FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Recently, one of my Pygmy sundews has produced gemmae. I wasn’t trying to get my plants to produce any but one of the plants did. So here’s my question, will the gemmae production set the plant back? And, when I harvested the gemmae I found that the gemmae that I was harvesting were both a green color and a dark red. Are the green gemmae not viable? Or are they just as good as the others? Any help would be appreciated.

I'm not sure about the setback part but yes the green is good.

It varies a little be depending on species but all of them will produce gemmae whether you want them or not! Green is good, red is bad. It will not set the plants back too much, if at all, as it is part of their nature/dormancy cycle to produce them.

I have a ton that are going to waste this year cause I haven't had much interest from others and I also don't have my shipping methods down how I want them yet.

Red is not necessarily bad. I have plenty of gemmae that are red because I keep mine under high lighting. Some under red/blue LEDs get extremely red and they sprout just fine. Green ones are just fine. Usually mine will be red on the outer part of the clump of gemmae and green in the middle. It really doesn’t matter as long as they aren’t brown. If the gemmae pop off the plant with little resistance they are ready.

Some species get set back quite a bit. Some of mine I lose every year after they produce gemmae.

Here is a picture of some D. nitidula I have under LEDs that are very red. They sprout just fine. And some with a little red on the outermost gemmae.

Thanks for the information everyone, it will definitely help.

Oh, Jeepers, I sincerely hope you get your shipping down soon, hate to see the gemmae going to waste. Winter is setting in fast here and the window to receive unfrozen gemmae is closing fast.