6 replies to this topic

[bogman]

I have 2 healthy plants of each kind... both are thriving in my bog garden... filiformis started producing plantlets from mother plant, but I would like to get more plants in shorter time... I know that both can be propagated from leaf cuttings, but I had something different on my mind... Can I force the plant to produce young plantlets by not removing the leaf from a plant? something like bending the leaf to the soil surface, and partially covering it with damp sphagnum moss? That way, the plant will still have its leaf, until new plants appear, when I would separate them, after all of them create their own roots? Is that possible? I have heard that hybrida can be propagated only that way, because it is sterile... It is currently growing 2 flower spikes... should I let them flower? filiformis is also creating flower spike... How fast are the seedlings growing from seed? (Im talking about filiformis seedlings)

[DroseraProject]

You can also propagate temperated sundews with the flowers without getting seed, just just them in ~2cm pieces. Your idea of covering the leaf with soil should also work, maybe even better when you make 50% cuts through the leave.

[bogman]

you mean, to chop the flower stalk to 2cm pieces? If I understood you correct, I should "wound" the leaf slightly, to enhance the production of young plants?

[DroseraProject]

Sorry for my bad english :)

I read a paper about propagation via leafcuttings, there was said, that leaves that a wounden (=little cuts, but don't cut them apart) would help to produce new plants. I haven't testet it yet (i only do normal leafcuttings, it wasen't necessary) by myself, but i think it could help if the leaf is still connected with the plant.

Flower stalk cuttings are working good with dionaea, so maybe you can test it with drosera as well. What definitively works: cutting the flower stalk apart WITH ONE unopend flower bud (i hope it's the correct english word, i mean the unopened flower) per part, that there can produced new plants from the flower bud (without seed).

(Both is from a german paper, "Weilbrenner, I.: Vegetative Vermehrung und Wuchsstoffhaushalt bei dem Rundblättrigen Sonnentau (D. rotundifolia). 1974" )

[bogman]

hmmmm I could try with flower stalks, since drosera hybrida produces no seed, so I lose nothing by doing that... should I put the cuttings in water, or to put them directly on peat surface?

[Dieter]

I do not think the flower stalk is comparable to a leaf. Leaf cuttings are quite efficient in propargating these species and hybrids and as someone described above, you can cut the leaf in shorter pieces or you leave it intact. The result should be more or less the same.

Same for the next step: it really does not matter that much whether you place the leaves on substrate slightly/partially covered (to keep everything moist) or whether you put the leaf/leaves into water. You can decide which method sounds easier for yourself.

Good luck
Dieter

[bogman]

and how many plants can I get from one leaf? do they grow fast? is it ok to leave them outside, for the first winter?