New
Beginner's carnivorous growing kit
Broad leaf sundew
Drosera capensis
Description
Grow your own fly catcher!
A kit for a new plant grower, or someone looking to try a new and interesting type of plant without having to spend a lot of money for the right kind of soil mix. Great for presents, or as an experiment to try something new. This relatively easy-to-grow variety is a great starter plant for anyone looking at getting into the carnivorous plant world. Does well even in a window in your home!
What the kit includes: A 3" pot with enough growing medium to fill it to the top with a light packing and 15-20 Drosera capensis seeds, along with step-by-step instructions. The plant in the pictures is an example of what the seeds will grow into, not what will be sent.
Broad Leaf Sundew is an ideal carnivorous plant for beginners! This is the first carnivorous plant that we grew! It started a trend of growing carnivorous plants, and we now have a healthy supply of plants to provide fresh seeds for our customers!
This Sundew is easy to grow! This broad leaf form is very distinctive, and the leaves tend to be larger and wider than the standard form. Very attractive, especially in the sun, the red Sundew hairs are covered in a sticky sap which look like dew drops. Once an insect is attached, the leaves curl around the insect to digest it! These plants are most often grown indoors where they can be admired (and help rid the fly population) though they are hardy outdoors in zones 8-10. Grow plants in a bright location, but out of direct hot midday sun. Plant in a mixture of 50% peat moss and 50% perlite. Plants never need fertilizer as they obtain their nutrients from the insects that they digest. Watering should be done with rain, distilled or reverse osmosis water, as they dislike municipal treated water (which would likely kill the plant).
The flowers are pink and fairly showy. They start at the base of a long stock that is held high above the foliage, and then they open upwards along the stem. Each stem can easily have over 20 flowers.
Note: Sundew seeds are extremely tiny! It's just how they naturally are. Reading glasses are recommended to aid with seeing them, even for those who don't normally require glasses to read. The seeds are shipped in either a wax envelope, or folder within a small paper. Open carefully, and sprinkle onto the growing medium. Do not bury the seeds. Germination information is below.
Germination: Sprinkle the tiny seeds on top of the growing medium. Do not cover them. Use a mixture of 50% peat and 50% perlite. Cover the container with plastic to retain moisture. Place the container in very bright light at room temperature. Once the small plants begin to grow, slowly open the plastic a little each day. Use rain, distilled or reverse osmosis water (use a spritz bottle while plants are small) to regularly water plants. As these are bog plants, the soil should stay wet at all times. Generally seeds germinate anywhere from 1 to 3 months, though keep the planting mix wet as some straggler seeds can take up to a year.
Sundew Care
Sun: Sundews typically like having a fair amount of dappled light. They’re generally lower growing and found in bogs around grasses. Some varieties can handle up to full sun, though it may burn the leaves if it’s getting too much. If growing under a grow light, up to 14 hours a day under 6500K rated lighting is good for the plant. Sundews like Drosera Capensis can grow in just about any humidity range with wide ranges of light.
Water: Sundews are typically found in bog like conditions. To mimic this, we have potted sundews sitting in a dish of water and never let them go dry. Bottom watering seems to work the best, though top watering is a completely viable option for this plant, just try to avoid watering the mucilaginous drops on the arms of the plant so you don’t wash them away. For the water, it needs to be extremely low mineral content. Ideally less than 50 PPM. We’ve been using primarily rainwater for ours, though we do use reverse osmosis water when rainwater isn’t available. Another option would be to use distilled water.
Soil: Sundews do not like to have mineral content in the soil either. Our recommended soil mix is 1 part peat moss to 1 part perlite. Coarse silica sand is an alternative to perlite, though it tends to make the soil mix quite a bit heavier. If you do want to up-pot the plants at some point, make sure to get peat moss and perlite without any additives. Miracle Gro brand seems to like adding nutrients, so avoid that for these plants.
Feeding: Sundews are easy for feeding, simply add an insect to a dewy arm and let it do its thing. Not as fast acting as a flytrap, you should see the arm curl around the insect over the course of a couple hours. They do not open back up. For Drosera Capensis, we generally just let it catch its own food, though, if there are no bugs around and you’re looking for an alternative, either freeze dried blood worms, or beta fish food pellets work well for them. For the pellets, the plant seems to prefer them crushed up prior to feeding, and the blood worm should be broken into smaller pieces (a few mm long at most).
Dormancy: Depending on the variety of sundew, some may require a dormancy, others may go into dormancy if growing conditions aren’t ideal, and others do not go into dormancy at all. For Drosera Capensis, it’s a nice hardy plant and will only go dormant if growing conditions are not ideal.
Flower care: Certain sundews are “self-pollinating” including Drosera Capensis. This means, if you leave the flower stalk, it will create seed for you. For more mature plants, you will have around 20-25 blossoms, each creating a fair number of seeds. The seeds do look like little grains of black pepper and are easily overlooked. If the flowers are left, you will have a very full container in a fairly short period of time.
Difficulty rating: 2/5 (for Drosera Capensis) assuming tomatoes are a 1/5.
