf cuttings will give you reliable copies of the parent plant while harvested seeds will give you variations.
A close up shot of the sundew displays the filaments tipped with a secretion that lures and traps insects.Mark Griffin/ Flickr /CC BY 2.0
Gently squeeze out the plant from its pot and dip it in pure water to wash the roots.
Prune out damaged roots.
Put the sundew in a larger pot with drainage holes and filled with a new growing medium.
Avoid unglazed clay pots for sundew plants because the soil will dry out too fast in that material.
Overwintering
D. capensisare not cold-hardy.
Common Pests
Ironically, pests that attack carnivorous sundew includeaphids,mealybugs, andthrips.
These pests can stunt or deform the plant’s growth.
Try removing the bugs by hand.
Do not use a soap-based insecticide or the plant will dry out and dew production will decrease.
If you must use a pesticide, dilute it heavily.
What Do Sundew Flowers Look and Smell Like?
Sundews can have a few dozen flowers per stalk when the plant is healthy.
The flowers are small and simple white or pinkish blooms with four to five rays.
The flowers are said to be without a scent.
But do not overdo it with fertilizer because these plants only prefer to digest bugs.
Yellowing leaves may suggest the plant is not getting enough sun or it is getting too much water.
The usual reason your plant may not be sticky with dew is a lack of humidity.
Or, another reason a sundew plant isn’t producing dew is because it needs more sunlight to glisten.
If the plant receives too much harsh sun, it may stress and stop producing mucilage.
Mushy Stems
A sundew with mushy stems may have root rot.
However, sundews love water and it will take a lot of moisture to suffer from root rot.
Prune away rotted roots and double-check the growing medium has good drainage.
Keep sundew plants in a terrarium or in a humid room if growing indoors.
A sundew plant needs to be watered at least once a week to keep the soil moist.
Sundews need distilled water or rainwater but they cannot handle the minerals in tap water.
A sundew will need about five to six hours of bright light indoors and outdoors to survive.
If a sundew plant is not making much dew, it likely needs more sunlight.
Basic Cultivation of Temperate Sundews.New England Carnivorous Plant Society.
Drosera capensis.South African National Biodiversity Institute.
