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Where to grow/sow my Sarracenia seeds.


naryn

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Hi,

I'm after some advice for sowing Sarracenia seeds this winter to ensure high germination rates in the spring. My collection is in a 6" x 8" greenhouse but because this houses the Pings and Droseras as well as the Sarras i cannot leave it to drop to winter temperatures and maintain at least 5DegC over winter. Which leaves me with the problem of where to put my Sarracenia seeds as i think the greenhouse isnt going to get cold enough. I have quite a few to sow, presumably the best thing is to sow them around Christmas, leave them to natural stratification and then move them into the greenhouse in the spring. Should i get a cold frame for growing seeds in? As an aside, do they need light during the winter or can i use space more efficiently by stacking seed trays (of course not directly on each other)?

thanks

Andy

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my green house is kept at the same min. temps and is fine for germinating Sarracenia, plenty cold enough. I sow my seed in early January.

Can I just ask would there be any reason not to sow them now and leave them in a cool greenhouse over winter.

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I like the kitchen roll / tin foil method of fridge stratification and i will definately try that for something but i just wanted to let nature take its course on some of my seeds this year and give the conditions so that it can...

Stephen... sounds promising, in which case i can just put them under the benches.....

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With fresh seed you should get very good germination rates ( 90-100%) this decreases with age and is dependant on how they are stored.

But you can never tell until they grow.

I sowed some of my own seed last christmas,all germinated well except for one batch,nothing germinated at all,not one!

And i've been growing from seed for years.

ada

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  • 3 weeks later...

Out of interest, do people mostly sow sarra seed on peat or does anyone use sphag? I was considering sowing them on super sphag so that the pots would remain free of rubbish for longer and the seedlings dont have to compete with moss...

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Out of interest, do people mostly sow sarra seed on peat or does anyone use sphag? I was considering sowing them on super sphag so that the pots would remain free of rubbish for longer and the seedlings dont have to compete with moss...

This was my first year attempting to grow Sarracenia from seed and I had better germination with seeds sown on a topping of finely chopped LFSM than those on straight peat. Mind you, that was a particularly rancid batch of peat, overtaken by slime within a few weeks. I also have a problem with fungus gnat larvae, and find that they seem to prefer the denser peat mix, whereas the more open sphagnum doesn't appear to be so attractive to them.

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I've done both in the past, germination is marginally better on chopped LFSM but I have found that when it starts growing it quickly overtakes the seedlings and it ts difficult to pull out or cut without damaging the plants, so I just use straight peat now with a very light covering of seived peat over the seeds and a lid on to maintain a high humidity, which I think is the trick as it mimicks the close effect of the sphagnum to the seeds.

Cheers

Steve

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  • 3 weeks later...

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