After only marginal success with Heliamphora germination, I enlisted the help of the great Jedi Master BUTCHIE. Beginning with flowering to germination, with a few losses along the way, I have now mastered the art of Heliamphora pollination. I hereby request Jedi Knight status!!
Here are the first signs of germination from a seed batch of Heliamphora folliculata X self at 10 days. This was a test run to observe seed viability. The first of many species and hybrids seeds to come
Heliamphora folliculata flower pollinated on 8-15-2014
Gestation of seeds
Harvested on 10-29-14
The seeds were binned into the good, the bad, or the ugly, as this pod saw some unfortunate events during its lifetime
Sowed on 10-31-14 on milled long fiber sphagnum moss with a few pinches of APS and perlite. A word of caution, if one intends to make milled LFS by means of a food processor, try to pick out the less stringy LFS in the bunch. Last year, one got done in by the sphag. A blendtec works superbly for milling LFS if available.
Germination on 11-10-14
A useful tip I learned along the way: Do not cut the petals away if your plants are grown under high light levels. Excessive light burns the developing flower and needless to say, no successful pollination will occur. Surgical removal of petals for anatomical inspection of plant mechanics is a BIG NO NO, if the goal is to set seed.
Here are the first signs of germination from a seed batch of Heliamphora folliculata X self at 10 days. This was a test run to observe seed viability. The first of many species and hybrids seeds to come
Heliamphora folliculata flower pollinated on 8-15-2014
Gestation of seeds
Harvested on 10-29-14
The seeds were binned into the good, the bad, or the ugly, as this pod saw some unfortunate events during its lifetime
Sowed on 10-31-14 on milled long fiber sphagnum moss with a few pinches of APS and perlite. A word of caution, if one intends to make milled LFS by means of a food processor, try to pick out the less stringy LFS in the bunch. Last year, one got done in by the sphag. A blendtec works superbly for milling LFS if available.
Germination on 11-10-14
A useful tip I learned along the way: Do not cut the petals away if your plants are grown under high light levels. Excessive light burns the developing flower and needless to say, no successful pollination will occur. Surgical removal of petals for anatomical inspection of plant mechanics is a BIG NO NO, if the goal is to set seed.