A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 carnivorous plant seeds..

wavey:

Wow! This is my first time [i think] posting in here...

I got some carnivorous plant seeds a few months ago from somewhere which I do not remember at the moment..

--Mark--

It depends on what kind of seeds they are. Do you know? Usually most seeds should always be stored in the fridge or else they will loose fertility. After you plant them leave them in there for two months. Dont bury them, just sprinkle them on top of moist soil, making sure they have good contact. After two months put them on a sunny windowsill. One time I stratified 10 VFT seeds only for a week and two of them sprouted, but its best to keep in there for atleast a month and half. Thats the case with VFT and most sundew seeds anyways.

The method I use is to germinate all my insectivores on sphagnum moss. (VERY VERY wet). Sprinkle the seed on the sphagnum and put them somewhere cold for about 6 weeks (about 35-40*) a fridge is ideal. Make sure they are covered (cling film is ideal). Then take them out and put them somewhere at about 70* until germination. If you can't get sphagnum moss a mixture of peat and sand maybe 3:1 but not critical will do. The important thing is not to use ordinary soil or compost. You will kill them.
For really detailed instructions may I recommend
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html. Dr. Barry Rice is a complete expert and a hell of a nice guy to boot. If you need to email him tell him that John the lunatic from the English moors recommended him. He will kill me - LOL

You know Barry Rice? Thats so cool!

Depends what you mean by 'know' Carnivorousplantgrower. We have chatted a few times (but only by email) since I objected (what a cheek I have) to his description of watering with rain water on his sarracenia.com. He simply said that 'You may get away with it' and I felt that this was a bit simplistic (I have been using rainwater for 10 years with no problems.) We chatted about this and it appears that he lives on the edge of the desert and his rain is muddy and alkaline, whereas I live to the south-east of peat moorland and our rain is clean and slightly acid. Ideal for insectivores. Apparently he had put his rather simplistic classification of rain water on the site so as to accomodate beginners. But he agreed that it could possibly CONFUSE beginners and has now put a small addition on about my experience. Hey, I'm nearly famous. We have covered a few other things and I will be the first to say that his knowledge is vast, he's usually right and I am usually only nearly right - LOL. He has a great (if sarcastic) sense of humor too.

-John

I love his sense of humor... I got his book. I disagree with him saying that SuperThrive doesnt work.... I use it and I think it works real well.

Sorry Mark we seem to be forgetting this is your post in our discussion of Barry Rice. Carnivorousplantgrower (couldn't you have chosen a shorter handle Aaron - LOL) will no doubt recognise http://www.world-of-carnivores.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
where he is a member. Might be worth a look for you as well.

A great forum!