FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey there! New grower here. I'd be bummed to know if the seeds I have are fake but I need to know anyway. The images below are the seeds I got. And upon contact with water, some of them inflated and got a white jelly-like coating. I appreciate the answers!

The jelly-like coating sounds like Chia seeds. Venus flytrap seeds are very tiny black, smooth, and shiny. They are also shaped like raindrops.

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Ahh the famous frogs spawn seeds, they are fake I'm afraid, and not even worth the effort of growing out to see what you get.

Cheers
Steve

ChefDean wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:07 pm Sorry, but they're not VFT seeds.
I fell for the same scam years ago, as did many, many others here.

There are some big red flags, haven fallen for seed scams of all kinds.

1. The word "cordyceps" in the seed. This means the seed packet is originating from China, and it is likely a mistranslation, as cordyceps is a fungus that you cannot seed. I have heard of sellers buying *legit* crop seeds and disguising them as other seeds by rebagging them in the states.
2. Blue colors. PLANTS AREN'T BLUE!. ROSES ARE NOT RAINBOWS! Watch out for this.
3. Any sort of photo manipulation, other from a basic sketch. If the seed pack shows flowers not included, any sort of photoshop/doctoring, or even drawings *not* of the plant or fruit, it's a likely scam.
4. Any listings that don't give you a minimum seed count or let you see pictures of the seeds.
5. Any seeds that look rare. I assure you, the X Alisaputrana seed I bought when I was starting out, was just N. Bongso.
6. Keyword tagging - This is where sellers try to tag on as many unrelated keywords to their listings to make them pop. I don't like this practice; I believe it's a lazy business choice, so I avoid these guys, who knows what their seed are.

How to find good seed:
1. Go to FTC. Request envelopes.
2. Join the ICPS seed bank. Although tons of mislabeled seed there.
3. Go onto r/savagegarden or terraforums or any facebook group dealing with seeds
I like to support little people, people who are just hobbyists, instead of massive nurseries, but do what you like. If you'd rather massive nurseries' seed, there are many you can find with google, but I'm not going to divulge this due to Matt's ownership of the forums, out of respect.

I see. Thank you everyone for the response! I won't fall for another scam. This is too disappointing haha.