FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello all!

I'm having some trouble with my Drosera regia and hoping those experienced with this species might be able to help. It's the dreaded crown rot and has struck 3 of my 4 plants so far!

I received root cuttings from another member of this forum and was able to strike 4 baby plants which I've been growing out over the past year and they were looking hale and hearty ... until one day they just turned black and died from the crown out.

Inspecting the root system showed that the main stem was rotted with no living tissue remaining although further out the roots appeared to still be in good condition. I've taken a couple of root cuttings to try and see if they'll strike.

I grew 2 of them in 1 peat:1 perlite and 2 of them in 1 sphagnum:1 perlite ... everybody has rotted away except for one of the plants in sphagnum.

I followed the recommendation of putting ~3-4 osmocote granules in the soil media but it didn't seem to matter. I've been keeping the soil moist but not wet. I usually water once a week or so by immersing the full pot in rain water and letting it drain. No standing water.

All 4 plants were under led lights with a dli of around 20, which should be plenty of light without stressing them out.

Temps were consistently between 70-80 F but no air movement since I don't have a fan in that room.

No sign of pests as far as I can tell.

They all looked great until one day they just keeled over. I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Please help!

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that regia needs a nighttime temperature drop. Mine are outdoors, growing through frost.

I have mine growing in high humidity, bright light, and really warm during the day. It probably drops at night when the lights are off. The only time I've seen a decline is when I wasn't feeding them. Perhaps try foliar feeding instead of root feeding?

D. regia seem to be both tough and funky at the same time.

They do want to feed a lot, which is why maybe using some solution SuperThrive and/or Kelpak in their water might be beneficial every now and them, on top of having a few Osmocote pellets in their medium.
I've soil fertilized mine with a solution like the above and they do well. (Probably going to give them some bloodworms in the next few days, though.) They like bright light and some airflow, and don't need to be always super wet like D. capensis or others. I don't think they need it super humid either, but higher humidity doesn't hurt them so long as they get airflow.

That being said, sometimes they just kind of die off for some reason. They come back from roots, but a lot of people I've seen say that die and come back frequently. They can go dormant in winter, though I don't know if this is entirely necessary.

Is it actually rot, like the crown is dark browns a squishy, or is it just killing off leaves? At one point, not long after I got mine from CuriousPlant, it started dying off but now it's back and it's very happy. Why did it die off even though I was giving it everything it wants? No idea.

Thanks all for the quick responses. At least it sounds like I'm not alone in the struggle with this species.

alecStewart1 wrote:Is it actually rot, like the crown is dark browns a squishy, or is it just killing off leaves? At one point, not long after I got mine from CuriousPlant, it started dying off but now it's back and it's very happy. Why did it die off even though I was giving it everything it wants? No idea.

Yep, not sure if you can see it in my photos but the crown is completely brown and squishy. Definitely a goner. There are some dead, black leaves that were from older, normal growth that I hadn't trimmed back but even the new growth is rotting away.

Years ago, I lost one D. regia to a similar rot. It was a juvenile 1 - 2 inches tall. To this day, I don't know what killed it.

This past Fall, I left my communal pot of regia outdoors until after the first hard frost. Every crown looked totally dead and mushy. A few weeks ago, I saw new growth points popping up. I'm hoping for a good growth year and lots of flowers and seeds.