Ways to collect gemmae!!!

[mark.ca]

Hello everyone!
Lately i noticed more and more growers new to pygmy drosera asking how they can collect the gemmae or how to plant them. I will try to cover some of that for you and you can acces the links for pics.
Here are 2 of my methods:
1. Locate the gemmae ...on top of the plant, round small green to brown:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0001.jpg

Take a pointed object like a plastic label or a tooth pic:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0008.jpg

Put the tip of the label in water:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0009.jpg

Touch one gemmae at a time with the wet tip and try to get them loos. Do not press on the from the top. This will activate the spring mechanism and you will loose them. Try to push them in sides or lift them...EVERYTHING IS DONE WITH CARE not to hurt the plant or gemmae. You may need a magnifying glass:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0011.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0013-1.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0014.jpg

The gemmae will stick to the water on the label:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0016.jpg

Prepare your soil mix...wich can be a peaty mix or a sandy mix depending on your secie. You can put a 1/2" of sand on top to inhibit moss growth...or leave it just pure peat (the perlite on top will encourage the algae growth):
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0017.jpg

Place the gemmae on top of soil surface...do not cover them! It is best if you place the gemmae with the plantlet up but it is NOT necessary because eather way you place them they will still find their way:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0019.jpg

You can place the pot in a plastic ziplock bag or something to keep the humidity high and give them strong indirect light or (my way) use fluorescent lights for the first month. Temps should be between 60-75F for best results. It also helps if you keep the water level in the tray high...not mandatory.


2. If you have to collect large quantities for orders like me than you might want to use a vacuum type of device like mine:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0024.jpg

It is made form a aquarium vacuum that you can find at your Walmart store. The blue end is the one where you inhale air:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0025.jpg

It has a collector tank:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0026.jpg

...and a small hose to collect the gemmae:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0027.jpg

Inside the tank you will need to put a filter so you won't inhale the gemmae:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0028.jpg

Seal any hole with silicon (to be airtight) and make sure one end is detachable so you can get the gemmae out!


Any comments are welcome. I can't wait to hear your methods!!!

 

[mcantrell]

Hello everyone!
Lately i noticed more and more growers new to pygmy drosera asking how they can collect the gemmae or how to plant them. I will try to cover some of that for you and you can acces the links for pics.
Here are 2 of my methods:
1. Locate the gemmae ...on top of the plant, round small green to brown:
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/mark-ca/Pygmy drosera/PICT0001.jpg

Neat tricks! The Walmart aquarium vacuum... thing... is brilliant!

 

[kamiljablo]

Thanks! This is a big help!!!!!!!!!

 

[dustin]

wow, never thought about that aquarium vacuum thing, that is a great idea, i lost all my pygmys last year so im think im going to start over. all i did to collect was pinch the top with tweezers, and i guess let that spring mechanism go to use. and i let them fly into the pot around the mother plant. then separate them once they grew into small plants. thanks for sharing, and nice pygmys...1 question what is the bottom white piece on that vacuum? is it just a cap to something?

 

[mark.ca]

Yes, it's a milk cap or something i found around the house ...seald with silicon

 

[Not a Number]

Me, I just take the pot out of the water tray, let it dry out for at least 4 hours. Take a sheet of butcher paper. Place smaller sheet of typing/printer paper in the middle, creased in the middle and unfolded. Hold the pot upside down a few inches over the paper and pick at the gemmae with some needle forceps or other pointed object. You can even trigger them this way if you want, they don't scatter very far using this method.

The gemmae just fall out or are launched into the small sheet of paper. Pick up the paper so the gemmae fall into the bottom of the "V" made from the crease earlier and pour/tap them out into what ever else you want to put them in.

The vacuum thingy is called an aspirator, normally used by entomologists to collect small insects. The common slang for an insect aspirator is a "pooter". I'm a little leery of sucking sporotrichosis spores into my lungs myself, but you can buy bulbs for them.

Gemmae gallery

 

[jimscott]

I let the pot drain for a couple minutes and then turn it perpendicular or an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white paper and use and awl to prod the gemmae. I hold the paper at the back of a pot and spray the gemmae into their new pot. I use mostly sand as the soil media. I also cover them for a couple days, which is when I see sprouting. Plants are under fluorescent lights at room temp. These are lousy pictures but they're all that I have: