Ibicella Germination Trial

[dennisB]

Hi

Having taken some seed from my one and only ibicella last year and having seen various advice on germinating ibicella seed, I thought I would carry out a small trial.

I divided the seed into 5 groups of 6 seeds each. Prior to planting in sarracenia mix in my heliamphora growing area:

Group 1 was planted without prior treatment.

Group 2 was soaked in water for 24 hours.

Group 3 was soaked in water for 48 hours.

Group 4 was soaked in boiling water that was then let to cool for 48 hours.

Group 5 was lightly sanded before being soaked in water for 48 hours.

The results were as follows:

...............................................Group

.............................................1 2 3 4 5

Germination after 1 weeks : 0 1 1 0 5

Germination after 2 weeks : 1 1 2 0 6

Germination after 3 weeks : 1 2 4 0 6

While I appreciate this was not a truly "scientific" trial, I thought the results were interesting in suggesting that light sanding of the seed and then soaking was the best method and boiling water the worst.

Does anyone with more experience than me have results that agree with or conflict with these results?

Cheers

Dennis

[jimscott]

I can appreciate the attempt! How did you extract the seeds from the pod? And what soil media are you using for them?

[Guest Sheila]

Jim, the joy of Ibicella is they will grow in normal potting compost. I grew mine in john innes no. 2 and it did really well and produced masses of flowers. Only about 3 of the flowers actually went on to produce pods, which took months to mature.

When the cold weather came in and the plant died of cold then the pods were harvested and the outer husk removed. inside is a hard black seed case with a hooked point. This hooked point over the course of the next few days splits down the centre to become into two very vicious hooks. Some of the seeds will drop out quite easily from a hole at the base of the hooks, but to harvest the bulk of the seed you have to crack the pod open to get at them. It's not an easy job and gripping the pod is painful as there are sharp points all over the case that dig into your hands.

The flowers are beautiful and make the whole plant a worthwhile addition to your garden.

the developing seedpods are huge.

The first seedpod is unripe, the third one is taken before it has split and opened, the middle one is already opening but opens a bit wider than that eventually

A closer picture of the opening pod. All the spiky bits on the rounded part of the pod are rock hard and extremely sharp. The hooks on the ends will easily pierce skin. They deserve their title of the Devils claw.

[jimscott]

Those are excellent pictures!

[Guest Sheila]

Thanks :)

Let us know if you manage to germinate your seed successfully Jim.

I shall hopefully be getting mine started in the next week or two.

Thanks for doing those germination experiments Dennis, I will certainly be trying the most successful of them. I bought my plant already growing last time, so this will be my first time from scratch too.

[jimscott]

Sheila, do you sow them indoors, greenhouse, or outside? What are safe temps to initiate germination? Are they kept covered until germination?

[Guest Sheila]

Ah well there you've got me. I got my plant as a growing plant. All I've done so far is grow it, help pollinate the flower by rubbing the pollen round with a brush and harvested the seed at the end of the year.

The growing from seed part is next to try and Dennis' trials are as interesting to me as they are to you.

I can tell you it grows well as a garden plant though. I never needed to put it into the greenhouse except when I thought the wind was strong enough to maybe snap the stem. I'm going to try greenhouse gernmination followed by outdoor growing, but I don't suppose it will make an awful lot of difference.

[dennisB]

Hi All

an update on my sowing trial:

all six seeds of all groups have now germinated except those that were soaked in boiling water where there is still no sign of life.

Dennis