FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I planted some 3 year old seed that have been out of the fridge for about 2 years, I figured I might as well see what happens.

Here are the results about a month in:

D. Tokaiensis about 50-60% germination rate D. Natalensis about 30-40% germination rate D. Madagascariensis about 1-2%, pic wasnt even worth it.


D. Aliace: nothing so far

Vft: nothing so far

I thought I would get nothing all around, so this was a plesant surprise!

That's awesome man

Not to discourage you but you may not get any germination from the VFTs as they don't survive very long in storage let alone out of storage.

Thanks!

I didnt think I would, Im doing this for the sake of science! I actually just cleaning up my plant shelves and found a box that had more Drosera seed, a couple different species. These are probably 4-5 yrs old and have not been in the fridge once....more experiments will follow.

There was a guy who got better VFT strikes from scarifying old seeds. It gave him better results if you want to give it a try.

If I find more I just might try that. All the VFT seed I had(that I know of) has already been sowed, I don't feel like digging through a pot with tweezers. I'm thinking for the next round of Drosera seed test i'm going to do half with water germination and half normal.

You might consider soaking them in warm water until the water cools. Nothing too hot because you don't want to cook them but maybe 120F. The warm water might soften the outer shell.

Not a bad idea, i'll try that when I get home today. Cant hurt, I've pretty much written them off already but i'm gonna keep them going for about 5 months just because.

4 of the VFT seeds have popped! I think there were 15 seeds to start off with, maybe less. So as of right now VFT's are sitting at about 25% germination rate, not bad at all for being 3 yrs old.

Still nothing on the D. Aliace, For the D. Madagascariensis Literally just 1 seedling has grown. The D. Tokaiensis and D. Natalensis have taken off, about half of each pot is covered in tiny little seedlings. Time to bust out the maxsea and pipette.

So far im a little surprised by the results,
A. By the fact I got this many to germinate in the first place
B. I would think that since the Aliace are closely related to D. Natalensis that they would have about the same germination rate, or at least something would have popped up by now since the Natalensis have done so quite profusely.