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U.nelumbifolia


Bob H

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Can anyone who received seeds from Gardenofeden, or Stephen himself, give us an update on their progress?

Mine are just forming real plants with four or five almost round leaves, but still tiny. I have mine in shallow containers, those that kids have mousses in?, with waterlogged live sphag.

I have five little plantlets at the moment, all in my tiny terrarium, no heat, bright light around 60% humidity.

I look forward to hearing others experiences. :-)

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My tiny plants are growing in live sphagnum with water level with the rim of the pot. The pot is placed in a transparent plastic container with the lid screwed on.

I grew them for a while with a much lower water level and bright natural lighting and found that they were not growing well and being outgrown by the sphagnum.

I then thought that because these plants would germinate in the urn of a bromeliad they would grow in a very wet and dark environment. So, I increased the water level and placed them under my grenhouse benches in quite low light. Since then they have grown much more vigorously and are noticably larger. The sphagnum growth has also been retarded.

I'll take a few photos in the next few days to show exactly how big the plants are.

Sean.

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I sowed mine on the 24.11.03. An earlier lot I recieved from Stephan died for no apparent reason. I didn't get any germination at all. Currently the seedlings are probably about 5-6mm across, but getting bigger all the time.

Sean.

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I have a 10" mesh basket filled up with plants now, with the stolons running round most of the substrate, which have just started making aerail stolons. Another 4" pot has three plants in it, not doing quite so well. Leaves are about 1.5cm diameter at the moment.

The plants were placed in high humidity over winter 12C-25C with lots of condensed water dripping over them. Not standing in water. They had moderately shady conditions.

The soil is a thick layer of perlite (1/2 to 2/3 of the pot?) with a little bit of sphagnum moss mixed in to aid water take-up. This is topped with pure live spahgnum moss. The plants are now standing in 1" water for the summer in bright light.

I placed one plant in the main greenhouse during winter and it survived fine with a minimum of -2C - unusually tough, though I woulnd't risk this for anything other than a one-off.

They also do not appear to like ant powder getting on their leaves...

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I placed one plant in the main greenhouse during winter and it survived fine with a minimum of -2C - unusually tough, though I woulnd't risk this for anything other than a one-off.

...

yes, they seem more cold tolerant than many Brazilian Utrics. You are not the first to report them surviving being frozen.

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Hey Stephen!

I'm really glad to see you distributing this lovely plant around! Are your plants from that batch J gave you a few years ago? Do they flower a lot for you?

Fernando Rivadavia

P.S. Rob, I can't believe you got plants to grow so big in only 6 months, congrats!!

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Hi Fernando

Yes, the nelumbifolia is from Serra do Brigadeiro location. I dont know if anyone else had the plant from a separate locality, but as far as I know most of the plants have come from me, and it has gone to many countries in Europe and beyond!! It is such an easy plant in cultivation, mine flowers virtually all year round!

Love your postcards, keep up the good work!

Stephen

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My seeds, after such dramatic germination, did not make it!

:wink:

Left on the kitchen windowsil they got sprayed with something by the cleaner who no doubt thought it was "another pot full of moss".

I read this thread with envy - maybe next time........

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I imagine all the U.nelumbifolia in cultivation are from the same place, which unfortunately seems to be circulating under 2 names. At least both names are correct. The Serra da Araponga and Serra do Brigadeiro are neighboring highlands, or maybe one is part of the other, I'm not sure. I wasn't sure when I collected and unfortunately this uncertainty seems to have passed on...

Anyways, this place is in SE Minas Gerais state, SE Brazil.

Take care,

Fernando Rivadavia

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  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

Time for an update.

My seedlings were left in the greenhouse within a plastic container and slowly began to die off. When there was only 2 remaining plants about 1/2 cm across I thought it was time to do something about the situation.

I'd just completed my indoor tank and removed one seedling and introduced it into the tank. Within days the plant had noticably grown. In the same period of time the other plant left outside had died.

The single plant has now been in the tank now for many months and is growing beautifully. The largest 'leaf' is about 15cms tall and 5cms across. Stolons are rapidly colonising the water of the plastic container.

Can anybody tell me how tall and wide the leaves get when the plant is mature?

How is everybody elses plants going from the seed Stephen was nice enough to distribute?

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Better than mine Sean :-(

I had 2 plants inside a heated terrarium and 2 in the greenhouse. The greenhouse plants never grew well and finally just rotted away. The terraium plants seemed to be doing fine, lots of good leaf growth, sending seeking stolons to invade other pots, and then the leafy stolon ends just went brown and died off. That left me p'd off and owning two more pots of sphagnum :-(

Sorry Stephen, I'll leave that species until I have a lot more experience.

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