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Post by jonnyq on Aug 28, 2008 21:07:34 GMT
Lovely!
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 28, 2008 21:03:52 GMT
My fiancee is a NYC school teacher, elementary school... She's been watching my growing interest in my Dionaea seedlings with curiosity... She mentioned the possibility of incorporating one of my planters into a lesson later this year, but we'll see...
(Shouldn't be a problem... Two years ago, when I was a grad student in Neurobio, I brought in a whole bunch of Drosophila (fruit fly) larvae at different developmental stages to show her students... That seemed to work well too...)
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 27, 2008 19:43:06 GMT
also proud owner of my pet Chomps the VFT Best wishes to Chomps!
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 27, 2008 18:54:05 GMT
Turns out they were friends of my cousin I showed my collection a week earlier. They wanted it, they stole it. They even had a yardsale to sell some of my VFT for a buck. Cavila1, if you're still around, I'd be curious to hear what you did after you found out who it was who had stolen it... Also, any update on Mr. Paroubek's plants?
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 25, 2008 22:00:32 GMT
Four inches away from the bulb? Is that a bit close?
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 25, 2008 21:55:12 GMT
Removing the bottle definitely helped... I kept the bottles tilted open on at a 45-degree angle for the past four days and totally removed them today, so now they're in the open air... The seedlings are all still alive and healthy after a weekend of half-open air (heh), and fungus has only killed one additional seed, while five additional seeds have actually survived to sprout! (Last week, the ratio was reversed...) (Now, to keep them alive...) Thanks again for the help! I'll try not too screw up too much more...
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 21, 2008 20:30:30 GMT
You might want to try spraying a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide - just the standard 3% solution you can buy off the shelf. Spray the peat rather heavily so the solution soaks in. The hydrogen peroxide will break down to H20 and O2 within a few hours so not to worry. A top dressing of live Sphagnum or dried long fiber sphagnum (finely milled or otherwise) should help prevent recurrence of the mold/fungus. Will a dilute hydrogen peroxide spray potentially harm germinating seeds or young seedlings? I'm wondering if dabbing germinating seeds with the H2O2 might be safer for the nearby seedlings than spraying the entire planter...?
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 21, 2008 20:17:00 GMT
This may be the same fungus that may be devouring my sprouting Dionaea seeds... I've got a soda-bottle terrarium at very high humidity as well... (as a newbie, I'm afraid I can't be accurate/specific about how "high")
I've tilted the bottles/covers open for the past few days to provide some circulation in the hopes that it will help, but I'd be curious to hear more about the H. Peroxide treatment... (I'll do a posting search first.)
(Of course, I could just be WAY off...)
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 21, 2008 20:05:36 GMT
Thank you! Glad to be here!
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 19, 2008 3:06:05 GMT
First off, thank you so much for the advice! For a newcomer like me, it's so helpful to find a supportive community like this! That being said, please forgive my many questions... So, yes, indeed, this was (up until I read your posts) a soda-bottle terrarium at my job... The basic setup was: ...with a gooseneck desk lamp housing a daylight CFT bulb on a timer, on from midnight to 10:00AM each night. (I figured that the overlight fluorescent lights during working hours give it a little extra light boost...) At this point, I don't have any more seeds, so I'll probably hold off for a while and see if I can keep the three that have germinated alive long enough to reach their first dormancy in winter, 2009... But thanks for the advice on helping to sterilize my remaining peat/perlite; Just in case I'll need it, I'll sterilize my remaining medium this week... As to the existing fungus in the planters, I take it there's not much left I can do? Removing the soda-bottles should provide a less hospital environment for the fungi, which, with the sulfur, may help? As to the fungus spores in the medium, is it likely that they will pose a danger to the seedlings? (i.e. Am I fighting a lost cause with this round?) And lastly, the 1/4" to 1/2" pool of purified water that I have the planters routinely sitting in... not recommended? And forgive my self-indulgence, but with these three seedlings, I feel like a proud first-time parent:
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 18, 2008 21:31:04 GMT
Hi all! I could use some advice from those wiser than me (read: everyone on this board) if you've got the time...
So, I've got four planters, each with 1:1 perlite:peat, in two soda-bottle terrariums. Each planter sits in about 1/4" to 1/2" of water.
I initially planted several seeds in each, and the majority fell victim to a cotton-like fungus. Two seeds germinated; one has trap-leaf, the other is starting to form its first trap leaf.
I then started spraying the planters twice a week with a solution of 1 tablespoon 90% sulfur powder fungicide in 400mL of purified water.
During this time, I stratified another batch of seeds and planted them three weeks ago. One has germinated, but many of the others have fallen victim to this cotton-like fungus despite my sulfur spraying...
Am I too much water, making the peat/perlite too amenable to this fungus? Is there another fungicide I should be supplementing with? Is this problem common? Should this be expected?
Cheers, Jonathan
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Post by jonnyq on Aug 18, 2008 21:10:27 GMT
Greetings! My name's Jonathan and I'm a "molecular technolgist" (ne "lab tech" at a cancer diagnostic laboratory at a New York City hospital. Right now I'm living on Long Island (no, I don't pronounce it "Lon Gailand.") but am in the process of buying a house with my fiancee in sunny Brooklyn. I have pretty limited experience with carnivorous plants, but was fascinated with Dionaea from an early age. I went the usual adolescent path of buying a store-bought plant, which proceeded to flower. A book I had read around age 10 suggested that I pollinate the flowers when they bloomed. (The same book suggested that I feed my plant lean hamburger meat, so you can imagine how this particular story ends. Looking back, knowing what I now know, I see now the vast and tragic error of my naive and misinformed ways.) Now I'm trying to get back into carnivorous plants... I'm starting with Dionaea, and as an adventure I'm trying to grow from seed... (*GASP!*) I frequently (FREQUENTLY) consult Barry Rice's pages, as well as Sarracenia Northwest and a few other online resources as well... I've managed to not screw it up TOO much yet... I'm about two months in; 2 of my first 20 seeds have germinated (from an unstratified batch), and 1 of my recent 20 seeds have germinated (from a stratified batch sown about 3 weeks ago.) Fungus is actively hunting the rest as we speak. The fight does not go well. (I'll scream for help in the Dionaea forums... None of my Drosera seeds germinated, so I've walked away from Drosera for now...) Somehow I doubt the hard part is over, but I'm so fascinated by the life cycle that I figured I'd at least try to see if I could screw up Barry Rice's advice as little as possible in my attempts... (I suppose that I'm off to a slow start, what with starting with seed and all.) Anyhow, glad to be here, and glad that these forums are around!
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