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platycerium!
hi everyone!
anyone owning platycerium out there? well, i do! i have a few species, namely a few pots of platycerium bifurcatum and many other unidentified local species. theyre excellent to grow side by side with CPs, especially nepenthes. cmon ppl, post pics. |
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A few of my platy's:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08690.jpg http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08689.jpg http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08688.jpg my favorite one: http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08683.jpg http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08684.jpg Ed |
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Wow! I would be very interested in any species, except P. bifurcatum, as small plants or even fresh spore; I have Aldrovanda and several Drosera from NJ available for trade. - Rich
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wow wijaya! your platycerium are awesome!
rsivertsen, its great to know that you have platycerium too. post pics! haha right now i have mostly bifurcatum and a few other unidentified local species. dont have much nice pics now but will take soon. |
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btw, im looking for this species of fern called tanduk kijang in malay.. the leaves look very similar, but this one, the leaves grow upwards instead of downwards!
ive seen some locals selling it at rm200++ for a small specimen. its too much for me! haha apparently orang asli/people that live deep in jungles have to climb reallllllly high up tropical trees to get them.. whereas for local platycerium species, its easier.. |
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What does bifurcatum look like?
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@Rich: no spores at the moment and very hard to find a small one, I will see in the local nursery, but no promise though, I will let you know. But will the platy survived the long trip to Jersey? Will at least take 2 weeks time by regular mail.
@malowie: thanks, do you mean this 'tanduk kijang'? some species will spread from Sumatra to Peninsular Malaysia. This one do grow upward, no latest picture, this one was taken last February and the picture is a bit blure. http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Feb170808.jpg I will update on this one when I took some new picture of it. Ed |
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http://syedazahar.blogspot.com/2007/...uk-kijang.html
check out the site the last pic if tanduk kijang.. hehe |
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@malowie: this just taken the new picture this morning, and for lol I just realized that since I got this one platy I put it upside down :blush:, I just realized this morning, the new grown leaf all facing upward again (greatness of nature in adapting) ha..ha...
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08816.jpg http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08815.jpg This is the upward growing platy, the link you posted, I believe that is P. ridleyii. Ed |
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:2thumbup:haha.. icic..
well, your p. ridleyi looks good! the picture i was referring to was this one to be specific... its a bit more bushy than ridleyi. http://bp3.blogger.com/_ekjnTnZCXb4/...h/FXCD0015.JPG the largest one with fronds growing upwards |
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Wow! That is a massive P. ridleyi! They are well known to be difficult to keep. If they lose their apical growing point, they rarely recover and produce another growth point. They are related to the P. coranarium, in that they both produce paddle spore pads, the only two species of the group to do so.
I have a 10 yr old P. superbum, and a form of P. bifurcatum, cv. hillii. I'll try to post a pic of them soon. - Rich |
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Guys,
I think this link will help a lot in the identificaton of your platyceriums. http://www.tfeps.org/platycerium_ridleyi.htm Good luck! AT |
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The Platycerium Hobbyists Handbook, by Roy Vail, is fantastic! I was given a copy by a grower/seller here in Thailand with a large order and must say it is THE best book I've ever seen on Platyceriums. It is produced by photocopying by the author so the photos do not do justice to the plants he is showing, but the information is outstanding and based upon a lifetime of experience studying them. Roy also sells DVD's and CD's (5 seperate ones, I think) and I bought them a few months back. All the photos from the book are on the CD and more. The DVD's are of various trips through Australia and the Andes and many visits to both growers' homes and naturally growing platycerium sites.
There's an earlier post under "platys" in which I posted a couple photographs of diagrams useful in ID'ing platys based upon their spore patches. Start growing them from spores! It is really fun and great for the species themselves as you don't remove them from nature. Most people are more than willing to give you spores off of their plants as it only takes a tiny bit to make hundreds or thousands! Here's some really fast growing P. elephantotis prothallium/gametophytes at about 3 months; http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...p/IMG_9817.jpg And these are P. ridleyi at about 5 months with the first 'true' leaves just forming; http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...p/IMG_9815.jpg Good luck growing! |
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Those baby "rid's" are looking mighty fine! - Rich
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@malowie: sorry I got you confused, the picture I last posted not 'ridleyii' it is to show you that is called 'tanduk kijang'.
