Conditions to germinate Drosera.

[Richard Hole]

Hi

Do you think the conditions described below would be good to germinate Drosera seed? A concern could be mold. However, after they germinate I plan to take them out of the terrarium. I could spray the surface with a 10% solution of organic cow's milk. However, I am not sure if that could cause any problems with the germination. Do you think it would be all right or do you think it would be unnecessary unless the mold starts?

I plan to grow the Drosera seeds in a large terrarium made by a fish tank. I plant to have it inside a greenhouse outside. White Solarweave plastic will be on the roof which filters out half the light. Below it I have 70% shade cloth. I assume this would give a total of about 85% shade.

The terrarium will have water in the bottom below the shelf where the seed box stand. I also plan to stand the Drosera seed box in a tray of water. The terrarium will have an inch gap up the top for ventilation.

Are these conditions good?


Regarding using milk as a fungicide, http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1484677.htm states:
"First I'm going to show you how to make a milk fungicide. I'm using organic milk because it contains all of the antibiotic qualities necessary to make this work. The magic ingredient is one part of the organic milk to 10 parts of water. You give that a good stir and it's ready for use. The objective of spraying is to make sure that you cover every single part of the plant, both sides of the leaves and coat the stems as well. Fungicides work best as a preventative, not as a cure. Now this has been proven to work on everything in the cucumber family, so my choko is fine. I've found them to be very good on begonias. Research in South Australia is proving that they're very effective in controlling mildews on grapevines. Research has also shown that if you have too much milk in your solution, you can encourage sooty mould, so stick to the recipe; one part milk, 10 parts water".

Should this be all right?

Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard.