FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello all

I got seeds from the FTS on Monday(3/10), and have since put them onto agar. I am quite particular about my experiments, so I have everything documented:

3.7g/L of Now Foods Agar
1/3 MS
.1% PPM
pH 5.51
NO sucrose

Seeds were sterilized in Distilled water with 3% PPM for 4hours, 45minutes in a microcentrifuge tube, and rotated on a centrifuge tube rotator the entire time.
Media was sterilized using a research-lab grade autoclave for 15minutes heating, 15 minutes cooling.
Everything was handled in a laminar flow hood that had UV light on for 2 hours prior to opening, as well as 30 minutes air cycling before use to establish environment. 0% contamination so far.

The seeds were in the media on 2 sterile petri dishes, that have been parafilmed shut and have been under a large 125w CFL 6500K light( not for the light, but as of now, for the heat, and it has remained a constant 85 degrees). The photoperiod now is 24 hours long, and I will drop it down later, to 16h.

When these seeds germinate properly, and I have 2 cotyledons, I will transfer them to media with sucrose, as there was no need for them to have sucrose in the first batch

As of yesterday, 60% of seeds have germinated, which has me surprised because, that is pretty damn quick compared to other threads I have been following.

Photos will be uploaded tomorrow, when I have a chance, and as soon as I find a way to photograph with my dissection microscope.

I meant to start a thread a bit earlier than this, but got completely sidetracked.

Wow! Germination in a week? That was quick, even though it was 85 degrees! I really look forward to the pictures

you know, I was surprise too! But I have a couple of theories. I know that I can see them with eyes, but just barely, but I can clearly see them on my microscope. My theory is that maybe everyone germinates this quick, but I can see it at an earlier point as I use a microscope to view. Ive never really grown seeds before, so Im not exactly sure what others see vs what I see.

All i know is that i see roots and plant tissue and I'm excited!

(BTW, 85 degrees was a conscious choice, as I wanted it to be that high in order to give spring like conditions. Since they are in TC, I dont fear them drying out, and I've read, as well as agree, with the theory that higher temperatures will kick them into spring growing mode.)

I just bought 40 seeds from another vendor as well, so I'm excited to see if those germinate this quickly too. Im also still hoping that the other 40% might germinate if I give them another week.

I forgot to say "welcome to FTC!"

heh. Thanks for the welcoming! Im quite a long time lurker, around 3 years on and off, and have always thought about trying the TC waters. Tissue culture has been part of my job the last couple of years(mammalian cells, not plants!) and the idea of being able to exponentially expand plants has me quite excited.

In Flask



Red Variety


First Traps(foggy due to condensation)



Stacked images of a seedling, with some photoshop color balancing

Very beautiful pictures of the little ones, here's a comparision with mine some time in dec 2012. Seed germination sure looked amazing dont they.

I have taken photo of only 2 seeds closed up. 1st and 2nd photo are of the same seed. 3rd photo is a different seed. And they germinate in different size probably because of different parent.







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Im slightly worried about my seedlings, not because they look bad, which they dont, because they are growing traps and all, but I have this weird feeling that the agar may be too stiff. Im using 7.5-8g/L of Now Foods Agar. I have recently bought carrageenan. Should I switch? Are they too stiff?

DontTazeMe wrote:... I have this weird feeling that the agar may be too stiff. Im using 7.5-8g/L of Now Foods Agar. I have recently bought carrageenan. Should I switch? Are they too stiff?

Stiff or not depends on how much and what kind of agar/carrageenan. I use 4 - 5 g/L grocery agar and 2 - 3 g/L gellan gum. 7.5-8 g/L agar is too much for CPs. If it's too still or too soft then reduce/increase the amount of agar/carrageenan. Carrageenan is much more clear than agar; use it if you have.

5-6 wasnt turning stiff for me, and 7-8 gives me that "thud" that everyone says is good.

I bought around 5 pounds of carrageenan so I do plan on using it, just curious if I should use it now, or wait the month I was going to wait

DontTazeMe wrote:5-6 wasnt turning stiff for me, and 7-8 gives me that "thud" that everyone says is good.

There are different kind of agar with different stiffness. Agar stiffness is also depend on pH and temperature. The range is 3 - 8 g/L. You have to test its strength for your plants and seedlings: use more for woody plants and less for CPs.

DontTazeMe wrote: ..I bought around 5 pounds of carrageenan so I do plan on using it, just curious if I should use it now, or wait the month I was going to wait

5 pounds !!! my goodness. Do you want to grow hundred thousand seedlings?

These seedlings have finally shown more than 4 traps each, and are currently getting huge. They seem to be focusing a bit on rooting, preferring to go nearly all the way to the bottom of the container. Is this normal?

These guys have a bunch of tiny little traps, and their roots are changing from reddish, to a black fuzzy root, which I am assuming is normal

Photos will come within a couple of days!

Great. Keep us updated

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Wow. I just google image searched "125 watt cfl". Now I'm on a government watch list.

There is nothing in the rule book that says that you can only use one gel. Sometimes using a mixture of two different gels gives one the results that they are looking for.