Auriculata Gigantea Seeds

[fischerCP]

I just received some Auriculata and Gigantea seeds from Cooks. This is my first time try to grow sundew seeds. Please help me with some little tricks that you may have.
Thanks
Jeff


http://www.waterlilyweather.com/

 

[PiranhaPlant]

If this is your first time growing sundew seeds, I wouldn't recommend those species. You can try I suppose. I know gigantea needs to be scarfication and I think auriculata needs to have a summer strafication or sowed in winter. I'm not really sure, but if you do a forum search, you are bound to find something.

 

[Rubra]

The seeds you selected are a little tricky in that they biennials, (form rosettes the first year and bloom the second), but you should be able to grow them nonetheless. D. gigantea does benefit from scarification, best achieved by lightly sanding the seeds.

Both species are best planted in late summer. That is the way it naturally happens in Australia; they germinate in higher temperatures and then begin to form tubers over winter and flower the next year.

I'm no tuberous sundew expert, but I'm thinking you might be able to grow them outside in San Diego. If that works, it would be ideal; the plants respond well to having natural daylight. If not, you'd want to put them on a heat mat until they germinate and grow them under flourescent lights or in a south-facing windowsill.

A good soil mix would be equal parts peat, coarse sand (preferably quartz sand), and perlite.

As I said I'm no tuberous drosera expert, so don't trust anything I say. You'd be best off reading the link above.

Peter

 

[Seandew]

Trying to germinate them with heat is not going to work. They don't germinate at the end of summer in the warmth, the sprout when the days and nights are cool-cold.

D. gigantea won't flower in the second year. You will be lucky if you flower it in it 4th or 5th. It is a slow growing species from seed and takes many years to mature.

D. auriculata will germiante esily without any help during the colder months (as will gigantea if the seed is fresh). Coming up to your spring and with temps warming up is not a good time to sow and I would think that any seedlings that do germinate will struggle in the heat.

 

[fischerCP]

I am just a little confused. I was going to plant the seeds in late august and early September. I read that heat to germinate and then cool days and nights. So should I plant them in November or December?
Thanks for all the help
Jeff
San Diego

 

[Rubra]

Sorry, Jeff, for confusing you. Better go with what Sean says.

Sean, thanks for clearing things up.

Peter

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Tuberous sundews naturally grow during the cool wet Winter months. Most people will plant the seeds in the Fall after the Summer heat passes. Some people will plant them in the beginning of the Summer but keep them hot and dry to simulate the hot dry season in Australia.

I would plant them in Sept/Oct. They may take a while to germinate and you don't want them popping up right before they are supposed to go dormant again. Keep them moist and keep them cool.. and keep your fingers crossed. Tuberous sundews are can be real buggers to germinate.

If they don't germinate don't give up. Let the pots dry out in the Spring of 2007 and keep them in a sunny dry spot until the Fall of 2007 and then resume keeping them wet.

Tony

 

[RL7836]

Quote[/b] ]Tuberous sundews are can be real buggers to germinate.

Yeah - check out Pyro's recent post. Amazing!

Weird

 

[fischerCP]

Thanks again,
Sep/Oct it is. I will keep you updated.
Jeff