FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, all

i Just got my VFT seeds in today... I have ordered many seeds in the past from other sellers before, usually i get a few crushed seeds. of the seeds were crushed.

All the seeds were safe and sound, great packaging Steve, thanks guys for the fast shipping...

packet 1 45 seeds
packet 2 44 seeds
packet 3 44 seeds
packet 4 45 seeds
packet 5 44 seeds

Nice! Congrats on the seed and good luck growing

Good luck with germination!

:O
how are they packed?

kevinqwe wrote:how are they packed?

Venus Flytrap seeds have tough but thin and brittle shells, like an eggshell. Postal sorting machinery often crushes them. After trying many techniques to protect the seed, we have developed this method of packing them. After the seeds are counted out, they are packed into a small length of plastic tube that has already been heat sealed (melted and compressed) on one end. The other end is then sealed. This creates a very crush-resistant "pillow" in which the seeds travel through the crush-prone postal service machines of various countries (Vietnam and Argentina are among the most brutal). Up until recently we have used vinyl tubing. Now we are using an even stronger polyethylene tube, so care must be taken to cut the tube, to keep the seeds from spilling and scattering. The tube is placed into a small ziplock plastic bag for seed storage in the refrigerator after they are removed from the tube. Here's a photo of the packaging:

Steve_D wrote:

kevinqwe wrote:how are they packed?

Venus Flytrap seeds have tough but thin and brittle shells, like an eggshell. Postal sorting machinery often crushes them. After trying many techniques to protect the seed, we have developed this method of packing them. After the seeds are counted out, they are packed into a small length of plastic tube that has already been heat sealed (melted and compressed) on one end. The other end is then sealed. This creates a very crush-resistant "pillow" in which the seeds travel through the crush-prone postal service machines of various countries (Vietnam and Argentina are among the most brutal). Up until recently we have used vinyl tubing. Now we are using an even stronger polyethylene tube, so care must be taken to cut the tube, to keep the seeds from being knocked out and scattering. The tube is placed into a small ziplock plastic bag for seed storage in the refrigerator after they are removed from the tube. Here's a photo of the packaging:

dionaea-seeds2.jpg

If I was to complain, it would be about getting the seeds to cooperate about coming out of the tube (or at least going to one side before cutting the end). Other than that... one forgets how small VFT seeds are

tc3driver wrote:If I was to complain, it would be about getting the seeds to cooperate about coming out of the tube

I'm hopeful that the polyethylene won't be as "attractive" or sticky to the seeds as the vinyl. However, the polyethylene is very tough plastic, so I hope not too many people will cut the end off only to cause the tube to jerk and the seeds to spray out. Cutting it inside a plastic bag would help, but people probably won't think about that until after they have lost the seeds. We may need to print a warning and suggestion about this on another sticky label for the backside of the packets or something.

how do we open this anyway?

manzano167 wrote:how do we open this anyway?

You could just cut one end with a pair of scissors, and like Steve said, be careful not to let the seeds scatter out.

manzano167 wrote:how do we open this anyway?

I carefully made all the seeds go to one side, and snipped the opposite side with scissors. Dump the seeds on a white paper towel, and use my tweezers to count and plant.

thats wat i did a long time ago when i received it like that i was just asking cuz i thought you can pop it open or something

tc3driver wrote:I carefully made all the seeds go to one side, and snipped the opposite side with scissors.

Steve sent me some seeds this year (some "special" seeds that I just put into tissue culture today) and my technique for opening the sealed tube was the same.

I tapped the plastic tube until all of the seeds were at one end then I snipped off the other end with a pair of scissors and dumped the seeds onto my filter paper (used during the sterilization process). It was quite easy. The static of the plastic tube did cause the seeds to stick a bit, but some persistent tapping made them all come out.

I think I'd prefer to have to tap them out of a tube than receive seeds that have been partially crushed during shipment.

that looks so professional!! i bet no other stores thought about this!

Another way to open the tube would be to place it inside a plastic bag, then cut the end off with scissors or side-cutters. That way if the seeds do spill out, they will spill into the bag, not all over the floor where they may impossible to find. I know this seems like a booby trap, but consider it merely a challenge and be grateful the seeds are protected from the vicious postal-service machinery.

I use a BBQ skewer and lick the end so that an individual seed will stick to it. You can then place the seeds in a grid pattern on the compost.