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D.villosa Seedling...very Slow!


mrAlmond

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Hi there.

I confirm what Dani has said concerning S. American Drosera being VERY slow growers.

I planted seed of D.tomentosa, D. montana, D.graminifolia and D.ascendens at the beginning of our (Southern hemisphere) summer. The resulting seedlings are still tiny now, about six months later.

Looks like much patience is required for S.American Drosera!

Regards

Marc

Edited by Marcrijkenberg
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Hi,

i made the same experience. They often grow quite slow from seeds and suddenly start growing faster. Repotting often makes them grow faster. At the moment i have several plants of what i think is true D. villosa growing. I only repotted one of them which now looks lke this:

villosa_DROS225_003.jpg villosa_DROS225_004.jpg

The other plants are still seedlings! In conclusion, i think you can also trigger the growth by repotting them as soon as possible. Feeding might help as well.

Christian

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I agree with Christian. I've found that they tend to grow alot faster after they have been repotted. I too have noticed that they grow really slowly at the beginning but then speed up after a time.

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Hello,

There's a trick to grow South American Drosera seedlings much faster: use dried milled sphagnum instead of peat! Colouration of most sundews is much brighter when grown in peat, but they tend to grow slower in that substrate, too (the reason is the higher content of tannins in peat). I usually start growing most species of Drosera in milled long fiber sphagnum (Sundewmatt, thanks tons for that hint!! ;)) and repot the adult plants to peat-sand mix then.

You will really notice some difference: I was able to grow most South Americans (and petiolaris Drosera!!) from seed to flowering plants within one year only!

This works great with D. graminifolia, D. ascendens, D. villosa, D. chrysolepis, the D. montana-complex, the venezuelan species etc.

I had only some problems with South African Drosera growing in that kind of soil mix, they seem to prefer peat instead of dried sphagnum.

And if you have planted too much seed in one pot, you probably have noticed that germination is either poor, or -in case mass germination occured- a few seedlings will increase in size while the rest is not growing at all. Repotting will help in this case. The reason for this phenomenon is not only competition for nutrients, but so called "allelopathic effects", too. Most plants produce a certain mix of chemicals which is dissolved to the soil by their roots to limit innerspecific competition (you can even visualize this if you grew the plants in vitro: the growth medium is getting brownish around the plant's roots!). In their natural habitats, this effect does not matter much: as most CPs grow in soils with seeping water, inhibitors are washed away fast. But in cultivation this effect matters well: 5 Drosera individuals of the same species grown together in a 1 L container won't be that big and vigorous than 5 plants grown separately in five 0.2 L pots ;)

BTW, that's the explanation why you will usually find the best looking plant of a certain species not in the pot you have sown it in, but in a neigbouring pot, where a single seed grain accidentally dropped in ;)

All the best,

Andreas

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