Jump to content

Where to get fresh seeds?


vincent

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone,

I want to start sawing some Nepenthes seeds, but I am wondering where to buy some fresh ones.

I saw that czplants has many (so many that I doubt they are all fresh).

Do you have other suppliers to recommend?

Thanks for the info

Vincent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I had an order in for seeds from cz but i have since cancelled as i have heard the seeds can be very old. If you find a good source of fresh viable seeds please let me know too :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All those "fresh" seeds from cz plants can be YEARS old. Complete waste of money- which is a shame, because cz plants are an excellent source for Nep plants.

The best source has been Ricardo (albermarlesounds) on ebay- but he hasn't been seen for a couple of months so I don't know what the story is.

Occasionally, people on facebook in Nep groups have some seeds for sale. But the bottom line is that it's now very hard to get hold of any Nep seeds at all.

Edited by Gareth Davies
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes i got from Ricardo before, usual low germination with seed, he stiffed my with $40.00 of seed recently , seed sent but no show seems like him now a no show, and I am very suspicious about the seed being what it is stated , soon to find out, have got some in T/c all most ready to see if it what it been sold to me as true ! not a lot can be done if its not true to the name of sent seed , except report to Ebay as false seller. may be why he has suddenly gone !!.

I have my own seed now mainly hybrids , do have N.lowii seed harvested now, just harvested on 12/12/13 and several other of my own hybrids too all just harvested

john

Edited by snapperhead51
Link to comment
Share on other sites

if is not interested at seeds of nepenthes cross, I can be interested John

I love grow nepenthes hybrids by seeds

I contacted alber because my pods was not arrived, he reply that is on mountain to find new seeds.

I take always pods from Alipe but they are hybrid not pure species

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes i got from Ricardo before, usual low germination with seed, he stiffed my with $40.00 of seed recently , seed sent but no show seems like him now a no show, and I am very suspicious about the seed being what it is stated , soon to find out, have got some in T/c all most ready to see if it what it been sold to me as true ! not a lot can be done if its not true to the name of sent seed , except report to Ebay as false seller. may be why he has suddenly gone !!.

I have my own seed now mainly hybrids , do have N.lowii seed harvested now, just harvested on 12/12/13 and several other of my own hybrids too all just harvested

john

I've been growing seeds from Ricardo for a few years now, and after growing plants to at least semi- maturity, I can say that he is VERY reliable and EXTREMELY honest. We have to be realistic about Nep seeds, sometimes they just don't grow, whether they're harvested in the wild or from our own pollinations, so we ought to allow for that. However, whether it's raffs and amps, or the rarer stuff he's sold over the years such as veitchii and naga, inermis, jamban, dubia, you usually get what you order. There's been odd exception, one batch of naga turned out to be talangensis. But that's one error out of scores of pods of seeds I've grown from him.

I understand there was an issue with his local post office, which has been resolved now, which meant that many things went missing in the post through this year... but then, when us uk buyers asked him about this, he happily resent fresh seeds by courier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always see forum members bashing other sellers and lauding Ricardo for his ostensible quality and accurately labeled seeds, but have found him to be one of the least reliable seed sellers in terms of mislabeled packets. Besides pods that were nothing close to the species I thought I had purchased, I have even received packages that were simply labeled as something else. This can be a nuisance when his seeds take on average 3 - 4 weeks to arrive. I've had better luck with other sellers, but others clearly disagree.

I would recommended purchasing from a variety of sources to see for yourself, rather than following the rabble (me included).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well nice to know that he actually sells what he states it is, , I asked a Indonesian guy who wanted to buy nep seed from me why didn't he buy from local sources from his own country like Ricardo !, he Stated, because I would not trust them to be what they are , they do for money nothing else and dont care what they sell !, is then what put dough in my mind .

is why I went and sourced my own with a huge difference in quality and germination .

