Radagast's Photo Thread

[theplantman]

Your fiancee is going to hate me for what I'm about to suggest.

What if you set the shelving inside a grow tent, which is designed to be leakproof and contain humidity. Then you could have your humidifier without any of the negative issues.

The tall dome should be great for dews though. I use humidity domes for almost all my Drosera seeds/seedlings, mainly so they don't get top-watered and scattered/flooded.

 

[Radagast]

Your fiancee is going to hate me for what I'm about to suggest.

What if you set the shelving inside a grow tent, which is designed to be leakproof and contain humidity. Then you could have your humidifier without any of the negative issues.

The tall dome should be great for dews though. I use humidity domes for almost all my Drosera seeds/seedlings, mainly so they don't get top-watered and scattered/flooded.

Well I said the phrase "grow tent" and thought she nearly had a stroke. She was picturing a massive 10-person Coleman camping tent erected in the living room haha.

I'm excited to post a few pics of my very first CP order today. These pics were taken on my iPhone 5S, and were unpacked 10 minutes prior to taking the pics.

Pinguicula 'Gina' (hybrid of Pinguicula zecheri x agnata) Edit: Yes it is of hybrid origin, but is actually a registered cultivar. Cultivar names are specific, they do not represent the equivalent of a grex name for that hybrid. More than a decade ago, using an "x" to indicate plants of hybrid origin, was discontinued (made an invalid option), according to the ICNCP. Single quotes are used to denote a registered cultivar name.
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Drosera spatulata
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Drosera capensis (broad leaf) I made out here because I was shipped 2 in 1 pot.
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Drosera scorpioides Edit: This species name is, Drosera scorpioides.
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I'll be picking up the tall humidity dome and 10 x 20 trays to keep the Drosera in for now to see how it works. Also- with the D. capensis, I notice one leaf is kind of wrapped around another; is it worth it to separate the 2 of them manually? Finally does anybody have an idea what that little green stuff is growing underneath the dews? Is that live sphagnum?

 

[Tanukimo]

If you have qualms about touching the mucilage on the capensis, you could try to pull them apart by moving the petioles, so you aren't disturbing the plant as much. It shouldn't be a problem if you don't separate them though.

The green stuff in the pots is just regular moss. Sphagnum is generally larger and has a distinctive shape, and it is not likely to be growing on a peat and perlite mix.

 

[hcarlton]

Healthy looking plants. Though, looking at the shape of the lamina, I'd bet your spatulata is actually a tokaiensis. A view from above would help, but spatulata forms usually have more tapering leaf blades.

 

[Radagast]

Thanks,

As requested here is a pic of it from above.

http://flic.kr/p/naCZ8z

 

[hcarlton]

Yeah, I could bet money it's either tokaiensis or x tokaiensis. Only the flowers will tell that difference. Very, very easy to grow plant though.

 

[Radagast]

Yeah, I could bet money it's either tokaiensis or x tokaiensis. Only the flowers will tell that difference. Very, very easy to grow plant though.

I took your input and emailed the company. I asked them to clarify the species and this is the response I got. I'd like to get people's thoughts on this:

"When it comes to naming spatulata, there are two camps. There are those who attempt to classify every form of spatulata as a separate species, and there are those who classify them as variations of spatulata. We are of the latter camp. We don't differentiate between tokaiensis and spatulata because we believe that tokaiensis is a form of spatulata. (The fact that the Fraser Island form is identified as a form of spatulata and not it's own species, despite that it has a different growth habit, flower, and temperature tolerance than most forms of spatulata, is proof of how inconsistent the issue is.)

These sort of issues make good conversation for forums, but from our perspective, they all have extremely similar appearances, growth habits, and care that doesn't justify making the distinction. If anything, we simply say that we have various clones of spatulata, which we believe is an accurate description of the spatulata in our collection.

I know some folks will have a heart attack when they learn this about us. It's OK."

 

[Radagast]

Well it's been nearly 2 weeks and I've already got flower stalks on the D. tokaiensis. I've fed all of the CPs once so far with little crushed up bits of betta food in water. I also noticed from day 1 they had what I believe are fungus gnats, and pretty algae soaked soil. I treated them with diluted neem oil and I'll likely repot them after letting them settle in for a few more weeks. I want to put them in square pots.

http://flic.kr/p/no5cKR

 

[hcarlton]

Interesting company...... it's known D. x tokaiensis is a hybrid of spatulata and rotundifolia, and tokaiensis the polyploid fertile form, this is supported by artificial crossings and genetic studies.
They are extremely easy to flower, and usually the flowers will open without issue too, very deep pinks. Also, for the fungus gnats, except when dealing with seedlings they're more of an annoyance than a concern, and often do provide good food for the sticky plants. But, I'd probably be in the same camp of getting rid of them anyway.

 

[Radagast]

Just a quick update. Here is my current setup (This pic is to illustrate my setup, not necessarily focus on individual plants). I've got the plants on my grow rack using the tray method (I need to measure how far away from the light...But it is a 4 bulb T5 High Output fluorescent fixture.) I've had the plants for nearly 3 weeks now and they're still alive haha. The plants seem to be recovering from being shipped and I've snipped off a couple dead leaves here and there. All 4 plants have new growth since being in my care and the new growth is producing copious amounts of dew. As you can see the ping is in the tray but inside a separate dish to better control the water levels.

Humidity: 40%-63%
Temp: 66F-77F
Feeding: Some of the plants continue to catch fungus gnats on their own. I'm also experimenting w/ feeding a crushed-up fish food called "New Life Spectrum: Regular Formula" (I have it leftover from when I had a running fish tank, the main ingredients are Krill and Herring).
Plan: Continue to grow my collection and eventually repot everything into neat, tidy, square pots w/ well-rinsed media (These were shipped to me w/ lots of moss and algae on the surface).

I'd love to hear people's thoughts.

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[Radagast]

Hey everybody,

Just wanted to show off my latest addition from Flytrapshop.com! I'm very pleased with my purchase. This pic was taken the day after I un-boxed it, so it looks much nicer now (more dew) and has quite a nice flower stalk developing.

D. Burmannii (Or Sessilifolia, Or a hybrid of both...Currently unknown!)
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Updated pic of my setup. Currently humidity ranges between 30's-70's %. Temp fluctuates between low 60F and upper 80's. The plants continue to grow, throw up flower stalks, and the new growth is producing good amounts of dew. As you can see I also took a couple cuttings of my Nepenthes ventrata as an experiment. I'm trying to revive some new zealand sphagnum moss. The 2nd shelf only has some air plants a succulent, and some catnip. I don't cover the front with anything as I'm afraid the temp would skyrocket. It gets hot enough already. I don't have the patience, the funds, nor the will to hook up fans and humidifiers.

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[Radagast]

Hey Folks,

Just thought I'd show my 3 new additions: 1.) Dionaea muscipula 2.) Drosera hyperostigma 3.) Drosera aliciae. The Drosera did not take kindly to the shipping process, the photos of ALL the CP's were taken after being unpacked so they look to be in a bit of distress. The D. aliciae was from a different supplier than the other 2 CP's.

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As of this morning the D. aliciae has begun to produce more dew. All photos were taken on 5/29/2014.

 

[Radagast]

Today I noticed my D. burmannii seeds were ready. I snipped the stalk, prepared media, and sprinkled the seeds all over the top. The pots are now in a ziplock bag w/ a bit of water in the bottom under T5HO lights. Wish me luck!

 

[theplantman]

Schweet! I remember 10 years ago, multiplying my first couple little D. burmannii in yogurt cups on my windowsill.

I was like "man, I'll never have enough of this cute little guy." Then 2 turned into 1000, and into a million....

 

[Radagast]

I can only hope mine look like that one day.

 

[Radagast]

Here's an update to show-off my newly sprouted Drosera burmannii. I look forward to watching them get bigger and bigger. This is my first successful CP germination.

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[Radagast]

Hey Folks,

Just a quick update. First off I am hoping someone knowledgeable can identify that what I have growing is indeed Sphagnum Moss. I followed instructions found online. I bought a bag of dried up, dead LFS. I then heated some distilled water on the stove, and let it cool down until it was still fairly warm but not hot. I then took a BUNCH of the dead LFS and soaked it in the warm distilled water. I let it soak for about 30 minutes, took it out, and squeezed some of the water out and shoved it all into a ziplock bag (in fact you can see it on the left of the upper shelf on my grow rack in the pic above). I forgot about it for a long time- I nearly threw it out because it appeared to grow all sorts of green algae slime. But instead I just left it alone despite how horrid it looked. Suddenly several months later I noticed it looked different and appeared to be re-growing actual sphagnum moss. Either this IS NZ Sphagnum moss and the trick worked or I've been just growing some other type of moss out of the dead LFS.

NZ Sphagnum Moss by RadagastCP, on Flickr

Second I'm looking for some guidance in chopping up and pruning my very first carnivorous plant, my Nepenthes x ventrata. The plant has been growing beautifully and has just now put out several beautiful colored pitchers (the really colorful red ones in the back on the left). As you can see it is in quite a small white plastic pot. I tried taking pics from several angles but it has roughly 3-4 large unruly vines. In one picture I've tried lifting one of the leaves out of the way to show the mini plant (offshoot?) growing from the bottom. My current thought is that I should just seriously cut-back the vines to produce multiple cuttings, and maybe attempt to re-pot the smaller plant into its own pot? Thoughts?

Nepenthes x ventrata by RadagastCP, on Flickr

Nepenthes x ventrata by RadagastCP, on Flickr

Nepenthes x ventrata by RadagastCP, on Flickr

Thanks

 

[Radagast]

Bump....tons of views but no replies...does nobody have an idea?

 

[DrWurm]

Not sphagnum, just regular carpet moss

 

[Keith]

don't do it. That Nep is beautiful! Maybe instead look for attractive means of supporting them. Or just "let em hang out" lol. That does indeed look like early sphagnum sprouting. It should fill in nicely! Thanks for sharing!