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Ickle Babies (Utric nelumbifolia)


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OK, thought I'd take a few shots of my germinating Utricularia nelumbifolia seedlings:

U-nelumbifolia-1.jpg

U-nelumbifolia-2.jpg

U-nelumbifolia-3.jpg

I received these fom Stephen Morley (aka "gardenofeden" - many thanks!) yesterday, and sowed them on flooded milled sphagnum in a clear plastic "lunch box" style container, around 4pm. These photos were taken today around 4pm, 24 hours later! I actually noticed the seeds swelling within minutes of being sown, and the first signs of germination were evident within an hour of sowing! But the seedlings are much more distinct 24 hours later, each one looking like a tiny green octpopus!

These seeds are simply amazing - more fun even than Drosera gemmae. :roll:

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When I sowed seeds of U. nelumbifolia a couple of years ago I found that they germinated and grew quite well on saturated live Sphagnum, the same as you are doing. However, after a while they seemed to stop growing with just 2 or 3 leaves each. Transplanting at this stage into individual pots with peat/sand really made a difference, as their growth started off very rapidly again.

Giles

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Ho!

Mine have as well, today! I got mine yesterday @ 12:10. Put them into my droscera tub, nicely full of spagnum and sharp sand (80/20), just went out to check them and bingo! No photos though (too dark, crap camera) :cry: .

The race is now on.....................................I'll be measuring it everyday.

And the seedlings too. :wink:

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Hi,

Thanks for all the comments, and advice. Maybe I'll transplant them to a mix of equal parts peat, sand, perlite and sphagnum - should be airy and well-drained yet moisture retentive. A good idea? I wonder why they apparently don't do well as seedlings in saturated sphagnum, when the adults grow fine in this? Also, in nature they are "aquatic epiphytes" in bromeliads, so I would have thought they would prefer a saturated sphagnum-type mix? Obviously conditions are different in the wild though, many factors may come into play.

Anyway, thanks again for all the info. :wink:

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Just to clarify, my seedlings were in the Sphagnum for several months before transplanting to individual pots. They're probably fine there for a good while. And when I did transplant them, they looked to have very extensive rooting systems so they didn't look unhappy - it was just that they weren't doing much in the way of growing new leaves.

Giles

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