I have tried to contact Ricardo , be no answer from him here, and no ebay sales on AU ebay either for some time , , i got some seed from other sellers in Indonesia Ebay , and so highly contaminated not 1 seed made it in T/C , when complained and asked for cleaner seed ,, just got banned from buying , no great loss seed was terrible any how. and mixed seed buy , not one germination in natural or T/C as well .wast or time and money again ! . considering I get 95% or greater with my seed and my own sourced seed .

now have reverted to doing my own hybrids and specie again , as plants mature and flower .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes Gareth , been done over from him already (nepenthaceae) , got banned for complaining , good busyness man hay !!

would not bother from him as well never got 1 seed from hundreds to germinate in natural or T/C . dont wast your time . dont know any reliable seed sellers now , all seem to be duds for me. is why I went got my own , and do my own now , less problems and better germination so far .

just not the specie seed I desire yet

but when my plants mature may be then

Edited by snapperhead51
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi everyone,

I want to start sawing some Nepenthes seeds, but I am wondering where to buy some fresh ones.

I saw that czplants has many (so many that I doubt they are all fresh).

Do you have other suppliers to recommend?

Thanks for the info

Vincent

Well, it is not like plants just continue making seeds. Seed is fresh when it is picked from the plant and sown within 6 weeks. So most of the seed out there is not "fresh", but should still germinate but with decreased seedling recruitment as the age increases. Depending on the conditions and the species, some Nepenthes seeds are still good after years of storage. Most, however, lose life by six months.

Also, mailing seed kills them. Everytime seeds go through the mail, some can die. It might be better to leave the seed inside the pods, but I'm not sure how much extra protection that might achieve...

Snapperhead, when you put seed in TC you are greatly increasing your costs. Make sure the seeds you are bothering to do this with are fresh. You can do this by trading pollen with someone or setting up an arrangement ahead of time. For example, you do TC. However, you don't have seed or pollen or flowering females! But someone else may want put some seed into TC, but they don't have the inclination for doing TC work. Going to meetings and networking with more local people will allow for this sort of cooperation and a supply of fresh seed as least now and then.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, mailing seed kills them. Everytime seeds go through the mail, some can die. It might be better to leave the seed inside the pods, but I'm not sure how much extra protection that might achieve...

I'm strongly disagree with that point.

The seeds from Nepenthes attenboroughii, Nepenthes veichii, Nepenthes lowii, N. stenophylla etc and lot crosses seeds always in the years I got from John ( snapperhead51) exatly in mail not in their pods and I always have over 95% germination rate from them.

I have received seeds bought from ebay exactly with their pods and from 5 pods, aprox more than 250 seeds I have just one germinated seed... :wink:

Separately from this seeds bought from ebay as N veichii, took me 2 years waste of time and hope until the seedlings become plants to realize that in fact I have lowland unknown crosses but not N. veichii.. :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, mailing seed kills them. Everytime seeds go through the mail, some can die.

Yeh, I'm gonna have to take you up on that as well Dave. I'm sure none of us want another 'old wives tale' taking root. (No I'm not calling you an Old Wife :laugh2: ).

I've had almost 100% germination of fresh Nep seeds sent from Thailand. I've also had great germination of seed sent to someone else before being forwarded on to me.

The truth is that that statement is impossible to prove or dis-prove, as we can't germinate the seed both before AND after posting.

The fresher the better - YES, especially it seems with Lowland species. But no 'proof' that posting kills 'some' of the seeds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote name='Dave Evans'

Well, it is not like plants just continue making seeds. Seed is fresh when it is picked from the plant and sown within 6 weeks. So most of the seed out there is not "fresh", but should still germinate but with decreased seedling recruitment as the age increases. Depending on the conditions and the species, some Nepenthes seeds are still good after years of storage. Most, however, lose life by six months.

100% agree with you there David , may be except on the seed being OK after 1 year in storage , never had much germination after 6 months some times up to 7 but rarely , H/L seed do have longer life than low land seed in my experiences .

quote name='Dave Evans'

Also, mailing seed kills them. Everytime seeds go through the mail, some can die. It might be better to leave the seed inside the pods, but I'm not sure how much extra protection that might achieve...

