FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Can someone explain when cold stratification is necessary and any tips, pointers, or references would be appreciated.

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It all depends on what kind of plant you are trying to grow. Some require stratification and some do not. What kind of seeds do you have?

S. Purpurea and D. Capensis. I keep finding conflicting information online and not experienced enough to have consistent reliable sources.

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jlagrange9137 wrote:Can someone explain when cold stratification is necessary and any tips, pointers, or references would be appreciated.

Drosera capensis does not need stratification. Sarracenia purpurea needs 8 - 12 weeks stratification.

Usually, any CP that grows in a temperate region and needs a Winter dormancy can benefit from stratification, particularly Sarracenia and temperate Drosera species. There are a variety of ways to do this. The simplest two are to sow your seeds in a pot of moist media, put it in a sealed Ziploc bag and refrigerate this for 4 to 12 weeks. Another method is sprinkle seeds on moist paper towel, roll up and put in sealed Ziploc bag and refrigerate 4 to 12 weeks. Some growers sprinkle the seeds with fungicide when they do this.

What species are you planning to grow? Will they be grown inside, outside, or in a greenhouse? What hemisphere are you in? How old are the seeds? These are all things that will affect stratification technique, length and timing.

Good growing,
Mike

Shadowtski wrote:

jlagrange9137 wrote:Can someone explain when cold stratification is necessary and any tips, pointers, or references would be appreciated.

Drosera capensis does not need stratification. Sarracenia purpurea needs 8 - 12 weeks stratification.

Usually, any CP that grows in a temperate region and needs a Winter dormancy can benefit from stratification, particularly Sarracenia and temperate Drosera species. There are a variety of ways to do this. The simplest two are to sow your seeds in a pot of moist media, put it in a sealed Ziploc bag and refrigerate this for 4 to 12 weeks. Another method is sprinkle seeds on moist paper towel, roll up and put in sealed Ziploc bag and refrigerate 4 to 12 weeks. Some growers sprinkle the seeds with fungicide when they do this.

What species are you planning to grow? Will they be grown inside, outside, or in a greenhouse? What hemisphere are you in? How old are the seeds? These are all things that will affect stratification technique, length and timing.

Good growing,
Mike

I'll pull the Capensis out of the fridge. I hope I didn't do any damage. I have them in a ziplock bag with moist (but not saturated sphagnum) I live in the United States (zone 6b if that makes a difference to this discussion) but the plants will be grown inside with artificial lighting. I believe that the seeds were fairly fresh. They got sent to me with dates of mid October on the package.

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jlagrange9137 wrote:I'll pull the Capensis out of the fridge. I hope I didn't do any damage. I have them in a ziplock bag with moist (but not saturated sphagnum) I live in the United States (zone 6b if that makes a difference to this discussion) but the plants will be grown inside with artificial lighting. I believe that the seeds were fairly fresh. They got sent to me with dates of mid October on the package.

The capensis, you can plant now. A little chill time will not harm those seeds. If you're growing inside, you can stratify the purpurea now and plant him in 8 - 12 weeks. If you were growing outdoors, I'd suggest stratifying on March 1st and planting on May 1st. Good luck with them.

Good growing,
Mike

My recent change in seed sprouting / stratification / germinating has been to switch to the clear plastic 2oz souffle cups used in restaurants (think tartar sauce). So far, they've been successful.

I even went as far as to turn one of my lights into a horizontal mount to shine light in from the sides. Way more real estate this way, and drastically cheaper than the mini greenhouses the big box hardware stores sell.

My process is rather simple. I load the bottoms of the cups with lfs that has been washed down to 20ppm tds or less, sanitized in the oven at 350 for two hours (overkill, but I'd rather know I killed the ever loving crap out of hitchhikers than wonder what is growing), and finally food processor ground to 1/8 - 1/2 inch size. Your significant other will love the smell of roasting lfs as well. Trust me. You'll only spend two or three nights on the couch

Spray on a little RO water, plant ~20 seeds per cup, mist again to set the seed, and pop on the lid. Just be sure to only plant one species at a time, and label them well (I use a Milwaukee inkzall for writing on the lids; they make a sharpie look like a dry erase marker in terms of permanence), otherwise your N. Lowii seed becomes N. X ? seed , and you now get to spend three years trying to figure out what the hell you planted while drinking beer and watching Westworld.

For sarrencenias, etc, I just toss the cups in an unheated enclosed porch or in the back of the fridge for a month or three. They'll be fine.

Yep that's the same containers I use to germinate seeds. They work great and they are cheap. Walmart special.