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Pyro

N=R* fs fp ne fl fi fc L
Moderator
So since I am sending out a bunch of tubers a few of you have requested that I maybe make it known what I do so that people can have some info rather than have to hit the ground running. I guess you all like to hear me ramble on

Most of what I am sending out is good beginner material because gigantea and menziesii are very forgiving species and can take a little abuse and slip ups. I grow all my tuberous the same way so this applies to any of the tubers that I am sending out. However, as always, I will not swear that this will work for you. This is only what works for me and I will only guarantee it as working for me. Your conditions/situation may differ.

I use a media composed of 2/2/1/1 sand/APS/LFS/pine bark mulch (brand name Nature's Helper Soil COnditoiner from Home Depot) I realize few people have pine bark mulch on hand an even fewer will want to buy a whole bag for a couple pots worth of media so go ahead and substitute peat moss if you want as it works fine too.

I tend to use pots a minimum of 10cm (4") deep. There are pots out there called "tall" style or "tap-root" that fit this description tending to be 1.5-2x as high as they are deep/wide. There are also pots called "band pots" that fit this description. I like these because they give me the height I require without robbing me of the lateral space I covet. A standard style pot works fine though so do not pull your hair out if you can not find tall pots. And if you are in a real pinch go to a dollar store and buy some cheap 16oz plastic glasses and drill some holes in the bottom.

To pot up the tubers simply put a thin layer of LFS in the bottom of the pot (acts as a wick and not 100% necessary so don't sweat it if you don't have enough LFS) and then fill the pot with media. Give it a gentle tamp and then poke a hole with a pencil/finger/chopstick. Usually you hear that the hole need be 3x the widest dimension on the tuber. I find that this in not always deep enough so I usually just go about a quarter the depth of the pot. A lot of people make a big deal out of keeping the eye of the tuber up and advocate all kinds of ways to get the tuber in to a tiny hole and still accomplish this. Seriously, this does not matter! Just place the tuber carefully in the hole and then gently back fill it. These plants, like everything else on the planet, evolved under gravity and can tell up from down so if you just drop the tuber in and it ends up upside down then don't freak out. When the plant starts growing it'll send the shoot up.

One caveat I will add here. Some of the tubers I am sending out are already sprouting. For these you will need to make sure that the tuber is buried deep enough that the top of the sprout is just at or barely under the surface. Obviously this requires that the tuber be upright and this also can govern the depth of the hole.

Watering is a bit tricky. For fresh tubers just coming into growth I find it is best to hold off watering until you see growth above ground. I will occasionally put the pot in a tray and add just enough water for the pot to absorb it fully and I will do this once a week for 2-3 weeks. If I don't see growth by this time I stop and wait till there is growth, sometimes tubers skip seasons for no good reason.

For established/growing plants I use a shallow tray set up. 2-3cm of water and I let the tray dry before adding more. Easy enough. If the tuber you receive has sprouted the treat it this way.

Once the plant starts to die back you should hold off watering. I usually let the tray dry like normal then do the once a week minimal watering thing for a max of two weeks then I pull the pot and put it in a protected area out of the sun. This is important as the media has to dry slooooow or the tuber does not form correctly. After about a month I take the pot and stick it in a large ziplock. This keeps the local humidity higher than ambient so there is not desiccation of the tuber. Never ever put dormant pots in the sun or near heat sources. You do not want to bake the tuber you just want it to have minimal excess moisture. Some dark corner somewhere is good.

With the onset of fall I start checking the pots weekly. When I see growth I put the pot immediately back on the tray system.

Temps for these guys can be sort of flexible. Night temps seem to be the main trigger for these guys, they become very active once nights start to hit 5C (40F). Day temps are okay up to 30C (85F) but better if they are in the 23-25C range (75-77F). The main thing is a steep drop at night. If you can get it down at least 5 degrees that is okay but 10+ is better. Try to avoid freezing them but they can handle frosts if they are not hard.


So there it is in a nut shell.

Hope it helps.
 
Last edited:
STICKY! haha. nice instructions Pyro! now maby you could include somthing about seed germination
smile.gif

Alex
 
Seed germination for me follows the same rules as established pots. Just be willing to wait for a long time. Took my D. ramellosa 3 years to germinate and I have heard of stories of upto 5 years.
 
