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Sowing Drosophyllum


SoLongFairWell

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I'm just about to sow the Drosophyllum seeds I've had in my fridge since they arrived last summer.

I'm going to be sowing them in peat pots for the ease of potting on later on and then they will be Slack potted.

The couple (or 4) of questions I have are:

  1. Is it going to be beneficial to scarify the seeds or not (considering their age)
  2. Should I soak them in water? I know some people do it for 24 hours. Do I need a couple of days longer due to seed age?
  3. What soil mix do you recommend for the peat pots and the inner pot of the Slack system?
  4. Do I sow on the surface or cover the seeds by a certain amount?

Thanks guys

Richard

Edited by Richard Bunn
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I'm sure loads of people do it. I've seen several photos on this forum of double potted plants. At least this way I can remove doubt when it comes to watering and stand the plants in water a lot of the time.

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I sowed 5 seeds, which I'd had a couple of months, earlier in the year. Of these I scarified just 1. The 4 unscarified seeds germinated in about 30 days whilst the scarified 1 went mouldy and never germinated. I placed the seeds in a "depression" on the compost surface but with hindsight I'd do as Stephen suggests and press them in firmly as my seedlings ended up looking a bit wobbly.

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Hello Richard, before sowing my seeds Drosophyllum lusitanicum i read an excellent tutorial available at the link below:

Seedshop of Drosophyllum

I am only sorry that the content is in Portuguese (Portugal), but with the help of an online translator you can solve this problem easily :sun_bespectacled: .

Best regards,

Rodrigo

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I got excited to day as when I opened the pack of seeds, which I had failed to do previously, I discovered they had location data. Aveiro, Portugal 20m above sea level. Upon a quick search of the forum I find that this is supposed to be a larger, faster growing form. I got 24 seeds. I've scarified them and put them all to soak although in hindsight I wish I saved half of them just in case there was a problem.

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Ah what was I thinking? I shall have to bin them. Because they're in peat pots I could try selling them if I package them in drain pipes. I'll have a chat with Jacob Farin and see when and how he does it.

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Stephen i noticed that you grow yours in equal parts sand, grit, perlite and peat. I don't have access to grit so should I just put in an extra part of perlite instead?

Also, do you have yours Slack-potted? (but with a different mix)

Because I shall likely have them coming out of my ears I shall see how I get on with half of them not being Slack'd. I don't know if I should use the same mix regardless though. Adrian goes on about loam based/John Innes compost but I don't have access to that here. I can go to the garden centre and buy a nice pashmina scarf though. Le sigh.

Edited by Richard Bunn
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I don't Slack pot mine. I sow in communal pots, when they have a few leaves each I transplant into individual 10 cm pots. At this stage they all stand in the water trays. When they are about 10cm high I transplant to their final pot, a very large 20cm or so for each plant. After this they don't stand in water any more. I water about once a week, from above, perhaps more in hot weather. I feel the weight of the pots and if light I water, or wait till the plants wilt a bit. Basically treat them like a CP until they have several good sized leaves then treat them like a cactus!

Compost is not critical as long as it is well drained, so extra perlite or sand is fine.

I think it was Bob Zeimer who reported good germination of 20 odd year old seed, so they last quite a while!

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