Nepenthes seed germination

[Exo]

Ok....so far my germination rates for nepethes seed have been all over the place and I'm trying to narrow down and perfect my technique. I have noticed that many of my falures may be beyond my control. My most recent batch is having mold issues, but other batches never had that issue, and the only other time I've seen seeds mold so readily is when they are damaged in transit, and this is all too common. Also, old seed is another issue....germination for seed over 4 months old is rare and sporadic, and resulting seedlings often die. But I want to make sure I cover all the bases, therefore, I have some questions I'd like to ask those of you who have successfully germinated nepenthes seeds before....

First of all....what media do you use?

second.....what temps are you germinating them at? (specify species too.)

thirdly.....how much ventillation and how much humidity?

and fourthly.....how much light, and what kind, sunlight or artificial?




Thanks.

[Nepenthes101]

First of all....what media do you use?

second.....what temps are you germinating them at? (specify species too.)

thirdly.....how much ventillation and how much humidity?

and fourthly.....how much light, and what kind, sunlight or artificial?


On your first question, I use a 50:50 peat and silica sand mix for germinating nep seeds on. Makes it easier when transplanting them.

On the temps, I have them in household room temps, so like in the 70's or so.

On the Ventilation, I have all my seed pots covered with plastic bags for humidity. I mist them every other day.

On the lighting, I have my pots of seeds placed on south facing window sills receiving bright indirect natural sunlight. I seem to have pretty great results using this method so far.

[Taliesin-DS]

media: atm equal parts peat/perlite/live lfs but im going to use less peat, more live lfs, the mix im using now tends to get less airy over time.

temps: everything around 80 by day and 60-65 at night.

Ventilation/humidity: enough ventilation to blow the seeds away if they were dry, humidity around 80-100 a few hours after i watered/misted(30% of total), 60-80 the rest of the time (70% of total)

Lighting: 2x 55watt pl lights, 4950 lumen each(4000k and 6500k), the seeds are about 50cm/20inch below the lights and some are a bit shaded by other neps.

About 40-50% of the seed batches ive sown have had some germination (some as less as 1 seedling)
Every single seed ive tried has been as least 3 weeks old.

[robthered]

First of all....what media do you use?

- 3-4 inches of Pure LFS, chopped very fine in a shallow seed tray. I've also tried LFS unchopped, but i didnt get very good results.

second.....what temps are you germinating them at? (specify species too.)

- Day temps are around 30-35 and night temps are around 18 or so. I've tried to germinate lowlanders and highlanders in these conditions. I've only tried to germinate 1 highland species, which was a cross between a lady pauline and talengensis. Nothing sprouted so far and I've had them under lights since December, but i suspect the seeds might have been damaged or are too old. As for the lowland seeds I've have some good success and some bad. So far I've had a batch of gracilis sitting under lights since November or so, and only have 2 sprouts so far (they only came up recently in the last 3 weeks or so). I must mention though that the gracilis was in pure LFS that I did NOT chop up. I've had some great germination rate with the last batch that I planted up. I put it in pure LFS but chopped it up really fine this time, and placed it in a shallow seeding tray like I mentioned previously. So far I'd say the germination rate is about 80% or so for both species I've put in there (one is ablo red penang, and the other is a veitchii x ? [which I assume is lowland]). So far there are about 50 seedlings I'd say between both. I'm getting some lowii seeds soon so we'll see how they fair with these temps. Humidity is at least 80% during the day and 95%+ @ night.

thirdly.....how much ventilation and how much humidity?

- I have all my seedlings placed in a sealed aquarium. The aquarium is filled with about 4-5 inches of RO water, and has an aquarium heater and air stone in it for both fresh humid air and heat for the evenings when the room gets quite cold. So far there is no ventilation except for the fresh moist air coming from the air stone. I'm thinking about putting a small CPU fan in there but I don't want the media to dry out when I'm not at home. So far all seeds look great and are producing their 2nd and 3rd true leaves with pitchers.

and fourthly.....how much light, and what kind, sunlight or artificial?

I have all my seeds under 4 T5 HO 54 watt 6400K Fluorescent lights. They're on an ikea shelf that wrapped completely (it's sealed during the day) with black and white for light reflection and to keep the heat in. 16 hour light cycle.

Here's some pics of the setup for my seeds (FYI the pics are a few months old I think from Dec. It looks slightly different now):

[mksmith]

Hey Exo... You asked me to post. So I will add some info.

My experience is from growing highland plants from seed.

