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Jelly-like substance around seeds

  • Thread starter ChefDean
  • Start date
Good day all.
I am attempting to grow some vft's from seed and I have a question that I cannot find an answer for. From this forum and other sources, mostly this forum, I see that there are many different opinions on the "best" way to grow vft's, so I pretty much opted for the easiest method for my first try. I have sown 6 seeds each in little plastic shot glasses obtained from the dollar store (24 for a buck, drill a few so mall holes for drainage, pack with the media, and you're off), packed them with lfs that I obtained from a pet store to assure that it is fertilizer and dye free (I thoroughly rinsed it and soaked it for 24 hours prior to sowing), and sowed 3 vft shooters for a total of 18 seeds. 2 of the shooters I put in plastic bags and sealed and placed on a window sill that gets about 6 hours of direct to indirect sunlight daily. The third is in another container allowing me to keep its feet wet with distilled water that I change out every 2 to 4 days. I know many of you will criticize many of my choices, but I'm not here to debate that. All of my seeds have a jelly-like substance completely surrounding each seed, similar to a fresh tomato seed. The ones in the bag have about half as much as the one with wet feet.
My question is, since all of the seeds have it, I'm assuming this is a normal part of vft germination, but what is it?
Chef
 
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First question is what the source of the Dionaea seeds were; there are a lot of scams out there and mucilaginous substances on each of the seeds is not normal. If the seeds are black, teardrop shaped and shiny there's a better chance but plants like dragonfruit look similar (and might produce "jelly" before germination). Or, it's a slime mold eating dead seeds.
Also, the bag getting direct sun has a good chance of turning into a steam cooker and killing your seeds and/or plants, and unless it's milled sphagnum then peat moss might be a better medium for starting and maintaining flytraps.
 
Chia and basil seeds are both relatively small and black and might look a lot like VFT seeds that produce a jelly-like substance around the seeds when wet. If they are basil or chia, you will see germination within a few days (unless they stored them in the frig, they may not be viable then). VFTs will typically take a couple of weeks, at least, if viable (usually needs cold stratification).

hcarlton is correct, there are a lot of scams out there. Be careful when ordering online.
 
Well, the vft seeds are black or very dark brown, tear-drop shaped, and shiny, and also very small, perhaps 1 mm by 1/2 mm at most. I did get these online, along with some sundew and pitcher plant seeds. The vft seeds came from one source, the pitcher and sundew both came from another. From the description of the sundew seeds on another thread, I think I got taken there, and I have not received the pitcher seeds yet. Nothing has germinated yet, it's been about a week for the traps and about 4 for the dews.
It's becoming more of a possibility every day that I may have been taken in these as well. $6 in stupid tax for all 3 packages is a small price to pay, I could have easily paid more.
I guess I'll just look here for some deals and buy from members of this site next time.
Chef
 
Dionaea do NOT require cold stratification; if there are any brown seeds, that's an indicator you've gotten something else as at no point in their development do Dionaea seeds turn brown (green to black).
 
Well, to update the progress, I have germination in one if the vft shooters, but nothing yet in the dews. My Nep seeds arrived and have been sown now for a few days and a couple look like they might have some action about to happen. However, to the important ones, the traps.
The wet feet shooter jelly has deterioration on half the seeds, but no other changes. One bagged shooter pretty much the same as the wet feet one. The other bagged shooter has the sprout. I tried to upload a pic, but it keeps failing to upload for some reason.
Way too early to tell if it is a vft or something else, but I'll keep an eye on it.
Take care,
Chef
 
If the seeds looked like fish eggs/frogspawn after watering then my money is on Basil or Chia seeds that you have... It seems to be becoming a common scam
 
That seems to be the general consensus. I've done a "Chia head" before, and these are nothing like the chia seeds I remember from that experience. If they aren't vft seeds, then I'm hoping for basil. At least then I can add them to my marinara or a roulade and still enjoy them.
Thank everyone,
Chef
 
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I want to thank you all for your help and advice. The one sprout lasted about 3 days, them died off. I'm sure I got taken, but I only paid a total of 6 bucks in stupid tax for all 3 types of seeds. I'm now communicating with Andrew and slowly getting some good stuff from him and his flytrapshop.com.
Thanks again for your help.
 
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