Help with Darlingtonia seeds

[kath]

Hi! I'm really excited because I recently purchased a packet of Darlingtonia seeds - but I have NO idea what to do from there! I'm nervous and scared too...

I've sort of ordered the seeds, so I have this week before they arrive. I plan to begin germinating straight away with a few seeds, depending on how many there are. I'm planning on 'rationing' the seeds, in case some don't survive, and I'm going to refrigerate the rest so they'll keep.

Other than that I'm lost, so I beseech you...please if you have any info to help me I'll appreciate it forever! The seeds only cost me 12.50$ + 1.00$ postage, NZ dollars, so I'm pretty happy, and not to fussed if it doesn't all work out-but I really want it to! This might be my ONLY chance to get a Darlingtonia, they're very expensive here in NZ, and these seeds are a rare deal!

So, hee's a few, well a lot of starting questions!

1. I know I have to stratfiy the seeds, but for how long is best?

2. Under what conditions should I stratify?

3. What temp should the fridge ideally be at, what temp is best, what the minimum/maximum temp?

4. Do they need to be on media, or paper, or just in a bag?

5. Is a jar best or a bag. Should the bag/jar be see-through or inclosed?

6.Will the refrigerator light be a trouble - do they need light whilst stratfiying?

7. How do I prepare the seeds for stratifying?

8. What can go wrong and what should I do if it does?

9. Is fungicide necesary? What fungicide? How much? What NZ one can I use?

10. Do they need to have water?

11. Will the air in the bag going stale be a problem?

12. How many seeds is best to try at a time?

13. What do I do when the stratifying times over?

14. How do I care for the unborn seedlings so they'll germinate?

15. What's the likelihood of them germinating for me?

16. How do I water the seedlings, do I need a terrarium for constant heat, humidity?

17. What temps are best for the seedlings/seeds?

18. How long should I wait before starting to give up hope if they don't germinate?

19. How much water do the seedlings need, how much light, how do I get the right humdity?

20. How fast will they grow if they germinate?

21. Once they germinate, then what? (Bsically all of the above questions, but for when they're actually seedlings-do they need different care, if so what? When should I acclimistise them etc.)

22. How do you grow your plant?


Thank you so much if you answer! Sorry about all the questions-I really wanna get this right! :sorry:

[ICPS-bob]

I think this link will answer most of your questions
www.carnivorousplants.org/seedbank/species/Darlingtonia.htm

[kath]

This is my plan of action so far...

Equipment:

• 1 small, clean, unglazed ceramic pot
• 1 sterilised, sealable, zip-lock bag
• 3-4 large pinches of damp sphagnum
• 1 clear cup/container to fit over pot
• Refrigerator with temps from 1-10 degrees
• Warm, sunny, bright windowsill

Method:

• Finely chop the damp sphagnum
• Take 3 or 4 large pinches of sphagnum and spread out over bottom of zip-lock bag.
• Measure the pot, and figure out how many seedlings could be placed at distances of 5mm apart
• Place however many seeds this is in the zip-lock bag on the damp sphagnum
• Seal the zip-lock and place in fridge for exactly four weeks.
• Remove and unseal bag.
• Fill pot with chopped sphagnum
• Place seeds 5mm apart on the top of sphagnum. Do not bury.
•

What should I do with the seeds I don't plant in the mean-time? Refrigerate them dryly or what?

[Not a Number]

Your plan of action is very sound.

I've stratified Darlingtonia seeds on damp paper towels, chopped live and dried Sphagnum in plastic bags and cups. Given the small numbers I was dealing with there was no significant difference between any of the batches.

If you use live Sphagnum you may want to tease the seeds out before sowing them. The one pot I have that I used live Sphagnum is constantly overgrown and must be trimmed periodically. I found two seedlings that had gone unnoticed completely buried in Sphagnum. They are at least 50% smaller than the other seedlings that were receiving more light.

Dry store the extra seeds in the refrigerator. Paper envelopes inside a waterproof container or bag of some sort work best. If you have any dessicant agent (e.g. silica gel pack) include that in the container also.

[kath]

Cool. Last question- when the seeds germinate (provided they do) it will be winter in NZ, so I plan to take them round to my Nana's house...
She has the fire going 24/7 (She actually does have it going for 24 hours a day...) so there is a constant temperature of 22-27 degrees, usually not above that and never below it. Not too sure about humidity, but I have both a Nepenthes Ventrata and Nepenthes Alata surviving there at the moment, and I revived a dying Venus Fly Trap there last winter. It was nearly all black when I put it there-two weeks later it's got 6 or so leaves... and then it tried to flower...

I assume this wil be fine for the seedlings? Not sure about light/humidity, but I figure if a VFT can survive on the windowsill all winter, and thrive, then the light and humidity can't be too bad...

I know about the cold root thing, but I've found that loose, wet sphagnum tends to be really cool even when the sun is shining directly on it so long as it's not too humid and there's good air circulation. I remember digging my finger into the sphagnum moss of my two Sarr's once on a 30+ degree celcius day and finding they were about as cool as water from the tap usually is... probably around if not below 20 degrees...

Is this set-up going to be ok?

