Sigh. This thread <3
Trying to grow drosophyllum yet again. This time in loose rockwool, because I heard they prefer a higher pH soil and rockwool claims to hold air even when wet and etc.
If they germinate and survive, the plan is to water sparingly and a bit far from the plant and hope the rockwool doesn't get too soggy at the root ball.
So far I have tried and failed to germinate drosophyllum 5 times. The seeds just don't germinate. They catch fungus and eventually fungus gnats move in and eat them up (it looks real gross to see fungus gnat larvae come out of the seed you were waiting on for months
)
I've tried cocopeat/sphagnum (very little) + various combinations of sand/perlite/vermiculite/gravel (mostly) and always failed. Also on a lark tried cocopeat and mineral media alone and failed. Rinsed or without rinsing. Always same problem - fungus. On the seed. I have all sorts of other seeds germinate just fine mostly. Drosophyllum always gets fungus. So at this point I figured I have nothing to lose by trying rockwool. Watering it very sparingly from bottom and pressed seed in so it is nicely cocooned.
So far, no fungus, but no germination either.
If this doesn't work, next step is going to be using trichoderma to soak the seed before putting on media. If that doesn't work, I'm just going to ask someone with a good drosophyllum collection to adopt me.
Fingers crossed. This is one plant I really want to grow.