CarnivorousBlake

Hello, My name is Blake. I am a research botanist in the United States and I primarily work with rare plants particularly with cacti. During my undergraduate studies I wrote my thesis on micropropagation techniques of Drosophyllum and I have always wanted to visit plants in habitat. I will be traveling through southern Spain in early January and I would like to visit as many Drosophyllum locations as possible during my visit. Does anyone have any GPS points or locality information they would be wiling to share with me or have any suggested person to contact? I understand and work with species of conservation concern on a daily basis and I will keep these localities safe! I have included a figure from my undergraduate thesis from 2009 on Drosophyllum. Oh so long ago! If you like, you may contact me by email: BlakeWellard (at) gmail .com Thanks Blake P.S. as an added incentive, I can share seeds of Echinocereus mojavensis, a cold hardy hummingbird pollinated species.

June 2008 up until March 2009 the plant was grown under artificial light. March 09 - Current the plant has been grown in a glass panel greenhouse. From May to Current the panels have been covered in a buttermilk film to lessen light intensity. The plant has been in a position to get 8 ++ hours of light during the day. I will take it off the tray method for now. The soil has been wet enough to allow moss to grow.

I have been growing this R. gorgonias now for 18 months. I have kept the plant in low humidity. It gets good air circulation. The temperature range is has been between 20c - 30c. This summer it went through a few days where it was 33c. The plant is sitting in a tray but I allow the water to dry up before watering again. The growth seems normal from reading about other growers plants. It has flowered twice, once producing seed. Yet since I have been cultivating it the plant has developed yellow tips. Newly formed leaves quickly turn yellow on the tip. I have seen yellow tips in other growers plants but they are generally on the old leaves. I am wondering what I can do better. The photo below is a week old.

Marek I am interested in seeing your Gentianella but none of your images are working for me. Perhaps your hosting site is currently down. I am familiar with Gentiana. I have heard of Gentianella but it does not grow in the Rocky Mountains. There are however species of Gentianella in the Eastern USA. In Utah the Gentiana speices grow in what could be a potential CP habitat but there are no known species of CP in Utah other that aquatic utrics. Hopefully your pictures show up tomorrow.

Give it a go. I doubt it will work. I have a gorgonias that I will try on if you like.

So all those experienced with Dionaea TC, are you primarily using seed as the explant? I have attempted leaves 3 times but with no success.

I have used it JamieB. From my personal use I have no way to quantify the effectiveness if any when using it. I have used it with cuttings of cephs and had some success but the success I had was no more than when I didn't use it. I personally like to use it to soak bare root plants before repotting, such as last night with my H. heterodoxa. They seem to go through less stress when I put it on or perhaps I am the one going through less stress because I feel like I did something to help the bare root plant survive.

All of my cuttings of D. lanata, D. petiolaris, and D. kenneallyi have rotted. There are some things i would have done differently. Namely ensure to get as much of the base as possible rather than snip the leaf right above soil surface. Also I would have changed the water out whereas this time I thought I would be able to make it by without doing so. I will be starting another batch soon.

That sounds like the likely culprit. I have seen something similar with some of my outdoor Sarracenia. Now let those wasps nourish a new generation of pitchers.

What solution is that?? I am not following that step.

I don't know how I missed this Jim. Thanks for the pictures of Stylidium. Nice nep seedlings too. Its been a while since we have talked about it but I will tell you what I have been working with lately. I have begin treating S. debile more like a garden plant and less like a carnivore. I have been having reasonable success with doing so. What I mean by that is not worrying about the type of water and using fertilization on the foliage and in the soil. I have 3 pots full that I am experimenting with currently. All receive a misting of orchid fertilizer on the foliage and all receive osmocote pellets on the surface of the soil. Its been over 4 weeks and the plants have only shown improvement. I really need to document these things with photographs. Blake

Great, N. maxima it is. Yes I am quite pleased with them. They get a lot of attention. I have been fertilizing both pictured neps. with osmocote. I drop one pellet in per pitcher. The ratio of the pellets are 18 N, 18 P, 18 K. Thus far the results seem positive. The plants are in their sixth week since fertilization. I will post more details about the osomocote and species that I have had success with in more time.

Is this the final verdict then?? N. maxima?

Not sure what that would be.... Lately I have been finding scale on my H. heterodoxa... but I see little damage to the plant tissue.

And you are using R/O, Rain or distilled? I was growing two regia under similar circumstances both started at about 6 inches across. Within 2 months one had dramatically reduced leaves and the other was getting black tips. I reviewed many posts and the only thing I could think of was my watering. At the time being mid summer I was using water coming out of a local river since my rain water reserves were all used up and my access to free distilled was gone. None of my other plants with the exception of D. adelae, and D. schizandra were showing any stress. I switched those three species over to distilled and within weeks all three drosera started to improve. I kept them in the same growing conditions and only changed there water.

I did some research on the plant and it collects of a lot of its needed moisture through dew collection of the leaves. So you could try misting it. I am growing mine in the same conditions except slightly lower humidity and I mist it nightly. It has been producing dew since the seeds first germinated. Blake

From what I heard the plants were initially purchased for a local garden center. I think you may be right manders N. maxima seems close. What particular features are you looking at that make you say maxima?

Nice photos. Do you know how old the plant is? The leaves look quite broad in the first photo. Mine are about 6 months old from seed. They have just started producing much thicker leaves.

I have been taking care of this nepenthes since I started my botany studies but I have never bothered to get it identified. I have taken many cuttings though At the bottom there is a second nepenthes that I always assumed to be the same species. Large Pitcher Peristome Large Pitcher w/ flash Full plant Smaller plant Smaller Nep young/developed pitcher

In relation to bog gardens I usually find myself saying damn deer. They have developed a taste for my S. purpurea and S. flava. I don't want to tell you what they did to D. muscipula. Its always easy to tell when they have been browsing around with the deep hoof imprints in the peat. The neighbors have two cats as well. I will be keeping my eye on them. Blake

I am in the process of collecting N. spectablis pollen. If you are interested in some let me know. The first of it is starting to ripen right now. Blake

Today I took cuttings from D. lanata, D. petiolaris, and D. kenneallyi. I cut the petiole as close to the base as i could. I didn't consider tugging the leaf from the base. I will set up two groups and compare. I only took a few today so a few more couldn't hurt.... Blake

Great post. Thanks Kas I will be trying some experiments with this on my own. All previous attempts to propagate wooly sundew have failed for me.

Can someone help me understand the measurements of media in the recent article in the ICPS "In Vitro Propagation of Roridula Gorgonias" (Vol 37 no 3) I was going over it with in class yesterday but the lab manager and I couldn't quite follow it. I plan on emailing the authors soon. Blake

How many seeds were sown per pot Jim? How long did it take for the seeds to germinate? I had high success germinating B liniflora earlier this year. I plant 4 seeds in 16 pots in a standard 1:1 peat perlite. I got more than 80% germination but it took about two months.