My Propagation Chamber

[Jimmy]

Hello,
I'd like to share my setup for my propagation chamber - a ten-gallon terrarium that I use to raise CPs from seed and give some plants some extra TLC. These are pics from awhile ago - see next posts for more recent pics!
The whole setup:

Some Nep seedlings:

Some Sundews and live shagnum:

Sundew seed tray:



And a few closeups on my D. ordensis seedlings:


Jimmy

[Jimmy]

Here is my terrarium now. Overview:

[Jimmy]

Two N. northianas. One arrived pretty beat up, and a replacement was shipped to me.

Byblis and N. albomarginata seeds:

Another pic of my N. splendiana x ((veitchii x maxima) x veitchii) seedlings. More seem to pop up every week!

And a different pot of the same; it's been moved everywhere, from the terrarium to a windowsill to outside. Now it's back in the terrarium.

An experiment: three pots of N. splendiana x (Rokko x stenophylla) seeds in different medias.



More N. albo seeds:

A troublesome N. rafflesiana:

A recovering N. madagascariensis:

D. ordensis macros:

Algae problem...

Jimmy

[Marigoldsfail21]

That's a nice collection of seedlings you have. How well did your nepenthes seedlings grow on your windowsill? I just wanted to ask since I've never had any success with nepenthes seed. (And I might try it again when I have some extra $)

[Jimmy]

On the windowsill, I got only a few germinations (only the ones you see there - none died outside, they are pretty tough little guys) for roughly the same amount of seeds that are in the brown pot in the terrarium. Therefore, I would recommend that you try a very good-quality sphagnum as media, and get a terrarium or similar setup. It just makes everything so much easier and better.

What methods did you use with your failed Nep seeds? It might be that they rotted or got attacked by fungus...

[Marigoldsfail21]

I tried growing some ampullaria seeds(from David) in some little plastic pots(1 inch size, so cute!), but I used coconut husk and peat, and a 1:1 mix of peat and perlite. Most of them either dried out or molded. If I do decide to start some new seed, I'm going to grow them on LFS in glass bottles on my windowsill. The glass bottles "mini-terarrium thing has worked well for me. I've got some capensis and burmanii seeds growing in the bottles, as well as live sphagnum, sarracenia seedlings, and some D. prolifera cuttings. The only thing is that I think I should try highland seeds, as I think they'll do better than the amps I tried.

[Jimmy]

Yep, amp seeds are pretty tricky - based on what I've read and through experience with a few amp seeds. They apparently expire very quickly.

I've also observed that peat tends to host more fungus and microbes than sphagnum. Also, big pots are best, because they hold moisture in the media more evnly than small pots. I know small pots are tempting, though.

Good luck on your next attempts. Growing Neps from seed is a very rewarding experience - the hard part is learning how to do it very well!

[Cindy]

Jimmy, how long have you had the N. madagascariensis?

[Jimmy]

I've had the N. madagascariensis for over a year now - it's my first Nep. Unfortunately, it was subjected to an experimantal media change and it has yet to recover.....

[Cindy]

The leaves indicate that the plant is not happy at the roots...probably too wet. You may find that the red clay chips you used for the N. splendiana x (Rokko x stenophylla) seeds would do your plant good.