It's really good to feed your sundews

I've been very good about feeding my sundews lately. I've been able to give a number of them good solid feedings, and am planning on doing more going forward. One of the good things about feeding is that it really increases seed production. When I really got into growing sundews I wanted to get a decent stock of seed available to sell, since finding seed to buy was difficult when I first started collecting. I should be updating my sales page with additional seeds soon.

One of my favorite species to feed is always Drosera burmannii, since they always respond so dramatically to being fed.

You go little guy!

Check out that brand new leaf on D. burmannii (Gunung Keledang). This is the first feeding for these seedlings. Should be able to do even more feeding soon.

These D. burmannii (Hann River) flowered out a bunch, so they were really in need of a feeding.

Nice new growth everywhere.

All the pale leaves are new growth from feeding. That one plant on the left of the picture is what happens if you let D. burmannii flower out without feeding – they sort of melt away by blooming themselves to death. Whoops!

The closely-related Drosera sessilifolia is almost as enthusiastic about feeding as is D. burmannii.

I love me some Drosera Subg. Thelocalyx.

I still need to see if heavy feeding can get these guys to size up. I haven't yet met Fernando's challenge.

Drosera natalensis tan up really well when they're not fed, but it's fun seeing the color contrast after a round of new growth.

So dewy!

This is a very nice, low-maintenance pot of plants. It just sort of does its thing, which is great.

I've also fed my pings, and been pretty good about taking pullings lately. Look at this brand new baby Pinguicula gigantea.

Soon I'll be propagating pings properly, just you watch.

The other plantlets in the pot are only 6 months old, and they're already pretty big. Pings are really fun to propagate.

Finally, the one group of plants I never have to think about are my Utricularia, especially the terrestrial species. Generally you just need to leave them alone, keep them wet, and let them colonize the media. Then eventually you should get some flowers.

One of my favorite species of Utricularia, easy.

Utricularia pubescens! Funny little flowers and weird "leaves" (utrics don't technically have leaves as such). Unfortunately it's really hard to take a picture of the leaves, but there's a great picture on this page of Barry Rice's Carnivorous Plant FAQ. I wish this pot wasn't quite so mossy, but I certainly don't mind the flowers!

A few post-feeding shots

A note: I am still working on changing up my photo hosting, but I didn't want to put off updating the blog too much. I'll just migrate the new images over.

I fed most of my collection a few day ago.

Drosera alicae eating heartily.

I've described how I feed my sundews in detail in an earlier post, but in brief I use beta fish food, grind it up in a little mortar and pestle, and apply it in a couple of different ways:

• For rosetted species (like Drosera aliciae and Drosera burmannii) I usually just pinch some up with my fingers and sprinkle it onto the plants.
• For plantlets, seedlings, and certain species (like Drosera spiralis and Drosera filiformis) I dip a toothpick in some water, wipe off the excess moisture, and then use the damp toothpick to pick up and apply the ground fish food.
• For larger species that have longer petioles (like Drosera anglica or Drosera capensis) I will mix the ground fish food with a tiny amount of water, just enough to form a dense paste. I then apply chunks to the laminae with a toothpick. Sometimes the damp toothpick method above will end up with a bit of this sort of paste on the tip, which I can then use.

Little Drosera prolifera plantlet emerging from the moss.

I try to feed my plants every 2 weeks at least, but lately it's been more like once a month. That's still not too shabby, but regular feeding really speeds up growth and keeps the sundews healthy.

Exceptionally hungry Drosera filiformis.

I love seeing the plants respond to feeding. Some are very dramatic, like the D. filiformis above. I didn't even know that the whole leaf could roll up like that! It's certainly not very common. Of course, sometimes the feeding process just makes the plants look straggly, like on this Drosera spiralis leaf.

Silly, string looking leaf on D. spiralis.

However, it's always nice knowing they will be stronger and healthier once new growth comes in. Plus, feeding helps out in flowering, and I want to see a show from this guy!

Feed your sundews! They love it.

Lots of Drosera allantostigma munching away.

Feed your sundews!

Once you establish their basic cultivation criteria (intense light, pure water, nutrient-poor soil), the best thing you can do for your sundews is to feed them regularly. Sundews love food, and most show noticeable growth spurts following a feeding. Food also encourages flowering, a strong seed set, and offsetting. Plus, if you're taking all the trouble to grow carnivorous plants you might as well feed them – that's the point!

I feed my plants beta fish food, since it's mostly made of krill, and krill are the bugs of the sea. Other people use freeze-dried bloodworms, or go as far as to start a wingless fruit fly culture (I have yet to take such extreme measures). I've even heard of someone who keeps a plate of rotting, fly-infested strawberries in his greenhouse, and moves it to different spots to feed different plants more heavily (apparently it just has a sort of ferment-y smell, but I'm not sure that would mollify my girlfriend). I've described my feeding technique before, and there's also some good information on Grow Sundews (there's always good information on Grow Sundews).

I recently fed my whole sundew collection, and have noticed a nice crop of new growth coming up. It was a fairly heavy feeding, and I'm pleased with the results.

Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' with fresh green growth.

I love this Drosera anglica CA x HI, and I think it's offsetting already.

Drosera madagascarensis is a real treat.

Notice the new growth in these pictures, which is nice and green, while the older leaves have a deeper red coloration. D. intermedia, D. anglica, and D. madagascarensis can all get quite red under bright light (the pigment anthocyanin provides protection from intense sun), but it takes time for the color to build up, and after feeding they grow quickly and the new leaves are green. Some species never turn red, while others are bright red irrespective of feeding, but generally it's food vs. light.

Drosera capensis 'Albino' never turns red, but the tentacles can get a slight pinkish tinge.

Try to tell me this Drosera binata plantlet isn't just the cutest thing.

Leaf size and dewiness are the two things that determine how much you can feed your sundews. I err on the side of over-feeding, because honestly the only problems I've ever had are cosmetic (a bit of mold on the leaf or the media), and the bigger growth is really worth it. Plus mold is pretty easy to get rid of with a Q-tip and some isopropyl alcohol. The one other factor to consider when deciding how much to feed your sundew is whether or not it is Drosera burmannii. If it is, then you can feed it a lot. A lot. And it will love you for it.

This D. burmannii form is peachy pink when mature and well-fed. Cute!

Of course, these are the Humpty Doo, NT, Australia form of D. burmannii, which can get remarkably red under the right circumstances. To that end I haven't fed my other pot for about a month. I'm readying them for the BACPS Annual Show and Sale on the 21st. They're getting beautifully red, and the largest plant is just sending up a flower stalk.

My D. burmannii competition pot. I'm excited!

Nice timing little guy!

Post-feeding shots.

Things get grisly around here after a feeding. Click the images for very high resolution.

Drosera burmannii, looking just as hungry as ever.

Drosera scorpioides, all curled up over one another.

My Drosera adelae baby seems to have taken well to feeding.

Check out the enormous quantity of dew on this Drosera capensis 'Albino'!

Even Drosera binata var. multifida f. extrema is getting in on the digesting action.

I'm really struck by how liquidy the plant food looks on a lot of these dews at they digest it right there on the leaf. What an extraordinary piece of evolution. It's part of why I love sundews. Hope to see lots of new growth in the upcoming weeks.

My Sarracenia, in the mean time, are quite adept at feeding themselves.

Those shadows are the piles of bugs. Looks like somebody chewed its way to freedom though. Sarracenia flava, like all Sarrs, is a ravenous eater.

Cultivation Guides: Feeding Sundews

This is part of a series of posts describing various aspects of cultivation, which will hopefully be useful to new growers trying to solve the challenges of growing carnivores, and experienced growers who are always looking to improve their collection. The full series can be read here, or by topic on the Series page.

Regular feeding is one of the best ways to help your sundews along. Feeding encourages faster growth, more frequent flowering, higher quality seed, and in the case of species like D. burmannii, post-bloom survival. It's also fun! Some plants curl dramatically over their food within minutes or hours, and new growth can seem to explode out.

Today I decided to feed my plants again. So far I haven't systematized this process – I usually feed whenever I think of it, and when I feel like it's been a week or two. In the future I intend to have some app or document as a guide, but for now I sort of wing it.

You don't need much to feed the plants. More than half this amount was left over.

I use beta fish food for my plants, since it's made of krill, and krill are the bugs of the sea. I'd like to also get some dehydrated bloodworms to try. In the mean time, I grind up my pellets into a powder in this nifty mortar and pestle, since the pellets would be too large for many of the more delicate plants.

This mortar and pestle was about $7 at Amazon.

The main problem with a fine powder like this is conveying it from toothpick (my current applicator of choice) to the plant without spilling. I've tried the slurry-and-pipette method from this video from Grow Sundews, but I didn't really care for it. I don't know if my pipettes were of poor quality, but it was hard for me to control how much food I deposited on each leaf. Today I decided to use just a spritz of water and make a sort of paste that (I hoped) would be easier to portion out and deposit. I also suspect the moisture may make the food a bit easier to digest. I moved the powder to a different bowl, and mixed in just a bit of distilled water.

You want just enough water to moisten the fish food powder.

As you can see, the powder has coagulated, but it's not liquid. With some practice I was able to get small chunks of varying size to stick to the toothpick, and then transfer them fairly easily onto the plants I desired. I didn't spill at all, and after 3 or 4 plants I had gotten the hang of it. You want to use a small portion of food, and make sure to place it on the tentacles as much as possible.

In general, you should feed in proportion to dew production. More dew means the plant can probably handle more food.

My favorite plants to feed, bar none, are my D. burmannii seedlings. I never worry about over-feeding, and they react very dramatically to the food, both in terms of trapping response (leaves and tentacles move quickly to start eating) and the growth spurts they get afterwards. Check out these next two pictures.

Drosera burmannii immediately after being fed.

The same D. burmannii about a half hour later. Chomp!

I'm pretty sure D. burmannii is my favorite plant in my collection, at least at the moment.