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Seedlings...Grow My Minions...with obligatory quarter shot

Here is an update on my first attempt at growing nep seeds from some awesome SplendianaxMixta seeds shared through the forum...Thanks Tropics :)
I think they were sown Late May and first germinated...gotta look it up to be sure.... I am still slowly getting a few more seeds germinating so there are quite a few different seedlings of all mixed sizes and ages in their pots.

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The Best Looking Pot of them All (with obligatory quarter inserted...My First Quarter Shot, A milestone! :) )

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Everybody squeal at this adorable baby pitcher...with baby fuzz...or devil horns :)


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Looks great! I guess you have high hopes for the big one? ;)
 
Nice hopefully i can get my seeds to germinate(n. albomarginata), keep us updated
 
I just got a bunch of nep seeds to germinate, and am also looking forward to my first 'quarter picture.' Great job, they're really looking nice!
 
I finally got my first ever nep seed to germinate just now - after exactly 74 days. What's more it is on of the supposedly short shelf life lowlands - Viking x Rafflesiana x Viking x Bicalcarata. And it suffered cold spells below 15 degrees celcius at night. So don't give in all you Nepenthes people!
 
nice!
 
You did well! No matter what I do with Nep germination, it fails. So how'd ya do it?
 
I just pop mine of moist sphagnum, keep them moist, and try but fail to keep them warm. What did you do allegedhuman?
 
Nice job! Can't wait for my albo seeds to start popping up.
 
  • #10
Looking back I think I planted the seeds either late may/early june and they germinated sometime in mid-july.

I tried planting some seeds in several different conditions suggested by the stickied threads on growing Neps from seed in this forum. I tried some in just pure long sphagnum moss, some in peat/sand mix, and some in peat/sand/LFS. Then I had duplicate sets of each of the soil types and one set I put in the dark for 10 days before placing at the same windowsill as the others and the other set were on a well-lit windowsill immediately after sowing. I also tried to sterilize the peat in the oven to sterilize it, but didn't do anything to the sand or sphagnum moss in the mixes. All pots were placed in clear plastic sandwich bags and tied shut after planting and watering, with only occasionally opened to check and see about germination and water...although they didn't need water hardly at all since they were in the bag and stayed nice and moist.

I got no seedlings from the pure LFS pots...I don't think I had moisture consistently right with them or maybe the moss wasn't really great since it was the dried bag stuff from home-depot and not nice Live-LFS...
The peat/sand was o.k but the peat/sand/LFS mix was by far the best and is the soil mix for the pot in the above picture.

Now about the different light conditions I can't really say one was by significantly better than the other. I believe the pot in light immediately was better and is the one pictured above but I am kinda irritated because the tag labeling the different light conditions fell off from the bag. Basically for me the best conditions were seeds planted on peat/sand/fine chopped sphagnum moss and *pretty sure but not 100% confident* in light immediately after sowing, although the second pot of the same soil mix of peat/sand/sphagnum moss also germinated pretty well, with the peat/sand mixtures close behind. Mostly it seems like the soil was more of a factor than light for me, with the best combination being planted in peat/sand/LFS with light right away (I think...stupid tags running away...grumble)

The pots all were just at windowsills inside until mid august, and since then they are now under artificial lights and are growing rather quickly...at least a lot faster than I expected based on what I had read on growing neps from seeds online.

They are still in their little bags too, although I may try picking out one or two seedlings to put in their own mini pots and to acclimate them to non-baggied conditions to see how they fare and to help determine when to de-bag the rest of them, but I'm in no huge rush.
 
  • #11
I am mega-impressed by your experimentation and use of several combinations! I would have thought that light, heart, and moisture to be the most dominant factors, relative to media choice. But I am 0 for 5 in this department, so....

I love it when diametrically opposed advice is posed, like when complete darkness is one successful approach... and so is bright light.

LOL! Did I mention that I cashier at H.D. on the weekends?
 
  • #12
Technically, light shouldn't really matter, because untila seed begins to open it doesn't normally actually need light. Heat, oxygen and water are what's averagely needed for seeds to grow. However once the seeds opened the more light it gets the faster it should grow. It would be interesting if seeds could actually sense light though - I wonder if there's a scientific way to find out?
 
  • #13
The oxygen thing confuses me. Most of the time people put seeds in something that restricts oxygen, so the humidity remains high. From what I have been reading, it's temperature and media moisture that initiate the germination process and then light becomes important.
 
  • #14
That's what I thought - but all the books seem to say seeds need oxygen, not carbon dioxide to germinate, then they need carbon dioxide once they're growing. Don't ask me, ask the scientists who write articles saying what seeds need that say they need oxygen! :)
 
  • #15
I start my seeds on pure cocopeat in little plastic tubs of various size. The white/clear one in the upper part of this pic is an example - it has the same N. Splendiana x Mixta seed (and N. Splendiana x Judith Finn). I mist them daily and keep them damp, but don't cover them unless I'm going out of town or something. They grow in highland conditions about six to eight inches from regular fluorescent tubes:

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Then once they get to about a centimeter across or bigger I transplant them into a mix of half perlite, half milled sphagnum:
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Then then grow into larger plants like this batch of N. boschiana x ??:
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Then they get transplanted into individual pots like these, still with the perlite/milled sphagnum mix:
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Then they get their first real pots, where I wash the old media off completely, and wrap the roots loosely in a little lfs, and put that into my regular cedar mulch-based nep mix. Sometimes I add a touch of live sphagnum:
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Capslock
 
  • #16
In the words of Joey Lawrence, "Whoaaaaaa!" That's not terribly complicated and yet is comprehensive at the same time. What about temperature range, though? I'm thinking that I have had appropriate conditions but non-viable seeds.
 
  • #17
Good info Max, thanks for the pictorial too. My newfound interest in Neps. has been fed once again.

Allegedhuman, those seedlings look pretty healthy. Keep up the good work.
 
  • #18
your seed/lings look amazing max! great pictorial!
 
  • #19
More update on my seedlings. Pots 1 and 2 pics same ones posted earlier, only a little less than 2 month later... Man the little guys sure kicked it into overdrive gonna have to start breaking some of them up and giving them their own pots soon...

Awesome Pot 1
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Pot1
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Pot1
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Pot2
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Pot2
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Then the other pots have much smaller plants like these guys...fickle little things to have such a difference in size from same seeds, planted same time, even if some were on diff media or in light right away. Speaking of…since before temperature was mentioned as an important factor for seeds I would imagine the pots in the sun right away would be warmer thanks to mini-greenhouse effect in the bags…but still only the 3-way mix soil in light took off to result in the plants in pot 1 and 2…?
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  • #20
Looking great! Especially Awesome Pot 1. Lol.
 
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