@Rich: yes, I killed my ridleyii as I didn't tie it strong enough, the whole crown fallen and crushed on the growing point, hence never recover. @shawn: wow, that is a lot of platys there :2thumbup:, now you really ready to open up a nursery, nice elephantotis. btw how do you propogate them by spores? Ed |
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anyway, feed your platies banana skins. its the best fertilizer. very very high in potassium.:2thumbup: |
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Well, I used to start by chopping dry sphagnum in a blender until it is really fine. I have now switched to using peat (powdered form). The results with the peat are far superior in terms of health of the plants. Place this about 1 cm thick in a sealable plastic box. (Best to mist layers as you put it in or the bottom will stay dry with air pockets) you want it moistened but not so soggy that there's standing water. Some people use big plastic trays like you carry potted plants inside of, but I think they are mostly greenhouse growers that have very high humidity all the time. Then, just try to spread the spores evenly across the top surface (not too thickly or you'll never be able to transplant them individually!) and cover them. Leave in medium bright light but not direct sunlight, misting whenever they need it (depends on your cover).
After 1-3 months it will appear to have a fine green 'mist' on the surface. As time passes you'll see the first growths as transparent, filmy, circular prothallium/gametophytes. (Like the first photo) These are still not fertilized 'beings' yet...the sperm need to 'swim' between the individual plants so you can't forget to keep misting. After they are fertilized, they start to grow the first 'true' leaves (like the second photo of the P. Ridlyii) You can see them as little 'flags". Anytime after that you can start to transplant them to a new container so that they have room enough between plants to grow without crowding each other out. Again, I use boxes with peat moss, and a tweezers and/or a needle to move them. It's a little hard without a magnifying glass but they are pretty resilient, so just try to get them right-side-up! You can just set them on the surface, no need to "plant" them. And lightly mist them again so they settle onto the surface. They are pretty slow growing for the first year to year and a half, but really start going after that. High humidity really helps and drying out at anytime while they are young is instant death!:crying: Before you know it you will be looking to buy shelving units to store all your boxes as it is so easy you won't be able to pass a new species without collecting spores! By the way, this method holds true for almost any fern species. You just have to be there at the right time to collect the spores as they are ready to drop. Scratching off spores before they are ready to drop on their own is a waste of time. I definitely recommend trying this and wish I had started doing it when I was younger...I'd have millions of them by now...well...I do anyway! But they would be much bigger! You will feel great being able to give them away to people or just start putting them in trees everywhere you think they will survive...help put the 'jungle-rapist' out of business! Better yet - teach them how to grow 'em from spores! There are a lot of websites that discuss growing Platyceriums from spores as well as numerous forums with helpful people where this is discussed (just like we discuss CP growing here). As mentioned above, Roy Vail's book is the best I have read on the subject. Try It! Good luck growing!:biggrin: And post your results! |
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wowh! shawn! i never knew platyserium can be propagated that way. i just thought that in captivity, the spores just die off.
im definitely gonna try it as my coronarium keeps producing spore caps. thanks! |
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If you ever get some small plants from those spores of P. coranarium, let me know, I'll either buy, or find something to trade something in exchange for a few. - Rich
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@shawn: thanks, that is very informative. Surely will try it once I have spores on my platys, not yet so far.
@malowie: thanks for the tips, I got the tips from TS last time but never try yet. Ed |
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Rich and Ed, Go for it!
Ed - Don't wait for spores on your young plants - visit friends/nurseries/gardens and just ask, most people are willing to let you take spores for free! Just do a little reading first so you know at what stage to collect them. Rich - shipping little baby sporelings would probably be tricky as the plants are pretty 'fragile' until they get a bit bigger. Any drying out and they really suffer! But as I said, it's not hard to grow them from spores, just takes a commitment not to forget to mist them. You will both be amazed at how good it feels to raise these plants from spores instead of buying big, expensive plants (which, here in Asia at least, are usually just ripped from the jungle). |
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I agree, raising plants from spore is the better way to go! btw, my P. superbum is in spore right now, and I will be willing to trade for spore with another species. I have tried to get P. ridleyii to come up from spore, but they never germinated. If small plants are to be shipped, they should be at least 6 months old, so that they have a small root system by then. - Rich
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Another thing that's very important - don't leave the containers open any more than you have too, even before planting. I have numerous boxes that got spores of 'unwanted' ferns drifting into them and it's a real pain as they grow much quicker than the platys and start spreading roots throughout the others. |
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Well, the most recent attempt I made was some P. ridleyii spore that I sowed 2 years ago, when the mother plant died from being eaten by a sow bug and pill bug infestation, and those spores still haven't germinated, even though they are in a terrarium, under lights, with some Nepenthes cuttings and seedlings. Those small pots are now just growing some moss, but no P. ridleyii. :( - Rich
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Actually Rich, take a look at the "Moss" with a good magnifying glass...you may have a bed of ridleyii growing! The first stage of platycerium growth looks just like a low carpet of moss. Unless there is sufficient humidity/moisture for the sperm to swim between the individual plantlets they will stay at that stage almost indefinately!
