Germinating tuberous drosera seeds

[sarraceniashawn]

Hi all,

I recently recived some tuberous drosera seeds from a friend at school. Can anybody tell me how to germinate them? When should I do this too? I have seeds from drosera auriculata, d. stolonifera ssp. porrecta, and d. peltata from the ICPS. I looked at their instructions but they were to confusing, or Im too dumb.

Shawn

[Marek Wozny]

Hello

Drosera auriculata and d. peltata germinations is very easy, just sow them in cool condition (15-25 C will be good too), and give them good light for the beggining, after you see some seedling, please lower some light to prevent boil of small plant :-), this year I have 90% germinations rate, they grows very good.

D. stolonifera ssp. porrecta is usually nead scarification, or good backing in the summer time to broke te seed dormancy ..., I do not grow them from seed so maybe someone try help you.

I use 50%/50% sand/peat moss, and not too very wet conditions like with the others droseras.

Regards

Marek

[vic brown]

As stated, D. peltata and D. auriculata are easy species with no need for special treatment.

Most tuberous species are harder to germinate. I'm not sure about scarification though (= abrading or removing part of the seed coat) I think this would be very difficult with small sundew seeds.

Tuberous species often benefit from heat stratification in order to break dormancy (= keeping the seeds hot for a period of weeks/months before sowing - this simulates the baking hot, dry summer temperatures they would experience in habitat) Also, smoke treatment maybe beneficial ( = simulates the frequent bushfires which occur in Australia).

The use of the plant hormone Gibberelic Acid (GA-3) may help too.

Seed is best planted in early autumn so that they have a long period of cool, short days to delevop their first tubers. A soil mix of 1:1 peat:sand (or even sandier) should be used.

Even after pre-treatment, germination may be a slow and hit or miss affair. However, when you do succeed with growing tricky species from seed it is a very satisfying achievement, in my opinion, and the only way to observe the whole growth cycle of these wonderful plants in cultivation.

If the seeds don't germinate in the first season, don't throw the pot away. Keep it dry in a hot sunny place for the following summer and start watering in the autumn. Apparently, some seed can take up to three years to germinate. I haven't experienced this, but have had seed germinate on mass a year after sowing.

Vic

[Pyro]

I'll vouch for the 3 year germination time. I have a pot of D. ramellosa that germinated last year after 3 years of inactivity.

I have not grown D. porrecta (note: Allen Lowrie has reclassified all subspecies of stolonifera up to full species level) but if it is anything like stolonifera then it is possible the seed will germinate quickly as my stolonifera seed germinated within weeks of sowing.

[Dieter]

I have not grown D. porrecta (note: Allen Lowrie has reclassified all subspecies of stolonifera up to full species level) but if it is anything like stolonifera then it is possible the seed will germinate quickly as my stolonifera seed germinated within weeks of sowing.

Well, at least my D. porrecta seeds did not germinate so far. D. stolonifera currently germinates well. The seeds were sown about a year ago. Smoke treatment did not change things for D. stolonifera, at least for the D. stolonifera of which I had two groups (smoke disc treated and untreated). But as Vic already stated, the hot summer in the "wintergarden" may have made the difference.

D. whittakeri gave 100 % germination last winter (6 of 6) after smoke treatment a few weeks after sowing. No control group in this case, however.

D. platypoda currently has one seedling (of four seeds). The seeds were sown in august or september and were able to enjoy the remainder of the summer. D. ramellosa, D. porrecta and D. purpurascens show no signs of germination yet, allthough treated the same way as D. platypoda.

D. menziesii ssp. basifolia germinates appearently well without prior treatment. I have one batch sown at the same time as the D. platypoda and the other listed in the previous paragraph. Another batch was sown at the same time (or a little later) but did not experience the heat. The container was placed directly under fluorescent lights in the basement. Interestingly, both batches started to germinate at the same time (by then the batch from my "wintergarden" was also mooved into the basement under fluorescent bulbs). I did not change the lighting period, so some other reason must have caused this.

So much for now

Cheers

Dieter

[JanW]

I sow seeds of different ssp. of D.stolonifera. Their germination occured from 2-3 months to 2-3 years...right now I get germination from seeds sown in 2004.

[jimscott]

Coincidently, I also received seeds of D. peltata, stolonifera, and auriculata. I sowed them in the attic, late this summer and the peltata & auriculat germinated. The stolonifera did'n't or haven't. They are currently residing at the kitchen window sill, in temps that range from 15-20 C.

[sarraceniashawn]

Would it be to late to sow them now? And do they REQUIRE a hot treatment before sowing? My friend got them from the ICPS seed bank and I dont think that they have been in the hot conditions Ive heard that they need to germinate.

Shawn

[lilacina]

Can anybody tell me how long seeds of tuberous drosera will be fit for germination?I intended to order some species of these from Allen Lowrie,but as far as I know most of the seeds he offers are too old to succeed (so are the Utric seeds f.e.).

[Guest Sheila]

If seed that was sown 3 years previously will germinate, then I think that is your answer. At least 3 years.

[lilacina]

And what if the seeds have been harvested much earlier than three years before???It really would be fantastic,but you can´t presuppose that all seeds have been harvested just a very short time before you received them.Many lay down for years before they´ve been sold.

[Pyro]

If properly stored then seeds that are many many years old can still germinate though the rate is often reduced. I can not speak for Lowrie's tuberous seed but I have had germination of petiolaris seed from him. And likewise I have never had germination from any Utric seed I have gotten from him (not a huge suprise as Utric seed is notoriously short lived.) So...

And I will also note that 3 years is not necessaly the limit. I know of one grower who had a pot of ramellosa seed take 5 years and for some reason I also recall someone somewhere mentioning that they got germination on gigantea seed that was 10 years old.

So I guess the best advice I can offer is just try and see. And remember also that sometimes seed does not germinate, not because the seed is bad but because the grower is not quite up to par. And I put myself in that catagory as well so I am not putting myself above others.