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Byblis germination

I planted some B. liniflora seeds at the very end of July. The pot is still bare of seedlings. Is it normal for them to take this long?

Or have I made a basic mistake somewhere? Does B. liniflora require smoke/fire to germinate?

I don't want to give up, but how long until I should throw in the towel for these little ones?
 
Don't give up on them yet! In my limited experience with them - 4 packets worth - I have had them germinate within 10 days; followed by zilch; followed by 7; followed by nada. The time I had 7, it took a few months before germination, and now 2 of them are flowering. So for my experience, they have been consistently inconsistent.
 
/Byblis liniflora/ sowing from PinguiculaMan: seed can be germinated in just a few days (3-4) if you first soak the seed in hot water and then use a weak bleach solution to remove all the dark purple pigment from the seed just prior to sowing them. Apparently the pigment in the seed testa (seed coat) proves to be a germination inhibitor, though a weak one. After the pigment is rinsed out don't forget a final rinse with plain water to remove the remaining bleach solution.
1:10; 1 part bleach to 10 parts water
-------------------
I first put the seeds in a tea cup, pour water (hot, but not too hot to touch) enough to cover the seed about 1 inch deep. Let them soak for several hours (this is the first stage of germination -- called imbibition) to initiate the germination process. Then I put a paper towel in a plastic funnel, pour the seed out onto the paper in the funnel so the liquid drains off, then I used a plastic irrigation bottle with a 1::10 bleach solution to wash the seed until no more purple pigment leached from the seed. I then returned the seed to the cup and soaked them again in water to rinse off most of the bleach. Then I sowed them on the surface of moist peat moss and placed them into a ziploc bag under fluorescent lights. They germinated in less than 24 hours.
 
Wow, thanks for the quick response guys. In future I will soak them first as suggested. Any suggestions for my current crop other than 'wait and see'? I'll not give up yet, but if heating some distilled up and giving them a good hot top-down bath will help, I'll try it...

Also, any clues for D. spatulata and D. capensis seeds would be appreciated. I hear capensis is weed-like in reproductive capacity, so I'm not too worried about them. As we're getting to the time where I need to start cutting back light for the winter, should I wait until spring to try out these seeds (keep them in the fridge all winter) or go ahead and sow them?
 
D. spatulata and D. capensis grow year round so you can sow them anytime.
If they were seed from me, there should be more then enough to sow half now and save the other half if you want to experiment.
 
I sowed so B. liniflora seeds last February. A few of them germinated after 2-3 weeks, and one is now sending up flower stalks, while one germinated a couple of weeks ago- 7 months later. Don't give up.

Cheers,
 
I tried the soaking / bleach thing.. dont think it worked:/ I soaked the seeds for about 4 hours in regular RODI water then strained through paper towel and poured 1:10 bleach water over em... when I took the seeds of the paper with my finger they kinda desintegrated.. any thoughts? I still went ahead and planted them after soaking and adding aquariums declorinator to nutralize the bleach... that was a few days ago but they really didnt resemble seeds after the soaking/ bleach they kinda fell apart.

Did I do anything wrong?

*sigh* I sure hope they germinate I was very excited about adding Byblis to my collection :p

take care,

-Jc
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Juan-Carlos @ Sep. 20 2005,3:23)]I tried the soaking / bleach thing.. dont think it worked:/ I soaked the seeds for about 4 hours in regular RODI water then strained through paper towel and poured 1:10 bleach water over em... when I took the seeds of the paper with my finger they kinda desintegrated.. any thoughts?  I still went ahead and planted them after soaking and adding aquariums declorinator to nutralize the bleach... that was a few days ago but they really didnt resemble seeds after the soaking/ bleach they kinda fell apart.

Did I do anything wrong?

*sigh* I sure hope they germinate I was very excited about adding Byblis to my collection :p

take care,

-Jc

10 parts bleach to 1 part water or 10 parts water to 1 part bleach?

EDITTED
 
10 parts water 1 part bleach:) Its been about a week nothing has poped out going by the germinating in 24hrs above... *sigh* oh well I think I killed em heh

Maybe i'll try em some other time.
smile.gif


-Jc
 
  • #10
Hi Juan Carlos,
Byblis seeds tend to easily be crushed or damaged during shipping. Even padded envelopes sometimes do not work. This could be why the seeds "fell apart".
Remember to wash the bleach off the seeds with water. Does the aquarium dechlorinator also remove the sodium ions and is not a germination inhibitor itself? Rinsing with water is probably a better idea. Otherwise, use Calcium hypochlorite as it contains Ca ions, which are less damaging to the seed than Na ions.

dewy,

It is 1 part bleach: 10 parts water.
 
  • #11
Perhaps they where brittle from shipping... I guess I'll try in the future if I get my hands on some more seeds. I think next time though I'll just soak in RODI and plant. Would burning a few pine needles and mixing the ash with water work as for smoke treating? then soak the seeds for a couple hours in that water??

-Jc
 
  • #12
should you be able to see the purple stuff coming off the seeds, I followed the bleach method, put them in a cup of water and started noticing little purple clouds of fluid surrounding the seeds, I dont think its bad, my seeds are VERY fresh, just picked off of Jeremiahs plant today
 
  • #13
I did see the purple tint, but I saw that when I first soaked the seeds for a couple hours I did not see purple with the bleach.
 
  • #14
Does anyone have a pic of a swelled seedpod?
 
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