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A few of my boxes of young Platycerium were getting a bit crowded so I did a little transplanting today to space them out. Figure the pictures might be useful to someone.:crying: Most of these were started on New Years' Eve 2006/2007. They were started on chopped pure sphagnum and transplanted 2-4 times since. Recently I shifted them to pure peat on a bed of sphagnum and they just went nuts, greening up and jumping in size in less than a month!
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0298.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0305.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0299.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0302.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0309.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0306.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0311.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0312.jpg |
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Wow! Shawn, they look great! Which ones are they? I had my spores in a similar situation, but they never germinated, and eventually some other moss overgrew the peat/sphagnum mix. - Rich
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wow shawn! youre awesome!
i wish i could do that too.. |
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They look really great!
Shawn sorry a bit of an OT question here, you said you use peat moss, but I see in the photo you use those rectangle basket type trays, how do you make sure that peat moss doesn't go out of those basket holes? Magic? :) I love your domes, still haven't found any in our supermarkets, might try wholesalers soon, but maybe I should hang around that big coffee chain and get those domes from their trash :) hahaha! I even wonder if I can chat up someone working in there and see if they can collect the domes for me, I'll be reusing them so that is part of recycling process. :) TTFN Arvin |
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Whoops, I forgot! I just started using those open weave baskets this week and I first put down a layer of slightly chopped sphagnum moss which I spray down with water. Then I pile the peat on top of that, no magic in that part! Sorry I forgot to explain!
Try asking the street vendors where they buy their supplys, that's the kind of place I buy mine from. |
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For more info, check out: http://www.platycerium.co.za/species.htm
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some of my platys!!! haha
only have a few pics to share.. these are old pics.. http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/DSC01147.jpg http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/DSC01148.jpg |
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Malowie, I think that last one is either a Vittaria sp. or a Microsorum longissimumn or else (less likely) a Ophioglossum pendulatum. All 3 love to grow out of the shields of platyceriums from spores and all three are quite nice. Just water like you normally would for the platycerium.
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Ok guys, here's a few more "platy photo-tips"! I decided to transplant a couple of the staghorn ferns that I just transplanted 12 days ago because they grew so fast that they were already crowding each other out. I tried to shoot pictures of the method I used this time showing the containers, sphagnum moss, peat moss, and the 'finished' plants. I've used these open-baskets so that I can set them on a shallow tray to wick up moisture as they need it. I didn't shoot a picture of it - but after they were transplanted I put them each into a large plastic box with a loose lid. They will stay in there for a few days, enjoying the high humidity and then get acclimatized to the real world. Hope these help! :blush:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0588.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0575.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0579.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0580.jpg http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_0598.jpg |
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Newbie and maybe a lazy question but hope you guys can help me. My brother has a Staghorn, biggish already, May I know where can I collect the spores? I mean where are the spores found on Staghorns?
TTFN Arvin |
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Platycerium stemmaria : From sifu Andy...about 1 year in my hand.
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...d/P1100047.jpg |
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Was this pic (and the 3mth old P. elephantotis prothallium/gametophytes) extracted from Roy Vail's "The Platycerium Hobbyists Handbook"? Judging from your comment ("must say it is THE best book I've ever seen on Platyceriums"), I'm itching to get me a copy too... complete with the DVDs, when specific information can be so hard to find sometimes. You mentioned "a large order"... was that for platys as well? If so, what does the seller have in stock? Regards, Ronnie |
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