Hi All:
I am new to this forum and have come across people discussing the methods for germinating drosophyllum seeds. Some time ago, friend of mine had a lot of problem of germinating them, either they took ages to germinate or they just died of damping off disease. Since then I had developed an alternative method of rather cheap way of germinating them (no gibberellic acid requied) and I will posted for everyone to use.
Below is the copy of the method that I sent to him, hope it helps:
""
Further to our conversation with regard to sowing Drosophyllum seeds, I have personally found another method which would reduce the damping off disease from happening to the seedlings, and the material cost is only water, no smoke water or gibberelic acid required.
The methods are as follow:
Equipment required:
1. A clear small glass jar with lid
2. A forceps long enough to reach the bottom of the glass jar
3. A small knife
4. Purified water
5. Some Drosophyllum seeds
Method:
1. scarify the seed with knife from the side, a small slice to expose the endosperm, I normally slice both side
2. Lightly scarify the small tip the seed as if you are sharpening the tip of the pencil, care is a must to prevent over slicing of the seed. The success of this method depends entirely on whether you have managed to preserve as much tip as possible while you are removing the seed coats from the tip. After a few practice, you should be able to remove the seed coat without damaging the tip, if any small potion have been removed during the process it will not do much harm to the seed, as it will germinate, so long as no more than 1/3 of the tip (without the seed coat is not removed)
3. Soak the seed in purified water (only enough to cover the seed) and change the water on daily bases using a forceps to remove seeds from the glass jar.
4. Seed contamination should not occur if you change the water daily, otherwise it will start to rot if not changed daily
5. Germination process should begin after the seeds have been soaked for 3 days. This can be easily identified by looking at the tip portion of the seed without any seed coat, i.e. enlargement, then part of the white tip will turn slightly black-grey colour then elongation will start 3 days after that
6. Continue to soak the seed in water and change the water daily, until the seed have begin to form a small shoot, and a tiny green leaf is about to be produced. Total duration would be about ONE week.
7. Once the leaf production is about to occur, carefully remove the seeds from the glass jar using a forceps and transfer to its permanent pots and cover the seeds with suitable potting mix about 0.5cm deep.
8. Cover the pot with Clear wrap (those wrappings for food) securely to prevent moisture from escaping and punch a few hole on the wrap using a small sharp object to allow ventilation.
9. When seedlings appears, remove the wrap and start to look after your plants as you would normally."
I hope is would be of use to all of you, GA3 is good, but can be expensive and sometimes unreliable. However, with this method, if done correctly, the success rate is near 100%.
regards