FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

My first attempt at seed germination. I'm using petri dishes and distilled water under 24hr lighting.

Drosera Burmanni, Humpty Doo, NT, Australia
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5789/2244 ... 7951_o.jpg

Drosera Bumanni, Hann River, Kimberley, Western Australia
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5593/149 ... 09ae_o.jpg


I'll transfer to peat or LFSM once they germinate. Now for lots of patience!

Lighting is a Jumpstart 2ft stand.
2tube T5 HO EnviroGro
AgroBrite T5 HO 24W 6400K bulbs
Pay no attention to the tips of my trout spinning rods on the left .

Nice set up man! Have you used that jumpstart light before? I was this close to buying it on Amazon, but decided to make my own lighting. You should keep us posted on progress. Good luck man!

I have a 4 ft JumpStart light stand that I like and have had for a couple of years. Its the first time I bought the EnviroGro light fixture, but I like it so far.

Very good, I wish you the best. I got dorsera capensis in progress as well but on peat. Looking forward to seeing your success!

I have germination!! I almost gave up!

One of the four dishes sprouted overnight. It hadn't sprouted the last I looked late last night. Early this morning, there they were.
Now I need to get my seed germination station going so I have a nice humid place to transfer the new dews.

Questions.
1) Notice the fuzziness in the photo. It seems to be in all four dishes and surrounds the seeds. What kind of slime is that? Should I worry about it? If so, how do I get rid of it?
2) How long or what size should I wait to transfer the new seedlings into soil?


I have four dishes, only the dish on the left, which has Humpty Doo is germinating at the moment. The two middle dishes dissolved... At least the seeds are gone and it looks like some dissolved remains in the two dishes. I had put a couple of drops on Hydrogen Peroxide in each dish. Then a few more drops a week later. I'm assuming I put too much. The dish on the right is Hann River, the seeds are still there, but nothing happening visually yet.

I'm doing something similar but using test tubes. Are you keeping records? Days until germination? Light and temperature conditions? Germination percentages?

I also ran into filamentous algae growing in the water. I minimized this by using distilled water and sterilizing my tubes & corks in a pressure cooker before use. If it starts growing, you can change the water.

You can put hydrogen peroxide on the seeds to clean them, but I would rinse them several times to remove all traces of the peroxide after it's done its work. This is a substance used in tissue culture for cleaning seeds and meristem cuttings. I think peroxide is toxic and would kill off the seed if not rinsed away.

Just my two cents worth.

Good growing,
Mike

This post is as much record keeping that I am doing.

I didn't pressure cook the petri dishes.

The growth ionly seems to be around the seeds, so I would think it would be hard to separate the tiny seeds from the growth they are "buried" in by changing the water.

I would shake the test tubes every day to agitate the water. That would help separate the growth from the seeds. When it got too bad, I'd change the water. It didn't seem to hurt the seeds too badly so I mostly just lived with it.

Good growing,
Mike

I took this pic Aug. 23rd. I transferred the seedlings from the one dish to my covered tray. I put 5 in each pot, with nine pots in the tray. Its working out pretty well so far. They are growing in the soil. 50/50 peat/sand. The clear plastic lid doesn't quite fit flat or snug, my pots are a tad to big/tall for how I have it set up. I fit when there were only 7 pots in it. The humidity is still pretty good.

I'll get a couple pics of the seedlings soon.

Wow that is a cool set up man! got any new pics for this month man?

you are giving them 24h of light? doesnt that hurt them? i sown some seeds yesterday and was planning on giving them around 12h of light a day to copy natural day/night times.

I am finally posting some more pics.

I switched to 16hr days for lighting. I think I did that some time before the seeds germinated, but honestly, I can't remember. I know they have been on 16hr at least since they were moved from the petri dishes to the pots.
Phil