Sowing nepenthes seeds "the truth behind it"

[agustinfranco]

All:

I have been reading a lot regarding sowing cp seeds, especially Nepenthes. Many people claim that the seeds are short lived just like cephalotus. I am about to buy seeds and I am willing to wait several months before something comes up. However, I would like to ask other members if they've had experience sowing fresh as well as old seeds and their tricks if any in order to achieve a successful germination. Thanks.

 

[Phil traper2]

I have and i got one sprout of N. Alata seeds out of 12 seeds

. The trick behind it all is for lowlanders High humidity great lighting and dont barey the seeds. Place the seeds on long fiber SpMoss and perlite. Water when the mix is dry and wait. Something should happen in about a month or longer mattrs what you are sowing.

Hope your seeds sprout. Where did you ge your seeds?

Phil

 

[agustinfranco]

Hi all:

I got the seeds from Mr. Allen Lowrie (western australia). I am planning to use gibberellic acid though. I heard it helps germination.

Agustin

 

[agustinfranco]

Hi all:

A common problem with Nepenthes seeds is that most of them are collected before they are ready to drop. One never knows if the seed is ready or not for germination. Therefore, one often ends up with immature seeds and thus yielding poor results. The use of gibberellic acid to break the dormancy of seeds may be helpful in some cases, but one has to make sure the acid goes right through the seed outer layers.

Agustin

 

[Kim]

I have had good luck getting nep seed to sprout providing the seed is fresh. It should be harvested after the pod actually breaks open and seeds are just hanging there. Remember, if the seed is from some hybrids, sometimes it is not viable no matter what and won't sprout. I usually use a planting tray or large pot...if you have lots of seed. If you only have a few seeds, use a smaller pot and put in straight peat that is good and damp. Sprinkle the seeds on top of the peat and then cover the seeds with about 1/16 inch of silica sand. Sprinkle again. Make sure the peat/sand does not dry out. Keep warm in broken light and if the seed is good, you should eventually see some wee tiny neps sprouting. Good luck.

Kim

 

[agustinfranco]

Thanks a lot Kim, very much appreciated.

Agustin

 

[GEORGE-CP]

hey,

i have gotten seeds to germinate just buy placing them on LMF and then just leaving them alone. they do take some months to germinate. dependong on what kind they are. some take a couple of months and some take up to a year from what i understand. the ones i got to germinate took 4-5 months. i also have seeds from the person you mentioned and still no signs of germination yet. the only trick i can think of is just forget about them until they show signs of germination. some i have gotten really good % of germination and some i have got poor germination. it depends on the seeds themself.

 

[JanW]

Hi,

I got fresh seed from a member of my cp society. It was N. alata collected during a holidy trip to the Philippines. I put some seeds on LFS and some on peat moss. The seeds germinated after 4 weeks with a very high success rate.

Some times ago, I tried this before with others seeds, but they were to old. I would not buy them from Lowrie, because most of his seeds seem to be rather old. But Nepenthes seeds are really short-lived.

Good growing!

Jan