What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Propagation - anyone tried seeds in pure water?

Cindy

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
The seeds I sown are always prone to damping off. I would have to apply fungicide and end up drowning some seedlings.

Will seeds germinate in pure water like the leaves?
 
Hi Cindy,

Although I don't have any experience of this myself, I have friends who successfully germinate many species of Pinguicula in water. I don't see any reason why the same couldn't work for Drosera species. I might even try it myself.

Regards,

Sean.
 
It should work, but you have to be very alert to be able to remove them as soon as germination is noted and plant them.
 
Cindy,
I used that method last year for sprouting some capensis seeds. I had exellant germination, but capensis will sprout about anywhere. The most time consuming part was picking out the sprouts to place them on some peat.
 
BCK, a few questions:

do you use distilled water in a cup or in a shallow dish?
do you use any fungicide? And
when do you know they can be pulled out?

I'm quite patient so I won't mind picking the sprouts out one by one.
rolleyes.gif
 
I used a small empty peanut butter jar that I put an inch (2.5cm) or so of water in.  I kept the lid on it to minimize evaporation.  I didn't use fungicide.  My primary concern was algae growing in the water making it hard to see seedling growth.  Fortunately, I needn't have worried.  I kept the jar in my window where it recieved bright indirect light or light (heavily) filtered past the leaves of my houseplants.  After the leaves had sprouted and the seedlings started to tangle each other I poured them into a shallow dish to seperate them when .  I would suggest doing it before this point (tangling each other) as it was a royal pain seperating them without damaging them and I often left two or three stuck together just to be safe.  They were still pretty small.  I used the ends of toothpicks to pick them out, seperate them, and place them in sphagnum peat.

I pretty much did it all by guessing/intuition.  So feel free to make changes.
biggrin.gif


Hope this helps
smile.gif
.

alien.gif
 
I make all my Drosera cuttings in pure water, but never tried with seeds. Let us know how you succeed with it!
 
I've placed 20+ seeds in a plastic container with distilled water yesterday. It's near my terrarium, at about 80F.

Will update as soon as I see a seed sprout.
rolleyes.gif
 
Back
Top