1) I think most mixes will work and everyone will have their own. I use perlite and dried sphagnum for the bulk of the mix. Then i dice up the best live sphagnum I can find in my pots. I usually looks for red and small head sphagnum and I will chop this up and add a fluffy layer on top of the perlite and sphagnum. I think mold is a big problem that is stated a lot. With the live sphagnum you can prevent mold from occurring. Of course if you are not careful the seeds could get smother in the long run when the chopped moss eventually begins new growth. Another good mix a grower told me is using a slightly coarser material below a finer surface level of an inch or so. The lower part contains peat moss chunks, sphagnum, perlite and sterilized/chopped Polytrichum moss. Most of the media is perlite and sphagnum. The upper part contains all but the Polytrichum, much finer particles, with a thin coating of finely chopped (dried) sphagnum to keep the seed moist.

2) I dont worry to much about temps. It seems some people use warm temps to germinate and that sounds like a great idea. I only have one grow area to work with so I am using highland temps. Though I will say recent batch of seed have been in the lowest portion of my area where all the cool air tends to accumulate. So I would just go species specific.

3) Air movement seems to be important. I use a lot of air movement all around. During the day fan blowing up and across the area and at night an air conditioned blowing up and across. So there is never a time during a 24 hr cycle where air is stagnant.

4) I use t5 fluorescent lighting and have used HPS lights in the past with good success. I germinated under low light but that is a loose term so I actually checked the reading with a light meter. My current batch of seeds just germinated under about 100-200 foot candles. I am growing all other Nepenthes at about 600-800 fc.

Hope this helps or brings on some new ideas. There are some great guides out there. We are all familiar with this article: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn...pSeedlings.htm. Francois mey also has some good info on his blog site too (http://carnivorousockhom.blogspot.com/).

Here is a picture of a recent germination. Nepenthes villosa 53 days to germinate. Several have germinated thus far and there are about 3 in this pot, though only one may actually be visible in this pic:

[Exo]

WOW...thanks for all the info so far...incredibly helpful!, keep it coming peeps!

[Taliesin-DS]

Want me to list all the species i tried and results ?

[Exo]

Want me to list all the species i tried and results ?

Sure..I'd be very interested.

[Taliesin-DS]

Here's a list of all the nep seeds i tried.
Everything that has been succesfull and most that hasnt took about 3-4 weeks to get here from the moment the seeds were harvested.



in current setup:

N. Sp.? (seedgrown){Mt.Bungsu West Sumatra,950m asl.} 20 germination, most if not all alive now, took 1ish months to germinate

Reindwartiana Red {Mt.Sago, Bukit Barisan Mountains area-West Sumatra} 16 germinated, 5 alive, took 1ish months to germinate

Naga {Mt.Talang, West Sumatra} 8 germinated, 6 alive , took 2ish months to germinate

Gracilis, 3 germinated, 1 alive, took 2-3 months to germinate

Ampullaria {West Kalimantan} 120 germinated, at least 60 1-2inch now, took 3 weeks to germinate.

Inermis {Mt.Talang, West Sumatra} sowed 2 pods, 2 germinated from first pod, 8 from second pod, 9 total still alive, took 3-4 months to germinate

Bongso {Mt.Marapi West Sumatra} 26 germinated, 6 still alive and around 1inch now, germination spread evenly from 1 to 7 months.

Vent x Macro x xDyeriana no germination

Vent x Macro x Veitchii H/L x Veitchii L/L no germination

Maxima Dark x Spectabilis 'North Sumatra' no germination

Thorelii x xTM x Spatulata x Maxima no germination

Aristolochioides {Mt. Tujuh, West Sumatra} tried twice, no germination

Naga x Talangensis {Mt.Talang, West Sumatra} no germination yet

xPyriformis {Mt.Talang, West Sumatra} 2 germinated so far, took 2.5 months.

N.Glabrata x Maxima {North area of Lindu,Central Sulawesi} 20ish germinated, all still alive, took 5 weeks to germinate

N.Sanguinea Giant {Mt.Ulu Kali} 1 germinated so far, took 6 weeks.

N.Macfarlanei {Mt.Ulu Kali} no germination yet

N.Aristolochioides x ?? {West Sumatra} no germination yet

N.Talangensis x Inermis(x Pyriformis) {Mt.Talang West Sumatra} tried twice, no germination

Veitchii {border area in West Kalimantan} 1 germinated so far, took 6 weeks.

rafflesiana x (Vk x raff) no germination yet

Mirabilis no germination yet

Mirabilis var. Globosa no germination yet

Ampullaria red spotted no germination yet





Earlier setup (propagator with heating mat, pure spagnum, low light, room temps)

Adrianii 3 seedlings, none made real leaves and died
Lowii no germination
Rafflesiana no germination
Ampullaria no germination

[Exo]

Thanks talie....good info to know.