FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just received my first seed order from the bank - mixed sundew. Thank you ChefDean and evenwind! The blend contains seeds from eight spats, three capis, ultra x spat, a natalensis, a tropical intermedia, and Cape "Large Form".

I will be using a 1:1 peat/perlite mix with a top layer of chopped LFSM. I had initially planned on planting them separately in small domed seed starting trays like the one pictured below. The cells are 1.5” squared with a depth of 2”.


I like the idea of being able to move a single plant from a cell without disturbing the rest. Thinking about it more, though, I’m wondering if these may be too small to allow for proper growth before they are hardy enough to transplant.

Another option I have is to sow them together in one or two 6” diameter pots with a depth of 6.5” for which I also have humidity domes as pictured below.


I’m leaning towards the large pot(s) being the better option, but would prefer the trays if they would work. I’ll probably try both unless it would be highly advised against using the small trays.

Additionally, I was wondering what advice you all may have regarding temperature. Daytime ambient on the grow shelf outside of my tent is currently around 70°F and nighttime is likely just a few degrees lower, though I haven’t checked.. probably a good data point to gather tonight. Inside of the tent, the daytime temp is 73°F with nighttime dropping to around 68°F. With my veggie seedlings, I’ve always used a heating mat to encourage quicker growth. The mats purport to raise the rooting area between 10-20°F above ambient, so potentially upwards of 90°F if grown outside the tent as planned. Would that be too warm for these drosera to grow from seed? And if so, would the 68-73° conditions inside the tent if I forewent using a mat be too cool? In the domed trays or pots, it is safe to assume it’s a few degrees warmer when the lights are on from trapped heat.

Any and all feedback and insights are greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Andrew

Ok, so these are all mixed together, right? If so, I would plant them all in the larger pots. As for temperatures, mid-70's would be my guess and either side of that. 90F would probably be ok, but *is* kind of warm...it might promote algae/mold growth, too. I think I have the same type of heating mat but I run it through a Inkbird thermostat. I would opt for the 68-73F in-tent location without the heating mat. One thing you could do to lower the temperature of the heating mat is to place a piece of corrugated cardboard between the mat and the pots....you'd have to experiment around a bit with that.

Be patient...some seeds may take a month to sprout. Plants grow kind of slow, too.

I don't think pot size is going to affect them too much. Their parents probably started out in a 2" square pot and may have still been in one when they flowered and the seeds were collected. And, again, the parent temps varied between low 60s (midwinter nights) and maybe low 80s (summer days), depending on how close a particular pot was to the lights. I have people-friendly, household humidity. Even in summer it doesn't get uncomfortable. So maybe 35-70%. Be sure the surface sphagnum is chopped finely, the more numerous and larger the holes, the more seeds are likely to be lost. The pack you have is set up for beginners. Unless you really screw up, something is going to grow. Try different things - there's many more seeds waiting in the bank. Just be patient.

Thank you both for the input! That is very reassuring, evenwind.


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Andrew, take evenwind’s advice to the bank. Loads of experience!

That’s a good thought, Panman. I certainly will, Intheswamp. I made my plan for the planting media and bought one of those pull cord manual food processors for the sphagnum after reading of one of evenwind’s posts. Knowing the conditions the parents were in, I feel much more comfortable continuing on with the trays.

I've got to ask, are you planning on planting a single seed per cell?

Intheswamp wrote:I've got to ask, are you planning on planting a single seed per cell?

That’s the plan here! I generally sow a few seeds per cell and thin them down to one seedling per cell, culling the weak or lanky ones once they’ve grown a set or two of true leaves, but that’s when I have plenty of identical seed stock.

My guess is that they'll be a good number of infertile seeds. I usually drop 20 or so in a 2" pot and I'm happy with half a dozen seedlings. As they grow, they typically cull themselves. You may not yet realize just how tiny and delicate the newly hatched seedlings are.

Uh, I would plant probably several seeds per cell. I don't know how many seeds you got in the multi-pack...30?....50?....I would plant a least a half-dozen per cell, probably more. But that's just me. The seeds are tiny and the resulting seedlings are equally tiny and take a while to grow Here's a cup of d.filiformis.filiformis New Jersey that I planted...the cup is a touch under 3-1/2" in diameter. I water stratified these so I used a pipette to suck them up out of the water with and disperse them on the LFSM so they're kinda clumping in areas. But, you can see how large (small?) they are to relate them to the size of your cells. These were planted on January 10th.

And here's a 2" pot of Capillaris that was sown 12/12/22.

...and a close approximation of a 1.5"x1.5" area showing the population as it can be. Figuring in dud-seeds, as evenwind mentioned, your number of successful seedlings can be few. I consider the germination of these seeds to be *excellent*! I called myself being conservative with them. These were fresh seeds. With older seeds the germination rate can drop. Just a little more info you can play with.

I think what me and evenwind are trying to say is that 1.5"x1.5" is still a lot of acreage for sundew planting.

Good to know, appreciate the pictures! I haven’t opened the seeds yet, waiting until I have everything set tomorrow. There should be roughly 30-50 seeds in the packet though? I’ll probably just split them evenly-ish between 11 cells.