FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Just put in a request to Chef for mixed threadleaf seeds. I was looking in another thread and noticed that they might need stratification. Is that true? If so, any good advice for me?

When in doubt, stratify. It won't hurt and you will get better germination. As far as the technique goes, I have had okay success with water stratification. Natural, outdoors has been the best.

Would natural outdoors stratification be leaving the seeds in a ziploc bag with a moist paper towel outside? Or would it be keeping it in a pot with a tray of water outside and waiting

NineLine wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 11:01 pm Just put in a request to Chef for mixed threadleaf seeds. I was looking in another thread and noticed that they might need stratification. Is that true? If so, any good advice for me?

Yes, they need stratification.
1. If it's still cold in your neck of the woods, sow them and keep the moist, then put them outside to let Mother Nature do it. You'll need a least four weeks, preferably six to eight, of no more than about 40°F. Freezing is OK as long as it's not freeze/thaw/feeeze/thaw. But, while frozen, stratification stops, so that time doesn't count.
2. Put them in a small container, for Drosera I use plastic shot glasses from the dollar store, with distilled water. Seal it and put it in the fridge for four to eight weeks. Then simply pour them out onto the media and grow them. This method can be difficult to spread them out as they like to all pour out together. You can also put them in a moist paper towel in a ziploc in the fridge, but then you get the joy of trying to get dust sized seeds out of between the fibers of a wet paper towel.

Huge help, Chef! Thank you!!

I've only stratified seeds once so take my advice with a clump of salt. If you do water stratification you can use an eye-dropper or a pipette to move the seeds from stratifying container to the surface of your growing medium. That works pretty good, but not perfectly. I used the little plastic condiment containers you get in "to go" dinners at a restaurant. I labeled the condiment containers with a sharpie and put them in a small plastic food container with a little water in the bottom of it to make sure the environment was wet and humid. I actually put them in a "crisper" drawer in my refrigerator. The plastic food container probably was the size of 1 and 1/2 standard sliced bread sandwiches...it held probably eight small containers and a few ziplocks with with brown paper towels inside them where I was stratifying larger sarracenia seeds. Each time I opened the drawer the seeds got jostled around a little bit.

BUT... The next time I stratify seeds I'm pretty sure I'm going to go ahead and plant them in their germination pots, slip them in ziplocks, and find somewhere in the refrigerator to let them reside. Scattering the seeds *should* be easier and more precise with dry seeds and once the stratification time is over with I'll simply take them out, put them someplace warm and bright, and wait for the specks of green to start appearing!

In regards to planting the seeds, I'm thinking that I've been going overboard with the side of pots I use, especially for sundews. I've been using 5.5x5.75 (roughly) inch pots. Those take up a lot of territory. I'm pulling back to 3" pots or possibly 8oz styrofoam cups...more conservative use of the grow mix and more compact. If I get a really good germination rate it might get crowded, but so far I think that wouldn't be a too large of a problem to overcome.

Also, the very top layer of your germination mix... Use as fine of a layer as you can. I've used 100% peat moss in the past which has worked pretty good...but, the humic acid and tannins seem to affect things negatively for me. I prefer LFSM. At first I chopped the LFSM up finely with a pair of scissors but started wondering how many seeds were falling into the cracks and crevices never to be seen again...I just couldn't get it chopped finely enough. After hearing several folks talking about using different kitchen appliances to chop it up really fine I pulled out our ancient "blender" from a cabinet. WOW!!! It made a really, really fine medium for a seedbed. Being aboveboard here, I haven't used this finely chopped LFSM, yet, but it looks like it will work *very* nicely!!! (I carefully washed it up well and replaced it in the cabinet before my beautiful bride saw me using it...I also timed it while she was away from the house. Just sayin'... ).

Anyhow, just some newbie thoughts. Best wishes!

Wow! Great suggestions! Thank you!

New question! I'm about 3ish weeks into the fridge stratification for these two guys pictured. (Yes, I chose to go with the dust-sized molecule planting haha). Looks like it has acquired some kind of mold or something. Should I take them out and put them onto a new medium?

Somebody smarter than me will have to answer the mold(?) issue. I had a few spots similar to this (don't remember them being pink, though) in the sarrs seeds that I stratified in wet paper towels. I left them along and they didn't get any bigger, the seeds in the spots were kaput....your mileage may vary.

I thought of the reason that I didn't see pink spots. I used *brown* paper towels that I cooly lifted from the bathrooms of restaurants and a couple of medical buildings. Chef (I think it was him)...maybe Panman(?).....maybe the tooth fairy(?) told me that the brown commercial paper towels tended not to mold like the white paper towels do. When I find the brown paper towels in a bathroom somewhere I wear the electric-eye out waving my hand in front of it. Nicely fold the layers of brown paper towels, slip them in your pocket, and come out of the restroom smiling like you just got a big load...off your shoulders.

Haha hilarious. I’ll keep that in mind though! Hopefully these puppies aren’t kaput. I’m really looking forward to having more than just my 1 CP in the collection lol.

Yeah, the brown paper towel pilfering brings out the "OCD-Me" in me.

Growing from seeds can be "trying". You lose some seeds in stratification. Then you lose some to being infertile. Then you lose seedlings due to XYZ or just because they don't like you. The way I figure it if I end up with a few plants I'm happy...they'll have leaves and leaf-propagation works *much better* for me!!! It kinda stretched out the process, but I get there eventually.<grin> You may have mentioned it, but what part of the country are you in?

That was ChefDean. I don't think I've seen the pink mold, but I do get black spots on the towel. I've not had any problems with germination from them.

Thanks all! I’m in the DC area. But I don’t have any outdoor space to work with, so that’s a bit limiting.

Hey, we do what we gotta do! Sometimes being restricted in one way causes the discovery of another way! Go with what you've got!

Oh for sure. I’m not discouraged or anything! I’m looking forward to planting these little guys and seeing something take off!

I planted some d. capensis typical seeds a couple years ago, and I was so surprised by how easily they germinated. However, I was living down in Texas at the time and just put it, covered, in a pretty warm window sill. I had hundreds of little seedlings!

My growing operation here in MD is a bit different, but hopefully I can figure out the environment and right growing conditions soon

Just an FYI for those that are not aware. Mold starts out as pink before it goes to green and then black. I live in Western WA and whether it moves or not, it grows mold around here.