Drosera madagascariensis is a wonderful sundew from South Africa that's surprisingly easily to grow. I find it a little harder to propagate compared to Drosera capensis, Drosera spatulata, Drosera scorpiodes, and other pygmy sundews, but it's still very easy to propagate.
As with other South African sundews, it needs bright light. It also isn't too fussy about temperature - 70's are best, but I think that 60's, as well as occasional periods in the 80's and 50's should also work. Water also should not be too much of an issue, as long as the water line is between 1/2 and 2 inches tall. Frequent feedings really help to speed up its growth.
To propagate Drosera madagascariensis, cut off the leaves that are about to yellow and die off. The advantage to cutting off only a few older leaves is that the parent plant is left intact in case the propagation fails. Place the leaves, stem at the bottom and leaf at the top, into pots filled with either long-fibered sphagnum moss or a mixture of peat and sand. Cover the pot with a humidity dome and water the plants with a water line slightly higher than their parent plant (about 2.5-3" tall water line).
Usually it takes a few months before the new plantlets grow to a healthy size. I think the key to speeding up their growth is frequent bloodworm feedings. The more I fed my plantlets, the faster they grew. However, propagating Drosera madagascariensis is really rewarding. From this method, I was able to grow an additional 7 plants from a single plant! These 7 plants really took off and became extremely tall and spindly!
Unfortunately, after I began feeding them less, they eventually slowed their growth and died out. However, in the past few months they have come back from the roots and I'm hoping to propagate them even further!
In short, Drosera madagascariensis is a wonderfully beautiful and bizarrely-shaped sundew that is really easy to grow and really fun to propagate. As long as you have decent lighting, temperatures, and water, as well as feed them semi-regularly, they should do great for you!
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| My original Drosera madagascariensis (just to the left of Drosera Hookeri). This is a photo before I propagated. |
As with other South African sundews, it needs bright light. It also isn't too fussy about temperature - 70's are best, but I think that 60's, as well as occasional periods in the 80's and 50's should also work. Water also should not be too much of an issue, as long as the water line is between 1/2 and 2 inches tall. Frequent feedings really help to speed up its growth.
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| Unfortunately, I wasn't great a documenting the propagation of my Drosera madagascariensis. This is a photo of my propagation pot after the plants had grown up. I cut off all of the stems, divided them into smaller pieces, and planted them in ling fibered sphaugnum. |
To propagate Drosera madagascariensis, cut off the leaves that are about to yellow and die off. The advantage to cutting off only a few older leaves is that the parent plant is left intact in case the propagation fails. Place the leaves, stem at the bottom and leaf at the top, into pots filled with either long-fibered sphagnum moss or a mixture of peat and sand. Cover the pot with a humidity dome and water the plants with a water line slightly higher than their parent plant (about 2.5-3" tall water line).
Usually it takes a few months before the new plantlets grow to a healthy size. I think the key to speeding up their growth is frequent bloodworm feedings. The more I fed my plantlets, the faster they grew. However, propagating Drosera madagascariensis is really rewarding. From this method, I was able to grow an additional 7 plants from a single plant! These 7 plants really took off and became extremely tall and spindly!
Unfortunately, after I began feeding them less, they eventually slowed their growth and died out. However, in the past few months they have come back from the roots and I'm hoping to propagate them even further!
In short, Drosera madagascariensis is a wonderfully beautiful and bizarrely-shaped sundew that is really easy to grow and really fun to propagate. As long as you have decent lighting, temperatures, and water, as well as feed them semi-regularly, they should do great for you!
Media/Soil: Long fibered sphagnum, peat and sand in a 1:1 ratio
Lighting: As with other South African Sundews, it does best with bright light. I used T5-HO grow lights and now use a Happy Leaf LED light with them.
Water: As usual, use water with a t.d.s. reading of < 50. I personally use zero water because my own collection is relatively small and zero water filters are much cheaper and easier to use than reverse osmosis filters.
Temperatures: Temperatures in the 70's is probably best. I think temperatures in the 60's are fine too. Ocassional periods of 50 or 80 degrees is probably okay as well. You can give them night temperatures in the 50's and 60's
Feeding: Drosera madagascariensis does best with frequent feedings, as it really speeds up its growth. If it is not fed, it may die off but will probably come back from its roots.
Propagation: Leaf cuttings work wonderfully - you can get many, many, many new Drosera madagascariensis plants with minimal harm to the parent plant. Root cuttings also might work - I haven't tried them yet, but have noticed many roots. Drosera madagascariensis also has flowered for me, but I never tried to pollinate it, hybridize it, or grow the seed (presuming it self pollinates).
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