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Finally! My Drosophyllum germination success story (and updates!)

adnedarn

I'm growing CPs in the Desert of Tucson, Az
Admin
Hello everyone! I have tried to germinate Drosophyllum probably 4 times over the years and have never had any success at all. I was kindly given another batch of seeds recently to try yet again. This time I decided to trash the "lightly sand and soak" method and I moved onto cutting a tiny tiny sliver of the seed coat off of the thick side of the seed and soaking. I had intended to soak only 8 hours or so but had forgotten about them till the next morning (since I had set them on my router in hopes of it keeping the water a tad warmer than it would just sitting in a glass on my desk) so lets say they soaked for about about 16 hours. They were then sown on top of pure vermiculite in a 6" terracotta pot constantly sitting on a tray of water (I won't lie, it did dry out a couple times but the vermiculite was definitely still wet.) This pot was set on a second shelf in the heated greenhouse (55-60f night and 85-90 day) but it was in almost direct current of the cooler. So I would contest that the daytime temps were often as low as night (or close to) except when the cooler was not running.

I had used colored tooth picks to mark which seeds were treated how (just soaked, cut and soaked, not pre treated at all) but unfortunately I cannot find that sheet! I'm pretty sure red was cut and soaked, black was just soaked and plain was no special treatment... But at this point I cannot say for sure. :( I think one of the kids walked off with it to color on it.

Anyway! 3 weeks to under 1 month of sowing the seeds I came to find this

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I was super excited and so go the camera to take pictures! While taking pictures I found something else... did you see it? Top left corner by the black tooth pick?

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Ahhh two successes! and by two different germination methods even. Then next day I grabbed the extra pots I had purchased just in case I had success so I could pot them up and made up the media (2 parts perlite, 1 part silica sand, half part vermiculite, half part peat) and created the slack pot (6" inner pot and 10" outer pot I believe) and I tossed both of the seedlings in their new homes by making tiny holes in the media, and transplanting the seeds with the little "scoop" of media from the seedling pot. They looked like this 6e days after the move.

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Two days after that, I finally get in contact with the kind fella that gave me the seeds and got him up to date on what I had done. It is then that he informed me he had read that it's probably not a good idea to have them together... but they'll probably be fine. Well, I didn't want to take a risk on that (and I would prefer have one in the middle of their own pot anyway and how big could their roots be anyway?!) The next day I bought a new pot (picked up a 12" outer and a 6" inner) and made up the same media and began my careful move of both plants. One to the center of the current pot, and one to the center of the new setup. It turns out the small plant of the two still did not have much of a root system, but the larger one had a root that had to be 3/4 of an inch long already (much longer than the height of the plant).

As of yesterday, both plants are growing VERY well I think. I am (obviously) super happy to see that they're both still in growth and seem to be doing great. Hopefully I can keep it up :)

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And lastly, I'll share with you my whole Drosophyllum set up. Again, this is in my heated greenhouse but where the cooler hits so there is not anything else in the general area (since all the cold stuff is over in the unheated greenhouse and all the stuff in here wants to be warm) but this is the south side of the greenhouse so there is really good light. I have decided to keep the water level a bit higher for the sprouted plants until they get to their next set of leaves but the water level is still below where the inner pot is. the pot on the right is the seedling pot and the white cup above that is another thing I was trying... an untreated seed sitting on top of water logged perlite. It has not sprouted yet but is also not mushy nor does it have any fungal issues that I can see.

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Thanks for sharing this experience with me! Hopefully the information is a tiny bit entertaining or maybe even helps someone else (finally) be successful with these guys!

:boogie: Andrew
 
About time!
Congratulations.
 
:beer: Good Job!
 
I'd like to see that big slobbering pine in about two months when it's huge! ;)
 
Congrats on the germination! In a nutshell, what have you concluded about germination rates and method of preparation?

It sounds like my tropical setup with temps ranging from room temp to mid-80's, with 65% humidity, would work fairly well for them... right?
 
Thanks everyone.

Jim, I really have no conclusion on rates or methods until I (hopefully) find my key to which ones were what. Plus, hopefully these are not going to be the only ones to sprout :) I emailed Jeremiah a few times with some questions and he said seeds in cooler conditions (planted around fall) seemed to do the best, but there was not a real difference. Like I said above, my g/h does get up to around 85-90 but since these are low and in the path of the cooler, I've got to guess the hottest these seeds saw was probably around 70-75 probably. Relative humidity probably doesn't matter too much for germination since the seeds are sitting on soaked vermiculite, I figure the humidity rate at seed level is likely pretty high.

