D. adelae leaf cutting experiment

[shawnintland]

Remember that D. adelae that got eaten up by scale? Well, I cut the leaves off and tried cleaning them of all scale and soaked 'em in water for a month and BINGO! Got little guys! Today I decided to experiment with transplanting into the following media for them;

Pure sphagnum moss
Pure sphagnum moss over a layer of perlite
Peat over perlite
Peat/sphag. over perlite
Peat/sphag./sand over perlite
Pure perlite















I'll post results in a few weeks

[shawnintland]

Well, nine days into the experiment and I've seen a couple things so far. Now this is from only a few samples so don't necessarily rule out anything just because of these results. I tried to keep everything the same; light intensity, humidity, temperature, etc.

Here's how things were looking today;
On pure peat moss;

close up;


On potting mix with chopped sphagnum over perlite; (sorry for the blur!)

close up;


On pure sphagnum; (well, I got the label in focus!)

close-up;


On pure perlite;


So, I don't think I'll use the pure peat too often! The sphagnum, the perlite and the potting mix are a pretty close tie but it appears that the pure sphagnum plants are the healthiest of the bunch.
Anyone else with results please post them!

[arvin555]

Hi Shawn, may we ask for a summary rating? Just do excellent, Above Average, average, below average

Pure sphagnum moss
Pure sphagnum moss over a layer of perlite
Peat over perlite
Peat/sphag. over perlite
Peat/sphag./sand over perlite
Pure perlite

I have actually used dried Sphagnum moss with most of my seeds, sometimes Sphagnum and cocopeat.

TTFN
Arvin

[shawnintland]

a summary rating;

Pure sphagnum moss +++ (unchopped grew better but chopped easier to tpl
Pure sphagnum moss over a layer of perlite (fine chopped) +++
Peat over perlite ---
Peat/sphag. over perlite +
Peat/sphag./sand over perlite ++
Pure perlite ++ (Survivors look good but 50% plants didn't make it.)

[bactrus]

You have now made multiplyplying D. adelae much easier. I am just plain lazy, I wait for side shoots from roots.

[edwardyeeks]

Nice plantlets, I like them......I can't wait for my first drosera, then I shall be propragating them this way!

Cheers

[arvin555]

Pure Sphagnum and Sphagnum with Perlite wins!

I just bought a bag of riversand yesterday, now not sure where to use them

For seeds, cuttings, etc. will be trying pure Sphagnum from now on, thanks Shawn!

TTFN
Arvin

[shawnintland]

Hi Arvin,

I also did some side by side tests with the same batches of D. Intermedia "Great Swamp" and "Cuba". The results were amazing - the ones on chopped sphagnum came up fast and those on pure peat only came up over five weeks later! (Which is this week so they are hopefully not yet all germinated - the numbers were amazing on the sphagnum). On the other hand ferns, especially Platycerium, seem to do impressively better on the pure peat moss.

And while I'm drifting off thread - I found a source for another media; pumice stone. Various sizes/grades in 1 kilo and 18 kilo bags. The office is in Bangkok and my first delivery arrived today - 180 kilos! Great stuff for my mixes and should add a lot of 'air' to the root systems. Already did a dozen transplants this evening. The Company is called Srilava and their website is http://srilava.com/

[arvin555]

I too have noticed a bit difference between two Indica seeds, one in Sphagnum one in mixed medium. The one in Sphagnum was planted later but it grew faster, almost double the size, I was surprised.

As for Pumice stones, luckily I have an easy supply here, I have a bag and yes have been putting them in most of my CP mixes. The Pumice stones will be used as substitute for Perlite, because perlite is so light and floats.

TTFN
Arvin

[funkychips]

Guys, I have a quick question here. Do all drosera cuttings need to be immersed in water before the plantlets come out and transplanted to growing media? TIA!