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My Sarracenia from seeds challenge


snowwy

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Hi all! :)

I started this challenge a few months ago and I'm excited to see what happens (and grows). I have never grown Sarracenia from seeds, only sundews. Im willing to learn and observe how the plants will grow.

I have two kinds of batches of seeds. The first one is a leucophylla cross, 2013 seeds and the another one contains 4 different crosses and are 2012 seeds.

Sarracenia leucophylla cross (LL 51 Leuco Russel Road x L9mk ALBA )

- Total of 25 seeds

- Cold stratification 15.11-6.12.13

- Put below a plant lamp 6.12.

- Germination started 18.12.

- 10 seeds germinated 19.12.

- 18 seeds germinated 24.12.

- 19 seeds germinated 30.12.

SH510 S. 'Uncle Jim's Rd 2' x (flava - Red tube x alata - Red lid)

- Total of 23 seeds

- Cold stratification 22.11-23.12.13

- Put below a plant lamp 23.12.

- Germination started 3.1.2014

- 4 seeds germinated 3.1.

- 6 seeds germinated 4.1.

- 12 seeds germinated 9.1.

- 11.2. transplanting

SH473 S. 'Mercury' x moorei 'Adrian Slack'

- Total of 21 seeds

- Cold stratification 22.11-23.12.13

- Put below a plant lamp 23.12.

- Germination started 4.1

- 3 seeds germinated 4.1.

- 9 seeds germinated 9.1.

- 12 seeds germinated 12.1.

- 11.2. transplanting

SH429 S. flava var. cuprea - Prince George County, Virginia x 'Orange Fire'

- Total of 57 seeds

- Cold stratification 22.11-23.12.13

- Put below a plant lamp 23.12.

- Germination started 3.1.2014

- 3 seeds germinated 3.1.

- 5 seeds germinated 4.1.

- 32 seeds germinated 9.1.

- 11.2. transplanting

SH448 S. (leucophylla - Baldwin County W x flava var. rugelii) x flava var. atropurpurea - All red form - Blackwater River State Forest, Florida

- Total of 58 seeds

- Cold stratification 22.11-23.12.13

- Put below a plant lamp 23.12.

- Germination started 1.1.2014 with 2 sprouts

- 7 seeds germinated 9.1.

- 11.2. transplanting

_____

Edited by snowwy
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congratulations! You will now be hooked on growing sarracenia from seed and seeing all the variations that are produced from the same batch of seed.

You can grow them under lights for a couple of seasons before they need a dormant period,this will make them grow much faster.

The only draw back to this is,you may lose some plants to the cold if or when you leave them in a cold greenhouse as they mature.

I leave them out in the cold as nature intended and this sorts out any weaklings for you very early and leaves only the toughest plants that are suited to your conditions.

good luck and keep the pictures coming.

ada

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Nice challenge :)

Sarracenia seeds can grow very quicly under good care, its very rewarding. In 05/2012 i sow 50 s.minor seeds and less than one year later the plants are adults with flowers. I do this with vfts also. You can skip the first dormancy, your sars will grow much faster. If the plants try to go dormant, just repot them, raise the day/night temperatures and feed them VERY well.

Also, try adding blue light spectrum to your setup, this will reach the plant tissues better if you have massive relative humidity.

Keep us posted with many pictures !

EDIT: sorry ada, i didnt read your post before posting mine, we said the same thing LOL

Edited by Maiden
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Thanks!: :Laie_97:

The seedlings and the seeds are below one 15W plant CFL around 15 hours a day. Since the light is not that equally spread I move the light from one side to another.

IMG_16912.jpg

ada: I'm eager to see what they turn out to be. Our spring starts in April-May so little ones have plenty of time to grow before I put them outside.Thank you I try to keep you all updated.

Maiden: Your minors were then very quick! I think I won't archieve the same speed :oops: Oh well I'm thinking about skipping their first dormancy in order to make them bigger faster. I have a daylight lamp waiting for them once they gain a little size first. Thanks!

IMG_17492_zps9ce4126f.jpg

This is the biggest fella. So cute! :JC_cupidgirl:

Edited by snowwy
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Congratulations Snowwy, I've not had any luck with Sarracenia seeds so far.

Ian.

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sarracenia seeds are easy to germinate.

just sow them now on your soil mix and they'll germinate in late april/may depending on the weather.

keep them moist/wet and well ventilated,nature does the rest.

ada

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  • 2 weeks later...

Growing sarras from seeds is exciting (especially when they are the result of your own crossings)and not difficult. It can be rewarding on the long term if you use seeds resulting from potentially interesting crosses. However according to my experience, it is very slow, even when growing them in terrarium (some other guys obviously get much faster results than me). Using a few granulates of Rhododendron fertilizers helps a bit, but you have to be very careful with that (too many granulates can be deadly to the seedlings). Another point, when you plan to use seeds resulting from complex crosses, you should try to get many seeds, as the results can be very heterogeneous. Sometimes in a series of 40 seedlings you get one very nice one and the rest is rubbish (well, in other cases you get several nice ones).

Edited by Cedric-666
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sarra, seedlings are very slow naturally.You need patience to grow them and good quality peat.

seedlings definetly get something from peat they need for growth no matter what the peat free brigade say.

ada

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  • 4 weeks later...

Frangelo: Interesting. I have read that repotting would be done after 1-2 months of growth or in the middle of 3-5 true leaf stage. I think repotting would be okay because the seedlings are growing in shallow, 1cm thick sphagnum media. That way the roots wont have that much vertical growth space :/

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It doesn't matter what size do you repot your seedlings, if you do it carefully. I do repot mines as they have first true leave (pitcher). They have only single root of 1 - 1,5 cm in lenght in that stage. So repotting with tweezers is very fast and safe for such a short root. You can do it like sewing machine. I can do about 1000 seedlings a day in this way. As the seedlings are larger and roots londer, this job is much more time consuming.

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im ordering a thousand mixed sarracenia seeds from triffid nurseries, it should be interesting to see just what comes of these seeds, gong to order quite a few named species and hybrids as well, I grow thousands of plants from seeds every year but this will be the first mass cp attempt,

quick question as I will have far too many trays for a fridge and temps outside are rapidly rising is it too late to strat outside in a greenhouse, or am I better off fridging as much as possible and rotating trays into the fridge?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I find using a small screwdriver is a good way to repot seedlings. Just push the root into the soil with one. You won't break the root.

Do you mean make a hole with the screwdriver and then put the root of the seedling in it or just pushing the seedlingroot inside the ground with the small screwdriver?

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  • 7 months later...

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