FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have recently been researching information on how to sow Dionaea seed and quote the following from bestcarnivorousplants.com

Dionaea (Dionaea muscipula)

Seeds of D. muscipula require cold stratification and a common planting medium (peat moss: sand at 2:1). Seeds germinate at temperatures of 15-25°C and 100% relative humidity within several weeks. Germination is rather prolonged. The young seedlings are transplanted once they have at least 3 true leaves.

Germination of fresh seeds sown immediately after harvest without stratification is poor (5-20%), while seeds of the cultivar ´Akai Ryu´ stored in the refrigerator for three years germinate well (80%).

I also lifted the following quote from triffid nurseries -

Dionaea muscipula Venus Flytrap
D.muscipula seeds require cold stratification. Use the Standard Sowing Medium, having
said that I now find that my South West Giants grow best in PURE sphagnum moss peat
with no sand at all. Seeds germinate at temps of 15 - 25C and prefer high humidity.
Transplant the seedlings when the have developed 3 - 4 leaves.

I am currently under the impression that Dionaea seeds DO NOT need stratification and germination rate IS BEST when seed is sown as soon as possible after harvest. This is contradictory to the above information. Could someone with experience growing Dionaea from seed please "Mythbust" this one for me.

Thanks,
Linton

Linton, you are correct. In my experience, which is actually pretty decent with sowing seed, I get over 90% germination without doing any stratification or storage. This year I planted a lot of seed within a week of taking it out of the seed pods. And the week that it wasn't sown, it was just sitting in a plastic container on my porch. I can't comment on how well they will do WITH a stratification because I've never stratified Dionaea seed, but I can't see how germination could be much better than 90%. I also haven't stored seed for very long, but again, I can't imagine that it would be better than 90% germination after storing it for any amount of time.

Again, I think people should think about how things happen for the plant in the wild. Seed pods usually ripen in July. This is the middle of summer. The seed falls to the ground when it is actually the hottest time of the year. Last year I missed quite a few seeds out of a my seed pods and I see seedlings growing under some of the adult plants that I've inspected. This means that they germinated immediately after falling to the ground. To me, this makes sense. Why would they wait 4 or 5 months until the weather cools down to experience a "stratification" period?

However, Sarracenia seed doesn't ripen until late October or November. I assume that this is species dependent, but the one plant I had flower this year didn't have its seed ripen until October 31st. Now, at that time of year, it is already much cooler, so it makes sense that Sarracenia seed need a stratification period because it likely won't be warm enough for seed to germinate until April or so.

In any case, those last 2 paragraphs aren't sourced from anywhere. I have just been thinking about this for quite a while and I'm not sure why people have come to the conclusion that Dionaea seed need a stratification period when they obviously don't get one in the wild and numerous growers report having germination success without a stratification or storage period.

I have successfully germinated seed in my terrarium and outdoors this last year. In my terrarium, the seed germinated faster and the plants grew faster after germination. I think this is due to a few reasons:
1) Higher humidity - the humidity in my terrarium is always around 40% to 50%, whereas outside it gets down into the 20% to 30% range.
2) Constant temperatures - In my terrarium, the temps stay between 60F and 80F (15C to 26C), whereas outdoors, they fluctuate much more both hotter and colder.
3) Intense sun - I ended up purchasing some shade cloth to protect the little guys that were outside. The sun here is intense and I think they'd burn up quickly without protection. I also assume that this is why the seedlings I've noticed growing that I didn't sow are actually mostly underneath the parent plant.

Anyway, this turned out to be a very long post, but I hope it helps. The last 3 points I made above were with the intention of giving you some tips to help germinate the seed. If possible, keep the humidity higher, the temperature constant and mildly warm, and protect them from intense sun.

I always sow my seeds at the same time as harvest (straight from the plant to the pot) and never had any problems yet, always about a 90% germination

Nice work guys. I bought a packet of generic Dionaea seed some months back and followed the instructions to dampen it and place in the fridge for 4 weeks, after 2 weeks in the fridge all of the seed had gone moldy and squishy - so much for stratification!

Do Dionaea cope well with fungicide application at half strength? I have copper oxychloride fungicide in the shed which I was planning on using it should my seeds devolop mold prior to germination.

I know that CP's in general are intolerant to most minerals, has anyone had any experience with using copper oxychloride?

I had some mold form on one of my trays of seedlings. I applied a fungicide though I can't remember what kind it was. I'll have to find it and take a look and get back to you. It did lessen the germination rate though. I've read that it's best to use peat that's already been used before because that way mold usually won't grow. I've noticed that mold usually only starts on peat moss that I've just taken out of the bag.

Why does it mold?

What is stratification?

I think that there are spores in the dry peat moss just waiting for some moisture to start growing.

Stratification is the process of simulating winter conditions in order to prepare a seed for germination.