The best way to grow Drosera leaf cuttings.

[Richard Hole]

Hello

Is there any advantage of taking Drosera leaf cuttings by cutting the leaf where it intersects the crown compared to cutting the leaf 2 or 3 millimeters away from where it joins the crown? A problem with cutting where the leaf intersects the crown is that it may damage the plant or other leaves. It also may be more difficult to cut.

Also I read in Adrian Slack’s book that it is best to lay the leaves on finely broken sphagnum moss and to just cover the leaves with a thin layer of sphagnum moss. However, another grower suggested to just lay the leaves on peat moss and not cover them at all. An advantage with covering the leaves is that it would help to press them flat on the surface of the growing medium. Some curly leaves may not sit flat and could be separated from the surface if they are not covered.

Some people also suggest to cut the longer leaves into several pieces. Is this an advantage apart from that it could enable the leaf segments to remain in better contact with the growing medium compared to a longer leaf?

The plants I plan to grow are Drosera capensis, spatulata, adelae, venusta, indica and aliciae

Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard.

[allenphoon]

well, this is what i think
if you cut the drosera into more pieces with small length, it means that the nutrient that will be the first source of energy supply will be less, even though you may got a lot of plant at last, but they will grow much slower if compare to the cutting that have wider length. Unless you are trying on long leaf drosera, cutting them into more pieces seems to save more place and produce more plant, if you trying this on drosera adelae, you dont have to do anything to make it to make more plantlet, just let them lay on the sphagnum moss and a 5cm leaf can produce at least 10+ plantlet(this what i got through the leaf cutting)

But every people method works different, so the best way to find a successful cutting method is to try and error and find out yourself!!! Hope you will can find it!!

[Richard Hole]

Hello

I have had some Drosera leaf cuttings growing plantlets in water.

Some of the leaves have only produced one plantlet after about 6 weeks.

Do you suggest cutting the plantlets off the leaf cuttings soon after they produce roots and then putting the leaves that they have been cut from back into the water again so new plantlets may form? Note, the leaves may have some parts cut from them where I remove the plantlets in order to avoid damaging the plantlet.

Or alternatively should I leave the plantlets grow until they are fairly large for a few months so that more plantlets will get time to form and then cut them all off together to plant?

Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard.

[caseyhoo]

Is there any advantage of taking Drosera leaf cuttings by cutting the leaf where it intersects the crown compared to cutting the leaf 2 or 3 millimeters away from where it joins the crown? A problem with cutting where the leaf intersects the crown is that it may damage the plant or other leaves. It also may be more difficult to cut.
>> For all drosera leaf propagation, there is 2 ways for difference type of drosera.
most common way, "use scissor and cut". It apply to most of drosera. Just make sure cutted leaf have dew (offcouse is long enough). it is not neccessary "cutting the leaf where it intersects the crown"
2nd way is apply to petiolaris complex (as I know, please correct me if im wrong) . Where you need to make leaf pulling instead of cutting. Because, plantlet will produce from the section where the leaf attached to mother plant and not from "dew section". you can refer to http://carnivorousplants.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/propagate-d-paradoxa-by-leaf-pulling/

Also I read in Adrian Slack’s book that it is best to lay the leaves on finely broken sphagnum moss and to just cover the leaves with a thin layer of sphagnum moss. However, another grower suggested to just lay the leaves on peat moss and not cover them at all. An advantage with covering the leaves is that it would help to press them flat on the surface of the growing medium. Some curly leaves may not sit flat and could be separated from the surface if they are not covered.
>> You can use anything to help to laying flat those leaf. Last time, I use small wood stick to do so.

Some people also suggest to cut the longer leaves into several pieces. Is this an advantage apart from that it could enable the leaf segments to remain in better contact with the growing medium compared to a longer leaf?
>> If the leaf is too long (eg filiformis), it is difficult to plant it and it really impossible to flatten the whole leaf. That is main reason to cut it short

The plants I plan to grow are Drosera capensis, spatulata, adelae, venusta, indica and aliciae
>> For the list of drosera above, you can use "cut leaf" method instead of "leaf pulling". As I know, some drosera cannot propagate from leaf pulling, D. burmanii is the most common example. I never try venusta, indica and aliciae, not sure the result.

[caseyhoo]

Originally Posted by allenphoon

well, this is what i think
if you cut the drosera into more pieces with small length, it means that the nutrient that will be the first source of energy supply will be less, even though you may got a lot of plant at last, but they will grow much slower if compare to the cutting that have wider length. Unless you are trying on long leaf drosera, cutting them into more pieces seems to save more place and produce more plant, if you trying this on drosera adelae, you dont have to do anything to make it to make more plantlet, just let them lay on the sphagnum moss and a 5cm leaf can produce at least 10+ plantlet(this what i got through the leaf cutting)

But every people method works different, so the best way to find a successful cutting method is to try and error and find out yourself!!! Hope you will can find it!!

allen, I just know that longer leaf will give us more healthy and strong plantlet!!!!! Great sharing!!!

[caseyhoo]

Originally Posted by Richard Hole

Hello

I have had some Drosera leaf cuttings growing plantlets in water.

Some of the leaves have only produced one plantlet after about 6 weeks.

Do you suggest cutting the plantlets off the leaf cuttings soon after they produce roots and then putting the leaves that they have been cut from back into the water again so new plantlets may form? Note, the leaves may have some parts cut from them where I remove the plantlets in order to avoid damaging the plantlet.

Or alternatively should I leave the plantlets grow until they are fairly large for a few months so that more plantlets will get time to form and then cut them all off together to plant?

Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard.

Last time, I take out those plantlet and leaf together from water and plant it when they reach around 5mm size.

I never put back those leaf into the water after remove those plantlet. Please try and share with us

Below is my previous post
http://carnivorousplants.wordpress.c...-water-method/

[Richard Hole]

Hello

I put some Drosera leaf cuttings in water over 3 months ago. Some of the plantlets are about 1 centimeter long but have produced few if any roots. Should I wait a couple more months for roots to form before I plant them out or after this length of time would you suggest planting them even if the plantlet has no roots? I am happy to wait so long as it is not best to plant after a certain time period and so long as the plants continue to grow in the water. If there is a maximum time limit in the water you suggest what is it? We are currently in the Autumn.

I could plant the ones out that have roots and leave the others that do not have roots if you suggest that? I have had Drosera Capensis, Adelae, Spatulata, and Venusta to strike in water by leaf cuttings.

Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard

[edwardyeeks]

I have never tried using water method to root Drosera leaf cuttings. I find that wet peat moss is just fine. I think it would be best for a little root to form.

[kepikimut]

my leaf cutting (drosera filiformis)

[Richard Hole]

Hello

In my recent experiments I have found wet peat to be better than water. In water I found the plants started to grow but then stopped growing rapidly and with some species they stopped growing and rotted. The plants did not grow very strong in water. However, in wet peat or sphagnum, strong plants grew. I think this was probably because there was some medium for the roots to grow in. Another advantage of growing in peat over water is that the plants could be hardened off before potting and the amount of water the pots standing in could be reduced. Initially I found them to grow well when the water level kept the peat or sphagnum wet where the level of the water was about 1 centimeter below the top of the peat or sphagnum. My very recent experiments indicate that sphagnum based peat may be better than sphagnum. However, I have not done many comparisons yet and other factors may have affected the results. With peat there is more contact between the medium and the leaf than with sphagnum and this may help. I find the cuttings grow well under foggers that produce a fine mist every few minutes in drier weather.

I am interested in hearing from any other people that have compared using water to peat and sphagnum.

Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard.