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How to make smoked water?


Amperon

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Hi all

I'd like to ask you how to prepare smoked water which is harmless to plants. I need to use it for tuberous sundews .

Thanks for reply

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A few month ago I had to smoke treat my Roridula seedlings. I placed them near a fire which I lit with some dry grass and then used a spray bottle to mist the pots through the smoke. This works if you don't have to many pots to be treated.

Most of my seedlings germinated, although I don't know if it was because of the smoke treatment. :thumright:

Good luck with your seeds

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Thank you :)

But this will be the problem i´ll have many seeds and it´s possible it won´t be too fresh . I used GA3 for my peltata, auriculata, stolonifera, whittakerii - all from seeds . And now i will have harder lowriei, banksii , orbiculata and so on :thumright: I am not sure if it works now :yes:

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Any other idea how to increase germination od seeds ? except GA3 ?

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I made smoke water by using a dog food (empty) tin with some holes punched in the base. I filled it with dry leaves and covered with aluminium foil. I placed a tea light candle under it to get smoke. I then used an aquarium power head with a built in venturi to draw the smoke into a bucket of water. I conected 4mm aquarium airline to the venturi intake and conected the other end to an old metal brake line. This I bent to run throuh tub of water to cool the air (so as not to melt the soft airline) and then hooked it in the top of he tin sealing with the aluminium foil. This worked moderatly well, the water was still clear but smelt very smokey. Not sure if it helped germination but figured it couldn't hurt :)

Cheers

George

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OK so that sounded damn confusing so I did a quick diagram in paint :)

smoke_water_machine.jpg

A:

Tin can with holes in the bottom sitting on two bricks with a tealight candle between them. Tin is then filled with leaves and covered with aluminium foil. This has a metal brake line (from a car) to draw air from the tin. The aluminium foil seals the top of the tin to reduce the amount of oxygen in the tin to help with smoke production.

B:

Bend the brake line so it runs through a tub of water (takeaway container) to cool the air. The brake line then conects to some aquarium airline. This then goes to C

C:

An aquarium powerhead (water pump) with a venturi is placed in a bucket of water (A venturi is a device that uses (changes in) water presure to draw air into the outlet of the pump). The venturi is conected to the airline so as to draw air from the tin. The pump then blows the bubbles around in the the water.

This was made from bits I had lying around at the time so feel free to improvise.

I hope this makes it easier to understand

Cheers

George

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I put the two seeds I had in a fishnet and held as close to a smoldering fire as I could, for about 15 minutes. Nothing germinated!

George: That's absolutely amazing!

Stephen: Looking at your description, heat isn't the variable that stimulates germination. That just leaves smoke and / or water.

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To Stephen: I have heard about similar way. I would like to ask you how long does it last to be "smoke water " Or how I can recognize it .

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For how long did you soak the seeds in the smoke-water and what did you after that? I mean, did you sprinkle the seeds in potted media and cover and put under a light? Were they uncovered? Room temp or warmer?

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I don't have a greenhouse. I only have a porch, an indoor rack, and an indoor, what I call a mini-greenhouse. Should the seeds be covered or uncovered? Do they want a day/night differential? Do they want lots of light or bright shade?

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Hi all, I used this system insted of the water on ash method as it seemed likely (pure speculation) to me that the active ingedients are volatiles as fires can cause Drosera to flower from smoke from fires some distance away. By using this method I could capture most of these "volatiles" in the smoke. I would love to see a test done to see a comparison of different methods, after all pouring water on ash is a lot easier.

Smoke water can be stored in the freezer untill needed. I used clipseal lunch bags and after several months noticed no change in the destinctive smokey smell.

Cheers

George

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There has been a lot of work here in Perth over the last few years and you can now (apparently) buy synthetic smoke water. It is being produced for comercial aplications. I would like to have a play with it and see what its effects are like, also for getting plants to flower. Oneday...

Cheers

George

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George, good point, most of us just do what we can and hope for the best. A thorough test would be informative...

Jim, what species?

I was thinking in terms of having the opportunity (again) to try Roridula gorgonia. I will have B. liniflora again, but that doesn't seem to need it. I'm not even sure that B. liniflora absolutely needs a 10% bleach solution, either. I just didn't really know what I was doing the first time around, in terms of how long of exposure or whether they needed to be immersed in it or singed or what.

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To gardenofeden : ..Hm .. ok, two questions : How long it is necessary to keep seeds in the water .2) How long it is neccesary to keep ash in water to be smoke

p.s. sorry for my english but it is hard to translate it

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