I am pleased to announce that Jon has approved a carnivorous plant sale to benefit the f4f foundation!  Up for sale are two different sizes of Drosera Capensis (aka s, which has blown all of my other carnivores away in terms of gnat reduction this year.

I have several mature plants that are about the size of a yogurt cup:


and several that would fit inside of a jumbo egg:


The larger ones are $8 each and the smaller ones are 2 for $10.  A portion of the proceeds go to the f4f foundation, and shipping and handling with delivery confirmation are all included.  Plants will be shipped in either live sphagnum I have grown or sterile packaged sphagnum (I ran out of live sphagnum within four hours of posting this).  PayPal only.

These plants are vigorous growers and will shoot several clusters each year that can be separated into new plants.  They also produce a fair amount of seeds which germinate easily.  

They lure insects in with a sweet aroma then trap them with their sticky resin.  When the insect struggles the tendrils will wrap around their prey like an octopus to get maximum surface contact on the insect.  It will then dissolve it's meal into a nutritional soup, dry up, absorb the soup, the insect husk will then grow a light white fuzz, the husk will fall off, then the tendril will rehydrate it's trap.  Rinse and repeat.  

They have bursts in growth following feedings.  So in the winter when you bring your figs indoors the first wave of gnats will trigger a growth spurt two weeks later.  One mature sundew will devour hundreds of insects a year.  

Charles Darwin once wrote to his botanist friend Asa Gray that he cared more about the sundews than  the origins of all other life in the universe combined!

Alright, alright, enough about how great the sundew is.  Message me any questions and thanks!

My 1 year old Drosera Capensis cluster in January: 

What environment is necessary for their survival?  Can they go outside?  If kept indoors must they be kept humid?

Greg,

     Neat!  Tell us whose/which PayPal.

     What's in your mix, beside the perlite?

Sign me in for (3x=6) of the little-ones (sundew).
Two will go in my GH, 2 upstairs inhouse and 2 will go in my basement.

I presume that they will be shipped after any freeze-danger is past.
Also; most of us (including myself) may be very-new to growing these little beasts;
please include some basic instructions for their requirements.

Also privately, PM/EM me with your invoice/paypal(s)-account(s).

I'll take one large one;  thanks

Greg, let me do some advertising for your CP's. When you first posted about these guys I made a mad rush to get some because
at the time I had a heavy infestation of fungus gnats. I got these and it wasn't long and they were covered up with the gnats.
About the same time I started using Gnatrol to control the eggs/larvae. Between the two, CP's and Gnatrol I do not have any more
fungus gnats.

I simply place my CP's in a ceramic dish with pebbles and DISTILLED WATER and they take care of themselves.

@Ed, they can go outside provided you have 70%+ humidity outdoors.  I keep them under cfl bulbs with a humidity dome and I mist them frequently to keep them moist and the substrate constantly moist.  For substrate I use 1:1:1 perlite, ground sphagnum moss, vermiculite.  RAIN WATER!  Or RO water.  Just make sure it's under 15ppm.

PayPal address is GregoryMSwan@gmail.com.  I have plants for everyone who posted Alan and above and everyone who I have responded to via PM so far.  Since posting this last night I have gotten a ton of messages and will probably be out of plants by tomorrow at this rate.  Please private message requests!

Thanks. 

I grow mine in a 6" net pot



filled with long fiber sphagnum moss.  That pot sits in a piece of tupperware and I fill it halfway with distilled water.  When I have a guest waterer all the CPs go into a Sterlite storage tub with a 2 tube T8 shoplight on top so she doesn't accidently spray them with tap water.

BTW, anyone know what these grass-like plants are and if they'll ever be carnivorous or should I just pull them?

Those are bog grass that often shoots from dried packaged long fiber sphagnum.  Just pull them out and make sure you get the whole white root cluster, they grow deep and fast.

I have 4 large sundews left and several small ones as of 10pm 3/26

Nice!!!! Dorsa, the one year old??? Is she up for adoption?

Jennifer, these plants are that 1 year cluster broken into individual plants.

All the 'large' ones--the ones in yogurt cups--are sold.

Only the small ones that would fit inside a jumbo egg are still available @ 2 for $10.  They will aspire to a yogurt cup sized plant in 6-8 months.

What is RO water?
Is bottled water that is easily available from super markets OK?

>>> Just make sure it's under 15ppm.
I have no means to measure what...

Also, if there is no fungus gnats (or other little critters available) for food;
would they be happy with a T-bone steak (or what)!?

Does adding some fine bark to the medium have any good or bad effects?

gorgi,

RO is Reverse Osmosis water. some house has this set up for tropical fish and so on. supermarket sells distilled water which is fine for CP. don't feed them meat. most CP will be fine without feed, but feeding them will improve their growth. don't feed them too much. once or twice a month.

This all makes me think of the "bubble boy" story!
Does not the sundew grow somewhere in a non sterile wild location too?

yupe, it's bubble boy story. but they are cute as a button. compare to figs, they are bunch of divas needing high maintenance. but it all depends on what you are looking for. my sundew is out in the open. no dome. last time i put dome on it, one of 'em died.

My sundews are sitting under t5's no domes and low humidity and they are doing as well as my spare sun dews in the greenhouse. I just keep their water tray full of rain water and they are happy. Pretty low maintenance for me.

What kind of t5s are you using Jason?  I've been thinking about investing in them.

Gorgi: 15ppm = 15 parts per million of total dissolved solids.  A good TDS meter is a must have for any botanist in my opinion.  I use it for everything, figs included.  A good digital pH meter is really helpful as well.  Many grocery stores have the water machines, for instance Culligan, that are RO machines. 

On the topic of meat: absolutely do not feed them meat.  Carnivorous plants do not have the proper enzymes to break down animal fat.  They will feed themselves just fine with no human intervention.  Also do not put pine bark in the medium.  Stick to some combination of sphagnum moss, perlite, silica sand, pumice, vermiculite.  

I am using a hydrofarm ballast. It works great!

never used artificial lights for any of my plants before. i'm cheap. but more than being cheap, i believe that nothing will replace actual sun. 

as to sundews, i have seen them out in 30 degree weather with no issue at all. i think i'm doing something wrong. my sundew is D. venusta. it's originated from s. africa. i'm sure it's completely different environment than in my study where RH is 20%. i'll have to figure something out. however last few days, it's been putting out new leaves. 

my cephs are another story altogether. 

Thank you all.
All my (somewhat funny) questions have been answered.
And I am sure others will benefit from them too...

I'm using "old fashioned" 5000K T8s (plus fungus gnats) and mine have gone from egg sized to outgrowing yogurt sized in about 4-6 weeks.

^ same lights I use, Bob.