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D. graomogolensis Leaf Cutting Success!

Just finished up finals Friday, so I finally found a bit of time to post this...

After waiting a year for my D. graomogolensis to size up, I’m finally able to report success with leaf cuttings. This has been done before by several others before, but I'm the only one so far who has had nothing better to do than to document the entire process:blush:, so I hope you enjoy the pictures I’ve taken over the course of the last 3 months:

This is (backside of) the leaf that I will be documenting:
2/21/10
2-21-10-Graomogolensis_leaf_backside_hairy_large.JPG

It was one of the newest leaves on the plant when I cut it off

This leaf cutting trial also ended up testing how much heat the leaf cuttings can handle.
In the place I lived, there were no controls for the heat, so combined with the heat from the fixture I used (with really crappy bulbs) the temps were around 85-90 F most of the time. Once the lights shut off, the room temp was still around 75-80 degrees F. Somehow, the leaves didn’t decay at all…
After about a month and a half, I finally saw the first growth!
4/2/10
4-2-10_thumb.JPG

http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/graomogolensis/leaf_cuttings/4-2-10.JPG

4/16/10
Drosera_graomogolensis_leaf_cutting_thumb.JPG

http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/...tings/Drosera_graomogolensis_leaf_cutting.JPG

At this point, I finally found some free time to pot them up in waterlogged NZ long-fibered sphagnum.
I put the cuttings under a fixture with better (cooler) bulbs and this is what they looked like after 1 week:
4/23/10
4-23-10-Drosera_graomogolensis_leaf_cutting_planted_post.JPG

http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/...osera_graomogolensis_leaf_cutting_planted.JPG

5/7/10
Grao_leaf_cutting_5-7-10_post.JPG

very large file: http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/graomogolensis/leaf_cuttings/Grao_leaf_cutting_5-7-10_hi-res.JPG

View of the other side:
Graomogolensis_leaf_cutting_backside-5-7-10_thumb.JPG

http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/...lensis_leaf_cutting_backside-5-7-10_large.JPG


The best part about this process was that the mother plant was able to recover in only 2 months. This picture was taken 4/24/10, and you can’t even tell that I took 5 leaf cuttings!
large_D_Graomogolensis_4-24-10_thumb.JPG

http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/graomogolensis/large_D_Graomogolensis_4-24-10.JPG

Just to show you how fast of a grower D. graomogolensis is, the picture above was taken one year and one month after this picture (for reference, the plant in the picture below is about 2 times the size of the leaf cutting plantlets):
Grao_3_days_3-22-2009.jpg

So if all goes well, I should have a few more plants to spread around in a year or 2.

As you’ve seen, the newest leaves produce a ton of plantlets (actually too many to the point they’re going to choke each other out). Also, even some of the older leaves were able to produce 4-5 plantlets per leaf, but definitely not as many as the newest ones.

Big thanks to Crystal for letting me know this was possible!!!!!! Otherwise, I doubt I would have tried this for another half-year (I am very protective over my plants lol).
 
excellent job!. u gotta spread that grao around its so beautiful
 
Outstanding CP!
congrats indeed,

Av
 
Very nice Aaron, though I have to admit I didn't expect anything less from the Sundew King! Wonder how many little guys you could get to pop up with a falconeri leaf ;)
 
Great info Aaron. Thanks for sharing! :hail:

It's posts like this that really make me wonder how the rumor that leaf cuttings don't work for D. graomo ever got started? :scratch: Heck that's far more prolific than my best D. villosa cuttings and on par (or better) than my best D. ascendens cuttings. Congratulations!
 
Awww, Babies!
We all love babies!

Congrats Aaron!
Look forward to seeing you!

Paul
:water:
 
can you guess what im going to do with a couple of leaves when i get mine? :D
 
I'll have to give this a try. Perhaps the warm temperatures are the key. I'm too lazy to uproot the plants to get root cuttings.

I'll try both the water method and live Sphagnum. I prefer the Sphagnum method. Even though you get 3x-4x the strikes with the water method the Sphagnum plants tend to grow 2x-4x faster.

Tamlin did say this species was easy to propagate so why it is so high priced is a mystery other than artificially created supply limits. Time to flood the market. I'll think I'll send cuttings to a couple TC people too.
 
  • #10
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
@NaN- I'm currently trying another batch in cooler conditions, but now that you mention it, I have also had success with D. graminifolia and several others in temperatures around 80 F (but am yet to try cuttings in cooler conditions as well).
Here is a pic of the D. graminifolia:
Graminifolia_top_leaf_thumb.JPG

higher res: http://www.growsundews.com/sundews/Graminifolia/Graminifolia_top_leaf.JPG
 
  • #11
Great job!
 
  • #12
Okay, a couple months ago I took two sets of two cuttings. The leaves weren't particularly old or new but clean of any insect carcasses. I put one set in a tube and the other set in a covered cup of live Sphagnum. The tube and cup went into my Petiolaris tank which usually is in the high 80s during the day right now. Weather has been very cool this year.

I got 8 strikes between the two water leaves and nothing (yet) from the Sphagnum set. The leaves in Sphagnum are still green with no sign of browning.

I just cut four more leaves and put them in the tube and transplanted the leaves with strikes into a cup of Sphagnum. Time will tell how many survive but this species grows rapidly.

Please no "gimme gimme" messages.
 
  • #13
The tube and cup went into my Petiolaris tank which usually is in the high 80s during the day right now.
Congratulations! I would not have thought that this species would do well with the higher temps - good to know! You've confirmed Aaron's successes.

Please no "gimme gimme" messages.
Where's the fun in that?? :-)) :poke:
 
  • #14
I guess that only leaves us the option to giveya, giveya an attaboy ! Look what you started Aaron. Now I've gotta go take some leaf cuttings....
 
  • #15
Congrats all around....
I don't know what i was doing wrong, but a few years ago I tried every method (leaf cuttings) I could think of without success.
Maybe mine were too cold??

I dunno, but congrats!!!!!
 
  • #16
Where's the fun in that?? :-)) :poke:

I have 3 or 4 on my preferred trade list that get first crack. After that :scratch:

I guess that only leaves us the option to giveya, giveya an attaboy ! Look what you started Aaron. Now I've gotta go take some leaf cuttings....

Yep, that's the plan. I'll put some up for "lottery" in the trading post if and when they become available. My mission and any one else who wants to carry on the Tamlin Dawnstar tradition is to get as many of these in cultivation as possible.
 
  • #17
Ok, I got a couple strikes on the cuttings in the covered cup of Sphagnum. As per my previous observations strikes from cuttings in Sphagnum vs water grow much more rapidly. These have outpaced the water strikes even though the water strikes had a 1-2 month start advantage.

On the downside a few of the water strikes I removed to a covered cup have browned at the tips, including the growing point. I probably hardened them off to rapidly. Learn as you go along.
 
  • #18
Oh, what a wonderful plant!
Its great to see new stuff coming into cultivation (striped veitchii). Now where's D. meristocaulis
 
  • #19
Tamlin Dawnstar heartily approves of your skills and ethics friends, and thanks you for your considerate respect. Spread them far and wide and teach others how this is done, and how this works. You just made my month!!!!

Thanks!!!
 
  • #20
Well I just took a good look at the new batch of cuttings from the beginning of the month and noticed a few strikes. This might be too easy.
 
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