Andrew
 
Nice work it looks like they are doing great, once they are about 3 inches tall you should be home free. It seems to me even at that stage the brighter light you can give they the better. The trickiest thing at this stage is watering even with the double pot if they don't get enough water the small plants will dry but even worse is to over water and they might rot.

-Jeremiah-
 
According to the Drosophyllum growers in the LACPS:

If the seeds are fresh no scarification is needed. Otherwise just take a sharp knife (X-Acto, razor blade, scalpel) and nick the pointed end of the seed before soaking.

Seedlings can be transplanted but only within a day or two of sprouting (sooner the better).

The best substrate is decomposed granite grit.

Happy Growing! These are such beautiful plants.
 
  • #10
LOL! I've erred on the side of having them dry out, as well as moving them one too many times.
 
  • #11
Quick update! Just noticed 2 of the red toothpick marked seeds have sprouted :) that makes 2/4 for that particular method. Still have not found my key though... Maybe I'll try to use my loop and see if I can tell which ones have a sliver cut off of them. Then I'll know. lol Total, that takes us to 4 sprouts out of 11 in just over a month.

Andrew

Side note, there are about 60 (a guess) of these seeds left that are probably going to turn up in the trading forum. Keep your eyes peeled and start thinking of what you'd like to offer! Lets not cover that in this topic though. :p
 
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  • #12
As mentioned... I found 2 more germinations yesterday. I was able to figure out my coloring code! Red are in fact the cut and soaked, black is just soaked, and plain were just sown. So, that leaves our tally at 1/4 soaked, 1/2 just planted, 2/4 cut big end and soaked germination at about a month later.

Here are a couple up close photos showing the germination of the newly found 2 seeds (from the small end) and the cut (big) end. I should have these guys transplanted today :) Enjoy!

Andrew

droso+germ1.jpg


droso+germ+2.jpg
 
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  • #14
Andrew,

Whatcha' got growing in the zeer pot type thingies in the last pic . I was thinking of trying them for my darlingtoniae this spring so I can keep them outside a bit longer before it gets too hot. What material do you use between the pots? I have heard sand or perlite work good. The inside pot would need to be porous, what about the outside pot?

Thanks.
 
  • #15
chezilla,

"zeer pot type thingies"? You talking about the pot planted in a pot? That's what this whole topic is about LOL reread the posts :p

---------- Post added at 10:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 PM ----------

Alright, the 2 new germinations have been transplanted into the following media (different than what I used on the first two, this is what Jeremiah recommends.) 1 part of each of the following sand, perlite, and vermiculite then 1/2 part pumice, and 1/4 part peat. ...using the double pot method of course. I'm not brave enough to not I don't think. :blush:
 
  • #16
Update, yesterday I found 2 more sprouts :) That puts me at 6/13 germinated in less than 2 months. Not bad being as I've always failed before :) So that adds one soaked and sown, and one was just sown to the tally. I think I'm going to put these two in the same pot, since I have 4 going in their own pots, might as well give it a shot!

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For fun, here is my largest one, it is growing pretty quick! My other that sprouted at the same time isn't doing as well, but is definitely still growing. It may have had a little more shock from me transplanting it than this one did.

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My second set that sprouted are also doing really well, I would say they've almost caught up to my smaller one of the first set. (interesting they keep sprouting in pairs!)

Remember this is the same seed I have up for trade here: http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121033 Don't let the wishlist throw you off... If you think you have something that may interest me, send a PM! It never hurts to offer.

Enjoy,
Andrew
 
  • #17
Congrats Anrew! That bigger one is really nice looking, might have to try those sometime (When I don't live in a dorm,lol)
 
  • #18
My largest Droso as of this evening (one of the two first ones to sprout... The other is by far the smallest of all of them, apparently it didn't like the move I did back in the start... but it is still hanging on!

Andrew

approx 2 5/8"
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  • #19
Looking VERY nice! And you just reminded me I have about 20 seeds in the fridge from November I meant to start 2 months ago. I hope they are still good.
 
  • #20
I had one start, then it fizzled. :glare:

The others don't look like they'll do anything, so I gotta start the others.
 
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