Feeding Sundews
Are you tired of painfully slow-growing sundews?Although most sundews don't need to be fed, they grow best when they can catch food.
If you can't grow your sundews outdoors, your sundews won't be able to catch much food on their own. Feeding them will greatly speed up growth and encourage flowering.
Check out this page I made, which charts the growth of D. natalensis over a 2-month period. You can see just how rapidly sundews can grow when fed.
Food you CAN use:
Beta fish food pellets (crushed)- very good results.
Freeze-dried bloodworms
Fruit flies (wingless is best)- very good results.
Fungus gnats- works well, but are hard to catch.
Dilute orchid fertilizer (not Miracle-Gro)- would be fastest method, but I haven't tried this.
Beta Bites are cheap and easy to use
DO NOT use any of the following:
Meat or pieces of steak. These don't have the same nutrients as bugs and can severely damage the leaf, if too large of a portion is used.
Miracle-Gro or fertilizer in high concentrations
Fertilizing the soil for sundews is not recommended, but I have not confirmed this yet.
What to expect:
The tentacles of your sundew will begin curling over the food within 10 to 30 minutes. Some species such as D. burmannii will begin curling over the food within seconds.
Then after an hour or more, the leaves of most Drosera will curl noticeably around their prey. Drosera regia will curl tightly over its prey and form a tight ball over several days. Drosera capensis behaves similarly but will roll up its leaves in less than a day.
A constricted leaf of D. regia 'Big Easy' D. admirabilis curling its leaves over some food
Most Drosera can only handle smaller portions of food. Otherwise, the leaves may "burn" and die. To avoid this, crush up the food into powder and sprinkle it on the leaf (using tweezers or pinching some between your fingers). Also, if food portions are too large, this will lead to mold, and this mold will eventually end up on the media surface, causing mineral buildup, and will eventually kill your sundews, if you don't flush your pots occasionally. Long story short, use smaller amounts unless I say otherwise in the detailed sundew information pages.
Although feeding is a painstakingly slow process, it can produce very rewarding results. I plan to experiment with a dilute orchid fertilizer solution and see if it produces good results. So far I haven't heard too many good reports, but I will document my experiences with it in a few months.
Additional Questions or Suggestions?
Contact me at: sundewman(at)yahoo.com