Very nice Pyro! Thanks. I agree... stickify this bad boy!
oh.gif
 
Figured some pics might be in order in case people wondered

My tray at the moment

PB290027.jpg


One of my gigantea pots to give an idea of pot dimentions

PB290028.jpg


PB290029.jpg


A cistiflora "red" pot, again to give an idea of dimentions (I grow cistiflora exactly like tuberous)

PB290034.jpg


PB290035.jpg


And against a standard 5cm square

PB290036.jpg


And some of my growing ones

D. orbiculata

PB290030.jpg


D. unknown tuberous "orange tuber" (I think Seandew said maybe D. tubestylus)

PB290031.jpg


D. erythrorhyza squamosa

PB290032.jpg


And another unknown

PB290033.jpg
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Pyro @ Nov. 22 2006,11:11)]Seed germination for me follows the same rules as established pots. Just be willing to wait for a long time. Took my D. ramellosa 3 years to germinate and I have heard of stories of upto 5 years.
WOW!! 3 - 5 years?!?
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I guess I probably screwed up throwing out my auriculata seeds after 1 year of waiting.....
sad6.gif


SO you use the same soil mix for germination? Do you use the same tall pots? How about watering?

gotta know...gotta know...gotta know.....

Thanks for the awesome info!
 
Hi Travis,

the other unknown species looks very much like D. menziesii ssp. thysanosepala. Need to wait for a flower to be sure.

Does the other unknown rosetted species have a raised midrib? If so it might actually be D. bulbosa ssp. bulbosa....
 
Travis, thanks for making this a sticky! Great information on cultivating the tuberous Drosera.
Now if we could only get more of them available!
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Peter
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (pingman @ Dec. 18 2006,12:12)]Now if we could only get more of them available!  
tounge.gif
I'm working on it year by year LOL
 
  • #10
Sean,

Thanks for the insights, I'll pencile them down. Not sure on the mid-rib, could be a trick of the light in that pic. I'll check the plant and let you know. Wish I had shot the flower when it had one...
 
  • #11
how do you keep them cold at night? I live in GA and this is tricky. I have a room with very poor insulation in my house that my family calls "the icebox". I doubt that it goes below 50 at night or over 65 during the day in the winter. Would this be OK?

Also, I saw your mexi-pings and N. x predator at the Southeaster flower show. They were incredible. The only CP's I have been sucessful with as of yet are mexi-pings, which grow like weeds for me. My P. gigantea is catching up to yours and it just offsetted!
cool.gif
 
  • #12
I have a sunroom that "leaks" like a sieve. I use a heater to keep it above freezing on really cold nights. But most nights it is in the 40-50 range and that should be fine for most of them. I have also grown a few outside and only brought them into the sunroom on nights ther is a frost danger so you might want to consider that too.

Thanks for the compliments on the plants I had at SFS. Hope to have some good stuff this year too. Probably not the 'Predator' though as it is not pitchering well at the moment (Grrr!! )
 
  • #13
Pyro (or whoever has an answer) I'm unable to find anything smaller than medium size pine bark mulch around here. I did find cedar and cypress mulch. Can either of those be sustituted for the pine bark mulch?
 
  • #14
I thought I had mentioned it in the original post (gonna have to go back and check) but pine bark mulch is not an absolute. It is just what I chose to use. If you can not find it or you do not want to use it then just substitute peat and you will be fine.
 
  • #15
You did Pyro, but I wanted to stick as close to your original recipe as I could. The local Alco store has the cedar and cypress mulch. Figured if either of them would work, I'd get some and use the extra around a small bush that I have in the yard for weed suppresion. And why would I want to take the easy way out and substitute peat? Where's the fun if I can't make it harder than it really is? :jester:
 
  • #16
Oh I see... You are just trying to be difficult LOL. I think I'd still sub peat if you can not find the pine bark mulch. Go with known additives rather than experimenting unless you are willing to accept the possibility of a loss. I experiment because I don;t mind killing some things. But I have always been crazy like that...
 
  • #17
Oh I see... You are just trying to be difficult LOL
I have it on good authority (my wife and daughter) that I am difficult. I don't have to try! I'll go with the peat as the seeds have already had enough experimenting done to them. I put them in a 2oz deli container with some water to germinate back in July and they got pushed behind some other plants. Out of sight - out of mind. Found them Saturday and they were still alive but stunted, so I thought I'd plant them and see what I get.
 
  • #18
sorry to bump this up but where does the dieback start ? at the bottom up ? or other way around.

my tuber (d.peltata spp. ariculata) still a seedling, is dieing back. I increased the light so i think its going into dormacy. the avrge day temps are 80-95F (lol whoops). Imma start drying out the pot so that it'll get used to soil being bone dry.

After dormancy (if i did it correctly) do they make growth without water ? then continue growing them normally ?

EDIT: nvm its not dieing back -.- its just coloration in the stem and the leaves still have dew
 
  • #19
Die back starts from the top down on the upright species.

After dormancy, the plants can start growth before being watered. I often look for growth to show before putting the pots back in the tray
 
  • #20
How do I know if the tuberous dew I got as a freebie is alive it's black?
Do I dig it out and check it It's in a pot full of bladder wart
 
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