FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I am a solid 3 or 4 months into dormancy here in Idaho so I picked up some seed to get me through the winter and have been growing it under an indoor setup. I planted about 120 seeds in 4 small containers on 11/4/16.
Two pots are straight peat moss and two are chopped Sphagnum Moss all covered with a ziplock and getting about 16 hours of light per day and temps about 80 degrees. I had decided to do both mediums and see which worked better, so far both are a fail but maybe I am just a little early.
One container with peat moss has 2 seeds that germinated about a week ago, they are looking good with cotyledons fully extended and a small trap appears to be forming. I was just expecting the majority of the seeds to all germinate at the same time, 2/120 is pretty low ratio!

I got the seeds from a reputable online shop but honestly have no idea when they were harvested, they could be old stock and just need more time for germination.
If anyone has some suggestions or experience with longer germination times I would like to hear it.

Thanks for the help!

If you planted the seeds on 11/4, I would expect them to just begin germination around this time. Before I started playing with test tube water germination, I didn't even look at my seeds for the first 4 weeks. (Well, actually I did, but I tried not to.)

What species are you trying to germinate? Are any of them temperate growers needing stratification?

Did you know that this forum now has a small SeedBank? For an SASE, you can get fresh seed donated by members here. When your plants produce seeds, you can Pay It Forward and donate seed to help someone else. Click the link in my signature to see what's available.

Good growing,
Mike

Definitely don't give up yet. The species, and the freshness of the seeds will dictate a lot with germination times. I've let a couple Drosera germination attempts sit for about 6 months before I threw in the towel on them.

Best of luck!

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Thanks for the info, I won't be giving up any time soon, glad to hear they still have a shot, doesn't help I check them almost daily.

I did notice the seed bank but I have not been letting my plants flower so do not have seed to contribute but I will keep that in mind down the road.

As for the species, I just purchased them as they were listed as typical mixed variety. They were cheap from another Oregon nursery so it was just a shot in the dark. I was under the impression that VFTS don't need cold stratisfaction like sarracenia and such?

VFT don't need cold strat. With fresh seeds, cold strat hurts more than it helps. With really old and barely viable seeds though, a lot of people say in that case cold strat helps more than it hurts.

With fresh VFT seeds, if you keep them somewhat warm, you should be seeing germination in 10-14 days. High humidity or water germination can speed things up even more. What are your temperatures?

Smooter80 wrote:With fresh VFT seeds, if you keep them somewhat warm, you should be seeing germination in 10-14 days. High humidity or water germination can speed things up even more. What are your temperatures?

Well I don't have an exact temp but I threw a thermometer in a pot a week ago and it was about 80f, these are 4 inch pots with a ziploc bag on the top for added humidity. The temp is probably 65 at night when the light shuts off.

I just got a new batch of seeds that were havested in August 2016, I will sow these tonight and see if they terminate faster.

Lol. Let's hope they germinate and not terminate. Don't you love auto correct?

Those temps sound good.

Smooter80 wrote:Lol. Let's hope they germinate and not terminate. Don't you love auto correct?

Those temps sound good.

Ha ya that's quite the auto correct fail.

I sowed 30 seeds that claim to be from an august harvest, 20 in peat and 10 in RO water. Hopefully see some action soon, thanks for the suggestions!

So a little update, the original seeds I planted still have only seen about 4 germinate after about 8 weeks or so. I think these were just bad seeds, they were from a legit Oregon nursery but clearly an old harvest since that about a 4% germination rate!

I planted another set of 80 seeds on 12/5 from a new source in 3 different mediums, peat/perlite, LFSM and just RO water. Today I noticed nearly every seed in the LFSM has germinated. Hoping the rest are not far behind.

Probably just old seeds. With those conditions Yu should have gotten germination within a month or two