FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I planted 2 seeds a couple months ago and have had them on "damp", not "wet" soil since sowing them. Still waiting for something to happen. Under my scope, im seeing this weird looking thing protruding from the seed. Is it some sort of fungi, or is it something else? I thought about blasting it with a dilute shot of peroxide, but wanted some opinions first as to what yall might think this is. I have zero experience with drosophyllum. If it is toast, then well i guess ill be looking for more seed lol.

Looks like a spore sac.

Yeah thats kinda what i was thinking. Just never seen them up that close, but I just sprayed it off anyhow. I doubt the seed is any good now, but my hardheaded instinct says wait longer..

I've had fungal growths like that sprout out of Nepenthes seeds which seemed to be an indication that the seed was dead. On larger seeds like this, it may just be fungus eating away at the seed coat and not harmful - I've had a Drosophyllum germinate and grow while the seed was completely covered in fuzzy mold.

nimbulan wrote:I've had fungal growths like that sprout out of Nepenthes seeds which seemed to be an indication that the seed was dead. On larger seeds like this, it may just be fungus eating away at the seed coat and not harmful - I've had a Drosophyllum germinate and grow while the seed was completely covered in fuzzy mold.

Thats good to know. About 2 weeks ago these 2 had the white fuzzy mold on them both. I shot them with peroxide, gave it a day or two and the mold was gone. Now this thing pops up a couple days ago... I guess ill keep fighting it until either a year passes by, or it germinates, whichever comes first. If something dont happen by then, ill probably just start over with fresh seeds.

It's always a good idea to be patient with CP seeds. Since you didn't scarify, you may have a long wait ahead of you.

nimbulan wrote:It's always a good idea to be patient with CP seeds. Since you didn't scarify, you may have a long wait ahead of you.

Youre definitely correct on that! I should've performed scarification on these, but i didn't... Ive had some cp seeds take 8 months to do anything at all. Only difference is that those that did eventually germinate didnt get a fungus on them. Only way to tell if these are any good is to just wait it out now.

I em ears that without scarification, they can take up to a year or more to sprout 8/

Yea thats what i read too, anywhere from 6mo to a year. Ill probably hunt for some more seeds in the meantime and do the scarification and see if they will yield faster results.

I had a scarified seed (+ 24 hour soak in water) germinate in a week and a couple more within a month. Still waiting on a few others though they may be toast. The one issue with scarification is that it does make the seeds more vulnerable to fungal attack.

nimbulan wrote:I had a scarified seed (+ 24 hour soak in water) germinate in a week and a couple more within a month. Still waiting on a few others though they may be toast. The one issue with scarification is that it does make the seeds more vulnerable to fungal attack.

I thought about getting some more seeds and doing the scarification, but then pretreating the soil with this stuff very lightly before sowing them. I get it at walmart: http://www.gardensafe.com/Products/Fung ... cide3.aspx

Works great for me when using as a preventative. Guess it wouldnt hurt me to try it anyways. It has saved me on several occurrences.

I decided to update this and keep documenting my luck, both good and bad with these.
I decided to toss the seeds that were the originals due to the weird looking moldy growth they kept getting, plus the seed was rotting on the ends. I got a good deal on some seeds on FB about 3 weeks ago and made up some fresh, sandy soil. I scarified, and did something else to the seed to see if it would work and apparently it did! The soil is very lightly damp right now but i believe that is ok so long as it doesn't completely dry out. I put it in full sun this morning on a windowsill. This seed took exactly 11 days to germinate which is insane for these, from what all I have read. I guess ill see what happens next!

I've gotten good germination with a combination of leaving them dry in my room for two years (Australian summer + no aircon = scarification process I suppose) and them soaking them overnight in a Gibberellic acid solution (which was done extremely thoroughly so I don't know if the GA3 treatment actually contributed). I was surprised since they germinated in under 2 weeks from sowing.