jonnyq
Supporter
So, last fall, as I was getting ready to mulch my dormant outdoor CPs for the winter, I found several VFT seedlings in amongst the LFS in the pot, which was a very pleasant surprise for me, as I thought that I had collected all of the seed...
I thought it might be fun to try my hand at growing CPs from seeds... My initial indoors trials with Sarracenia leucophylla this past winter were fairly disastrous; with no air circulation and high indoor temperatures, I did have a bunch of germination, but nothing that survived past the seed leaf stage... everything got taken by fungus.
I reasoned that nature did just fine with my VFT seeds, so I thought I'd give it a whirl with Sarracenia as well...
So, I built the cage out of wood and chicken wire to keep out the flipping squirrels and such... The chicken wire allowed normal air flow, which I hoped would reduce fungus. A sheet of plexiglass would protect the seeds from direct rainfall, and the bungee cords would hold the plexiglass in place.
On the right-hand side (peat : perlite) are Sarracenia leucophylla, rosea, minor, flava var. rugelli, psittacina and a purpurea cross (from Mike Wang). To its left (peat : sand) are Drosera indica, capensis, capensis 'red', capensis 'albino' and several pots of Dionaea... All of the above seeds were sown at the beginning of March, and the tray has been kept watered continuously since then.
The top left (chopped LFS) are Sarracenia leucophylla and rosea that I just took out of the fridge three days ago. (In hindsight, I should probably have potted ALL of the Sarracenia and possibly even the Dionaea in LFS; such is the wisdom of the experience of others, with thx to woodnative for the advice.)
Drosera indica has germinated and snagged what looks like the shed exoskeleton of a grasshopper nymph? Not sure...
Surprisingly, no capensis or variants have yet come up for me...
No Dionaea have yet germinated either...
Lots of Sarracenia leucophylla germination (for my first outdoor attempt), but then I again, that was the Sarracenia species of which I had the most seed to start with...
Sarracenia purpurea seems to be doing well...
Unfortunately, I left the cover off by accident one day in... April(?) in which it, of course, happened to rain, and a lot of seeds got dislodged... Only a handful of S. minor, rosea, flava and psittacina have germinated, as many seeds got washed down/away...
The takeaway lessons I've learned so far:
1) Before germination, do NOT EVER forget to put the rain cover back on, particularly if it's going to rain.
2) Sarracenia seeds may germinate better in LFS than on top of a peat/perlite mix. (Thx to woodnative for that advice)
3) Don't be so sure that what you think is the last frost of the season is actually the last frost of the season...
4) Even if stratification isn't required, per se, don't sow VFT and Drosera seeds too early, as the cold may affect viability(?)
Any other advice out there that would be recommended, based on my setup?
Thx for looking!
I thought it might be fun to try my hand at growing CPs from seeds... My initial indoors trials with Sarracenia leucophylla this past winter were fairly disastrous; with no air circulation and high indoor temperatures, I did have a bunch of germination, but nothing that survived past the seed leaf stage... everything got taken by fungus.
I reasoned that nature did just fine with my VFT seeds, so I thought I'd give it a whirl with Sarracenia as well...
So, I built the cage out of wood and chicken wire to keep out the flipping squirrels and such... The chicken wire allowed normal air flow, which I hoped would reduce fungus. A sheet of plexiglass would protect the seeds from direct rainfall, and the bungee cords would hold the plexiglass in place.
On the right-hand side (peat : perlite) are Sarracenia leucophylla, rosea, minor, flava var. rugelli, psittacina and a purpurea cross (from Mike Wang). To its left (peat : sand) are Drosera indica, capensis, capensis 'red', capensis 'albino' and several pots of Dionaea... All of the above seeds were sown at the beginning of March, and the tray has been kept watered continuously since then.
The top left (chopped LFS) are Sarracenia leucophylla and rosea that I just took out of the fridge three days ago. (In hindsight, I should probably have potted ALL of the Sarracenia and possibly even the Dionaea in LFS; such is the wisdom of the experience of others, with thx to woodnative for the advice.)
Drosera indica has germinated and snagged what looks like the shed exoskeleton of a grasshopper nymph? Not sure...
Surprisingly, no capensis or variants have yet come up for me...
No Dionaea have yet germinated either...
Lots of Sarracenia leucophylla germination (for my first outdoor attempt), but then I again, that was the Sarracenia species of which I had the most seed to start with...
Sarracenia purpurea seems to be doing well...
Unfortunately, I left the cover off by accident one day in... April(?) in which it, of course, happened to rain, and a lot of seeds got dislodged... Only a handful of S. minor, rosea, flava and psittacina have germinated, as many seeds got washed down/away...
The takeaway lessons I've learned so far:
1) Before germination, do NOT EVER forget to put the rain cover back on, particularly if it's going to rain.
2) Sarracenia seeds may germinate better in LFS than on top of a peat/perlite mix. (Thx to woodnative for that advice)
3) Don't be so sure that what you think is the last frost of the season is actually the last frost of the season...
4) Even if stratification isn't required, per se, don't sow VFT and Drosera seeds too early, as the cold may affect viability(?)
Any other advice out there that would be recommended, based on my setup?
Thx for looking!