10 replies to this topic

[Stu]

Hi all,

I'm after the best course of advice for my seed tray full of Drosera capensis 'alba' seedlings (seed sown late last year).
From the pictures below, you can see the problem is mass overcrowding where the tiny seeds have not dispersed far enough apart!

Any advice would be helpful (even if it contradicts others) as this is the first time I've attempted growing from seed en masse.




Thanks,

[Loakesy]

To be frank, I think I'd be tempted to ditch the overcrowded pots in favour of the less crowded ones. You'll have so many of the things that you'll be over-run before you know it. When they're mature and flowering you'll see that they set seed so easily and the seeds are so small, you'll find them cropping up all over the place even where you didn't sow them. They become a bit of a weed after a very short time.

If you really want to pot then on as they are, just break off very small plugs of seedilings and re-pot them.

Incidentally, 'alba' is a bit of a mis-used name. It looks like what you have is D. capensis albino; alba is a completely different and very rare plant...

[nadja77]

Or If you don't want the hassle of having to split them up or ditch them, you could re-pot some, leave the rest as is, and go with survival of the fittest. By the looks of things you won't be short of plants.

[Amar]

A lovely plant..but a total weed..

[Stu]

Thanks for the replies.

I am aware that this plant quite literally takes over! (These seeds are from flower stalks of a couple of my mature plants harvested last year).

Loakesy, on 22 March 2012 - 16:05 PM, said:

Incidentally, 'alba' is a bit of a mis-used name. It looks like what you have is D. capensis albino; alba is a completely different and very rare plant...

Thanks for this info - I did read somewhere that 'alba' is a bad name but I wasn't aware it was actually confusing/wrong. Do you have any more information on this rare capensis 'alba'?.. I wasn't aware there was another plant and would be interested to read more about it.

I think I'll prick out and nurture a select handful of the best seedlings and leave the rest to do their own thing as I didn't exactly want millions of the plant anyway!

[Marlon]

D.capensis "alba" is the good name, but there is another specie D.alba and that's quite confusing

[billynomates666]

Hi Stu

What I have done in the past is just dug out clumps with a teaspoon, popped them into a separate pot and let the 'clump' grow on and sort itself out, that about the best you can do with that lot. It does give you some very beautiful full pots, that in my opinion (not being a drosera grower fanatic) look better than a single specimen. Dont shoot! I'm just not someone who likes everything in its place and prefers a bit of chaos.

Cheers
steve

[jimscott]

I would do as suggested directly above my post.

[Stu]

billynomates666, on 23 March 2012 - 13:49 PM, said:

It does give you some very beautiful full pots, that in my opinion (not being a drosera grower fanatic) look better than a single specimen.

I was already thinking of growing a few together in pots - maybe 'quite' a few in a very large pot to give an impressive show!

I've done this with D.binata in a 2 Litre pot, which can be seen here...

[casca]

That D.binata looks great! I would clump them too for sure it looks more "healthy" this way

[Stu]

casca, on 20 July 2012 - 10:22 AM, said:

That D.binata looks great! I would clump them too for sure it looks more "healthy" this way

Thanks.
Yeah, that pot of D.binata has grown absolutely crazy this year - far bigger than that photo and I now have the roots circling the pot so bad that they are starting to poke up out of the substrate at the top!! Think it's going to have to be divided or put into a larger pot this winter!