[fischermans]

Hello
I sow fresh seeds on (28.8.2005) without stratification.This is absolute not necessary.Substrate was pure peat.Permanent Water up to the top of the peat.90 % germination around the 11.9.2005
Doing less is often more

A few days ago i took a picture of the seedlings from 2006:

Regards Alexander

[Not a Number]

I couldn't say how the seedlings will respond to constant temperatures. Darlingtonia like highland conditions, e.g. considerable temperature drop at night. Unless the windows are well insulated you'll probably get a local temperature drops against the windows.

The last batch of seeds I germinated I had on a seed heat mat. They didn't like it at all. The seeds initally sprouted but never even shed their seed coats before expiring.

As for germination times I've been getting between 11 to 16 days after 4 weeks damp stratification in the refrigerator. Sown in covered cups or pots in plastic bags, room temps between usually around 22C during the day and 17C at night, fluorescent lighting 16 hours a day.

Cool roots should not be a problem for you if you are able to grow Drosera arcturi without problems. Use larger pots. Soil mixtures of 30% perlite - 70% peat, 50/50 peat/perlite, 50/50 long fibre sphagnum/perlite, pure live Sphagnum moss in ascending order of recommendation seem to work well. Top water in the morning and evenings. Chilled water may help during the summer.

[kath]

I actually grow my Drosera Arcturi in shade, with very little light, but lot's of warmth and it's producing leaves over the so called maximum of 5 centimetres. It's latest leaf is 5.2cm and still not finished unfurling yet....
It's growing in little light because I'm trying for dormancy. Unfortunately none of my plants want to follow their natural cycle...

I expect the temp would kind of drop at night, on the windowsill, perhaps 3 or 4 degrees. And of course nana doesn't stay up all night making sure the fire going. It is always going, but towards the early hours of the morning of course it dies down a bit. So it could possibly fall a little then.
I could move them to the toilet or somewhere where they might get a 5-10 degree drop most of the night, but would being moved every night disturb them? I could get them moved back to the kitchen again before the sun came up, because my Nana's up at 6:00am every morning, and at 6:00am with the fire seriously needing restoking the temperature between the kitchen and toilet won't be too different for them...5 degrees at most, so I don't think the change would hurt them?

Is temperature drop at night really important? My Nepenthes don't really get it, and they're growing alright... And aparently you grow them like Sarracenia and Sarracenia don't need it...
Is it only needed for when they're seedlings? I expect that they'll get a little bit less finicky as they get older except for the cool roots thing, which I understand gets worse!

I plan to tackle the cool roots thing by planting them in the largest pot I can fit on the windowsill and having it loosely packed with damp sphagnum, because I've found that even on a 35 degrees celcius day that other than the top inch of sphagnum
the whole pot remains cool underneath...
And I can get my nana to move them too. I'll get her to remove them whenever my ceph, which is on the same window, closes it's traps, which happens above 25 degrees celcius.

My other question was, would it be better to cover the seeds with a plastic container? This would raise humidity and heat, but drastically reduce air-circulation. I wasn't planning on doing it, but some people who've raised Darlingtonia Seeds have done it... what do you think?

Is it alright that I'm not going to use fungicide? (Mainly because I don't know if you can get safe for CP's fungicide in NZ)
What should I do if the seeds start to grow mould?

Also, I'm not too sure about the lighting, as I've said, but I assume if a VFT can thrive there in the same lighting as these are going to get they'll be fine?

They'll get two hours of orange over head lighting from the lightbulb in the ceiling in the morning.

Then they'll get whatever sunlight comes through the window in the next 10 hours plus the overhead orange light from the ceiling as well.

After that they'll get 4 hours of overhead orange ceiling light again.

That's 16 hours of light, but it won't be particularly bright light. I suppose they'll just take longer to germinate then?

I got an email back from the person I bought them from, I'll be getting 50-60 seeds that were harvested a few weeks ago and have since been refrigerated dryly. So they're fairly fresh...

[kath]

Seeds have been in the fridge for 3 weeks. I saw a very vague sign of a spidery mould, so I removed the seeds, and put them back in the fridge and then ran boiling water through the seedless soil, cooled the soil down, and replaced the seeds. I removed all I could see, but there was barely any, I did it more as a precautionary thing, really, since I've got no fungicide.

I put a second lot of seeds into the fridge too.

The second lot has 12 seeds. So I have 46 seeds in the fridge altogether.

[Not a Number]

Early August I harvested some seeds from the one flower my Darlingtonia californica produced. I hand pollinated the flower with pollen supplied to me from a fellow CP grower in the state of New York. Since the flowers on our plants blossomed around the same time we did a pollen exchange. Unfortunately an unexpected cold snap destroyed the flower on his plant.

On August 28, 2008 I sowed 20 seeds, unstratified, onto damp chopped long fibered sphagnum moss in a small cup with clear plastic lid. This was placed under fluorescent lights. At the same time I took an additional 20 seeds and mixed them in a small pinch of damp live Sphagnum moss. This was sealed in a plastic bag and placed in the refrigerator (average temperature 36F).

31 days later (September 28, 2008) these seeds were removed from the live sphagnum moss and sown onto damp chopped long fiber sphagnum moss and sealed in a cup with a clear plastic lid and placed under lights next to the cup containing unstratified seeds.

Today, 8 days later (October 6, 2008) ten seeds of the stratified group have germinated. None of the unstratified seeds have germinated as of yet (38 days since sown).