I'm planning on trying to grow a few Sundews from seeds pretty soon here, and was hoping you guys could give me some advise. My initial thought was to pick up a large number of relatively small plastic pots and place one seed in the middle of each, then leave them on a windowsill for a few weeks and see what happens. Even if only 25% actually germinate, I can always reuse the other 75% of the pots for my next round...and I should be able to find pots cheap enough that it won't matter anyway.
However, reading these forums I've found that common practice seems to be quite the opposite. Prevailing advice seems to be to 'sprinkle' the seeds over a larger pot. This seems like it would have many disadvantages; so are there any advantages that I'm missing? I guess what I was wandering about this method is:
1. Won't you have to repot extremely early in the plant's life before the roots can intertwine with other plants?
2. If so, won't that put much stress on an already weak new seedling?
3. In any case, don't the plants need to compete for soil, water, and nutrients, stunting their growth?
4. Wouldn't method one, as described above, avoid the early repotting stage, allowing the plant to grow quicker in a more static environment?
5. What advantages would method two have over method one? Is there an extremely low percentage of seeds that germinate?
Then I had a few more questions about growing conditions. Unfortunately, I won't really be able to setup a terrarium or artificial lighting, so I was planning on using a SouthWest facing windowsill (the only one tall enough that the cat won't get to it). This will provide Pennsylvania sunlight from around 8:00 am - 10 am and again from around 4:00 pm until sunset over the next few weeks. It will be in a room (the kitchen) with approximately 300 watts of incandescent recessed lights and another 60 watts of standard (I'm guessing around 5000K) fluorescent tubes used for general lighting. These lights are one around 5 hours/day on weekdays and 8+ on weekends.
6. Will this be sufficient light for healthy plants?
7. Would it be recommended to buy a 'daylight' fluorescent tube for the kitchen light fixture, even though it's some 6+ feet from the plants?
8. If I would decide to try only a few at a time, how long will seeds stay 'good' for? In other words, at what point will they no longer be able to grow?
The plants I'm looking at starting with are D Capensis and D Filiformis, and I would like to eventually add D Intermedia into the mix. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read.
However, reading these forums I've found that common practice seems to be quite the opposite. Prevailing advice seems to be to 'sprinkle' the seeds over a larger pot. This seems like it would have many disadvantages; so are there any advantages that I'm missing? I guess what I was wandering about this method is:
1. Won't you have to repot extremely early in the plant's life before the roots can intertwine with other plants?
2. If so, won't that put much stress on an already weak new seedling?
3. In any case, don't the plants need to compete for soil, water, and nutrients, stunting their growth?
4. Wouldn't method one, as described above, avoid the early repotting stage, allowing the plant to grow quicker in a more static environment?
5. What advantages would method two have over method one? Is there an extremely low percentage of seeds that germinate?
Then I had a few more questions about growing conditions. Unfortunately, I won't really be able to setup a terrarium or artificial lighting, so I was planning on using a SouthWest facing windowsill (the only one tall enough that the cat won't get to it). This will provide Pennsylvania sunlight from around 8:00 am - 10 am and again from around 4:00 pm until sunset over the next few weeks. It will be in a room (the kitchen) with approximately 300 watts of incandescent recessed lights and another 60 watts of standard (I'm guessing around 5000K) fluorescent tubes used for general lighting. These lights are one around 5 hours/day on weekdays and 8+ on weekends.
6. Will this be sufficient light for healthy plants?
7. Would it be recommended to buy a 'daylight' fluorescent tube for the kitchen light fixture, even though it's some 6+ feet from the plants?
8. If I would decide to try only a few at a time, how long will seeds stay 'good' for? In other words, at what point will they no longer be able to grow?
The plants I'm looking at starting with are D Capensis and D Filiformis, and I would like to eventually add D Intermedia into the mix. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read.
