FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello my name is ben,

I was just received some seeds from a friend of mine as my first pitcher plant ever! needless to say I am excited to try my hand at them. I have grown many other types of plants as well but never any carnivorous plants. in a few months I will have about 100 jewel orchids to trade but until then I now have a few nepenthese ampularia seed pods in my possession and want to start them. The goal of this post is to ask questions to help me better my understanding of nepenthese ampularia from experts and people with experience so any tidbit of information you have would greatly be appreciated from a fellow green thumb.

1. can I germinate my seeds in cotton? Are there any other mediums I can use besides spagnum and peat?

2. What is the proper PH for best germination results?

3. How long do they take to germinate?

4. Are there any suggested methods to speed up the process?

5. Can my seeds be kept under 24 hour lights?

6. How long can you keep seeds for? They are about 1 month old currently from a wild collection on my friends property. I have heard that they are highly variable in color is this true?

7. Sorry for all the newbie questions I could not find this anywhere on the internet so I am asking for your help!

1. Not recommended. You can use bark/perlite too but make sure it is well mixed according to the ratio.

2. I have never taken note of the pH level. Carnivorous plants typically live in acidic soil, so a pH of <7 would be ideal.

3. My Nepenthes Ampullaria took me a month.

4. Some people soak Drosera seeds in vitamin water before sowing, I don't know if that applies to Nepenthes or not.

5. Yes. A photoperiod of 16 hours would be ideal.

6. There isn't really a fixed expiry date for seeds. But take note that the older the seed, the less viable it would be. Eventually when the seed gets too old, it will not be able to sprout anymore.

That is true. There are many colour form of Nepenthes Ampullaria.

Edit : It should look like this when it sprouts.

TS 1989 wrote:6. There isn't really an fixed expiry date for seeds. But take note that the older the seed, the less viable it would be. Eventually when the seed gets too old, it will not be able to sprout anymore.

Nepenthes seeds tend to expire much quicker unless kept in proper conditions. I would plant these seeds ASAP if they are already a month old.