With seed in our post service , if not protected by bubble wrap or some thing , many tend to get crushed in the mail mechanical sorting system ,so yes unprotected letters or un-padded post can cause seed to get damaged and die , we are not allowed to have seed in pod's come into AU its usually confiscated by customs if picked up , all seed must be , just seed only , no pods , dirt, or any other material in the packet , or usually get destroyed by customs . all seed packest MUST have family name and speice name in English on each packet and must be declared with customs declaration form or is confiscated !! and so on !!

quote name='Dave Evans'

Snapperhead, when you put seed in TC you are greatly increasing your costs. Make sure the seeds you are bothering to do this with are fresh. You can do this by trading pollen with someone or setting up an arrangement ahead of time. For example, you do TC. However, you don't have seed or pollen or flowering females! But someone else may want put some seed into TC, but they don't have the inclination for doing TC work. Going to meetings and networking with more local people will allow for this sort of cooperation and a supply of fresh seed as least now and then.

David 100% agree again , I have done it here , T/C that is , just out of frustration and trying getting what I want . , cost was not a factor for me at this time, .its been a eye opening experience !

AU import laws and Quarantine and many other outrageous factors make importing of plants into AU costly, and masses of red tape , prosesed by questionable unskilled people, and so on , story's I've heard from private importers are just horrendous , Quote from a orchid importer !! .EG :- plant care instructions ! " storage plants in cool area ",, so worker put them in freezer, all were $100 to $200.$ ea, orchids plants, several thousands of $$ of plants lost , no consequence for loss and stupidity of worker, the person still had to pay for plant in storage and all other cost as well .! and it goes on from there !. from a friend resently got some plants in , may be things may have improved some what, seems his plant come through the process of 3 months quarantine and chimerical dipping or spraying , this time !! we will see next time round .

Importation of pollen into AU is forbidden , and there are not many here in AU that have specific specie plants that can or to get to flower, , high quality specie plants in AU are reasonable rare and hard to get and growing to flowing age is timely or long time in happening .even then many have trouble getting there plants to flower, I dont seem to have that trouble, lucky for me. and the pro CP nursery's , very few of ! will not let you buy or have pollen either, so that's out .

This is why you see so many hybrids in AU , many other factors of cause but who wants to read 500 pages of BS

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeh, I'm gonna have to take you up on that as well Dave. I'm sure none of us want another 'old wives tale' taking root. (No I'm not calling you an Old Wife :laugh2: ).

I've had almost 100% germination of fresh Nep seeds sent from Thailand. I've also had great germination of seed sent to someone else before being forwarded on to me.

The truth is that that statement is impossible to prove or dis-prove, as we can't germinate the seed both before AND after posting.

The fresher the better - YES, especially it seems with Lowland species. But no 'proof' that posting kills 'some' of the seeds.

Well, Phil I do doubt that just taking the seeds to the post office kills them. It probably has more to do with the crushing forces applied to the package as it moves through the various postal systems. The seed is basically a tiny paper envelope and I do believe the seeds become more brittle as they age and so after being mailed several times and possibly repackaged, they will have taking quite a beating.

Edited by Dave Evans
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Precisely Dave - It's not posting which is bad for seeds, it's bad packaging and bad handling - the same as for anything. So long as seed is well packed (properly cushioned and protected), then there is no problem with posting seeds.

Snapperhead - Dave is correct that seeds of highland species can still have good germination rates after being stored for a year or more. This obviously depends on the quality of the seed when first stored. The seed I had near 100% germination rate when first sowed, also showed a good germination rate after a year in my fridge (I had so much, a lot of it was stored).

I've also had the odd seed still germinating a year after it was sown (even though most germinated within 2-4 months) - this has happened with several species.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK interesting Phil , never had that much luck with nep seed that age here, all mine are stored in double sealed air tight containers in the fridge as well , about 7 months has been my limit even on my own fresh seed . , my fridge is not a food fridge but my T/C products storage fridge , so its at 2 c to 4 c all times .

,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Precisely Dave - It's not posting which is bad for seeds, it's bad packaging and bad handling - the same as for anything.

Well, most things you mail don't become increasingly fragile with age... I'm trying to point out that it becomes impossible not to kill some of the seed by reposting.

Several years ago I made seed of N. campanulata. I sent out a lot more seed than I sowed. I was the only person to have germination though... So I have two possible conclusions, mailing the seed did them in or they failed after being sowed from dampoff or what-have-you. And I have received clearly damage packages many times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...