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Nepenthes seed

nepenthes gracilis

Nepenthes Specialist
Many of you folks may have been lucky enough to recieve some of the Nepenthes ventricosa (typical x red) seed from Hamish, via Trent and Michelle Meeks in the US. I have been generous to put together "Nepenthes in 9 pictures" to help the other people out in sowing their Nepenthes seed.

Step one:
Get your seed and LABEL it.
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Step two:
Get a large shallow flat that isdrained. I used a flat with an undrained flat underneath to keep the moss in the mesh flat.
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Step three:
Get some sphagnum moss (no cheapie stuff, use the good stuff) and crunch it all up with your hands or a blender/scissors/etc. And watch the dust, avoid breathing it in.
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Step four:
Wet your moss and spread it throughout the flat, don't compact it with your hand, just make sure it is spread around. Compacting a seedling mix, esp. for a Nepenthes is a big no-no.
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Step five:
Open your seed packet so it is easily accessable.
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Step six:
Using your fingers (DRY) gently dispurse the seed around the moss flat.
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Step seven:
Avoid these types of "clumps".
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Step eight:
Give them babies some water! Mist mist and mist! Doing this also ensures good seed-moss contact.
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Step nine:
Stick your label there and try to use bottom heat, I used my greenhouse heater, no sense in wasting that heat after it shuts off!
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Tada!
 
Way to go Dustin! Beautifully illustrated.
 
beautiful! unfortunately i didnt se the seed offering soon enough, I love your pictures though very helpfull, if there is any seed left pleae contact me
 
Thanks Trent, I figured you would enjoy it
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Kirk, contact Trent to see if any seed is leftover, Hamish sent him a heap I hear, but its going like hotcakes!
 
I get it from Lowes in a package called "Orchid Moss" its Chilean moss, but it is very high quality, but not as decay resistant as NZ LFS.
 
Hi Dustin
Thanx that,s a good little guide there
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Bye for now julian.
What is the normal time scale for germination?i know that there is many factors to this eg species,how fresh ect but just a general rule.
Cheers julian
 
It takes a while to germinate Julian, I honestly haven't really measured how long it took (well I am this time) but I'd say around 3-4 months at least. Most of the time I'm chanting "sprout,sprout,sprout,sprout,sprout,sprout!".
Another factor is if the seed is well recieved (taken from the seed pods properly) and obviosly fresh.
 
I had Nepenthes seed germinating after 2 weeks and I had some species germinating after lots of months. Seems really to depend on species (or altitude/growing habitat) and freshness.

Cheers,
Jan
 
  • #10
I wish I have that kind luck you have experienced, on this batch Jan! Only 12 more days for a period of 2 weeks.
smile.gif
 
  • #11
All the seed that I've grown from this female parent has taken a bit longer than other species to germinate, around the 2-3 month mark.

Hamish
 
  • #12
My N.ventricosa "red" x "green" from Steve germinated in just under 1 month,now they have formed nice little rossettes around 1\6 in in diameter They grow a new pitcher about once evry 2-3 weeks.
 
  • #13
The seed I sowed in mid-February has just started to germinate, so it's just under 2 months for germination. Everyone who got seed from me in Trent's first mail-out should start to see some action pretty soon.

Hamish
 
  • #14
Nothing yet Hamish, but glad to hear this shouldn't be too long of a wait!
 
  • #15
The second batch of seed I planted that would have been sown at the same time as the first batch from Trent has germinated, so you should be seeing something now. Germination rate seems to be pretty high.
 
  • #16
I've been keeping a close eye on the seeds Hamish, nothing yet as far as I can see, soon maybe and hopefully!
 
  • #17
Please repost pics of the tray with seedlings geminated. I am curious to see the spacial array between seedlings months later if they disorient themselves from months earlier when they were manually sprinkled evenly over substrate.

MM
 
  • #19
Just a note to those who are curious, none of the seeds that I sent to the US last season germinated. Apparently, US Customs irradiates mail coming into the US, at least that addressed to certain places as well as suspect mail. I guess any envelope with seeds in it would be assumed to be contraband or something dangerous, so they zap it with radiation to kill anything biological. Luckily for those in other countries, this doesn't seem to be the case so recipients in the UK, Sweden, France, Singapore and South Africa have had germination.

Now I need to find out how to send seed to the US without it getting zapped.

Hamish
 
  • #20
The seed wasn't zapped in the mail. Just if you sent it in a plain envelope, it got flattened as everything else does. If you want to prevent any smashing of any kind, they need to go into a bubble envelope or one with a filler-parchment like recycled newspaper in between.

MM

they do not use any radiation
 
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