Description
Grow your own fly catcher!
A kit for a new plant grower, or someone looking to try a new and interesting type of plant without having to spend a lot of money for the right kind of soil mix. Great for presents, or as an experiment to try something new. This relatively easy-to-grow variety is a great starter plant for anyone looking at getting into the carnivorous plant world. Does well even in a window in your home!
What the kit includes: A 3" pot with enough growing medium to fill it to the top with a light packing and 15-20 Drosera capensis seeds, along with step-by-step instructions. The plant in the pictures is an example of what the seeds will grow into, not what will be sent.
Broad Leaf Sundew is an ideal carnivorous plant for beginners! This is the first carnivorous plant that we grew! It started a trend of growing carnivorous plants, and we now have a healthy supply of plants to provide fresh seeds for our customers!
This Sundew is easy to grow! This broad leaf form is very distinctive, and the leaves tend to be larger and wider than the standard form. Very attractive, especially in the sun, the red Sundew hairs are covered in a sticky sap which look like dew drops. Once an insect is attached, the leaves curl around the insect to digest it! These plants are most often grown indoors where they can be admired (and help rid the fly population) though they are hardy outdoors in zones 8-10. Grow plants in a bright location, but out of direct hot midday sun. Plant in a mixture of 50% peat moss and 50% perlite. Plants never need fertilizer as they obtain their nutrients from the insects that they digest. Watering should be done with rain, distilled or reverse osmosis water, as they dislike municipal treated water (which would likely kill the plant).
The flowers are pink and fairly showy. They start at the base of a long stock that is held high above the foliage, and then they open upwards along the stem. Each stem can easily have over 20 flowers.
Note: Sundew seeds are extremely tiny! It's just how they naturally are. Reading glasses are recommended to aid with seeing them, even for those who don't normally require glasses to read. The seeds are shipped in either a wax envelope, or folder within a small paper. Open carefully, and sprinkle onto the growing medium. Do not bury the seeds. Germination information is below.
Germination: Sprinkle the tiny seeds on top of the growing medium. Do not cover them. Use a mixture of 50% peat and 50% perlite. Cover the container with plastic to retain moisture. Place the container in very bright light at room temperature. Once the small plants begin to grow, slowly open the plastic a little each day. Use rain, distilled or reverse osmosis water (use a spritz bottle while plants are small) to regularly water plants. As these are bog plants, the soil should stay wet at all times. Generally seeds germinate anywhere from 1 to 3 months, though keep the planting mix wet as some straggler seeds can take up to a year.
Sundew Care
Sun: Sundews typically like having a fair amount of dappled light. They’re generally lower growing and found in bogs around grasses. Some varieties can handle up to full sun, though it may burn the leaves if it’s getting too much. If growing under a grow light, up to 14 hours a day under 6500K rated lighting is good for the plant. Sundews like Drosera Capensis can grow in just about any humidity range with wide ranges of light.
Water: Sundews are typically found in bog like conditions. To mimic this, we have potted sundews sitting in a dish of water and never let them go dry. Bottom watering seems to work the best, though top watering is a completely viable option for this plant, just try to avoid watering the mucilaginous drops on the arms of the plant so you don’t wash them away. For the water, it needs to be extremely low mineral content. Ideally less than 50 PPM. We’ve been using primarily rainwater for ours, though we do use reverse osmosis water when rainwater isn’t available. Another option would be to use distilled water.
Soil: Sundews do not like to have mineral content in the soil either. Our recommended soil mix is 1 part peat moss to 1 part perlite. Coarse silica sand is an alternative to perlite, though it tends to make the soil mix quite a bit heavier. If you do want to up-pot the plants at some point, make sure to get peat moss and perlite without any additives. Miracle Gro brand seems to like adding nutrients, so avoid that for these plants.
Feeding: Sundews are easy for feeding, simply add an insect to a dewy arm and let it do its thing. Not as fast acting as a flytrap, you should see the arm curl around the insect over the course of a couple hours. They do not open back up. For Drosera Capensis, we generally just let it catch its own food, though, if there are no bugs around and you’re looking for an alternative, either freeze dried blood worms, or beta fish food pellets work well for them. For the pellets, the plant seems to prefer them crushed up prior to feeding, and the blood worm should be broken into smaller pieces (a few mm long at most).
Dormancy: Depending on the variety of sundew, some may require a dormancy, others may go into dormancy if growing conditions aren’t ideal, and others do not go into dormancy at all. For Drosera Capensis, it’s a nice hardy plant and will only go dormant if growing conditions are not ideal.
Flower care: Certain sundews are “self-pollinating” including Drosera Capensis. This means, if you leave the flower stalk, it will create seed for you. For more mature plants, you will have around 20-25 blossoms, each creating a fair number of seeds. The seeds do look like little grains of black pepper and are easily overlooked. If the flowers are left, you will have a very full container in a fairly short period of time.
Difficulty rating: 2/5 (for Drosera Capensis) assuming tomatoes are a 1/5.
