Drosera seed experiments

[arvin555]

I had 2 experiments with spare Drosera Spatulata seeds.

1. I tried using a simple germinating potting mix..... Tissue paper! I put in 2 types of seeds, D. Spatulata and some Nepenthes seeds.

Result: Drosera seeds have germinated and are actually rooting into the Tissue paper. Tissue paper used is for Toilet and is a bit soft, it of course wetted with rain water before seeds were put ontop.

Nepenthes seeds, nothing yet.


2. I tried another experiment on D. Spatulata, to try to see if there is difference between soaking with Smoke water for 24 hours or not.

one batch of seeds were soaked in smoke water (which is water that I got from burning some newspaper and then the ashes were put in a bottle with water), because the seeds were hydrophobic, a small drop of dishwashing soap instantly made all the seeds sink into the water rather than float.

After 24 hours of soaking, I drained the water and then prepared a plastic container with dried Sphagnum moss (prewetted already). The container is rectangular so I put a divider in the middle.

On one side (half) of the container, I sowed the seeds that were soaked. On the other side I sowed dry seeds or seeds that did not go through any preparation.

Result:
Not yet conclusive, but today I inspected the container, and there are more seeds that have already started germinating that were soaked, compared to just a few from the ones that were not soaked. Also the ones that were soaked were a bit bigger, which means that even though I did not check everyday, I can see that the ones that were soaked started germinating earlier.

Conclusion: Well maybe a bit early to tell, but I guess if you soak Drosera seeds in water for 24 to 48 hours before sowing, you might get better and faster germination.

Take note that I just experimented with using dishwashing soap sometime ago, I like it because I know that the seeds are getting soaked well rather than floating on top. Unfortunately all my nepenthes seeds did not have dishwashing soap when they were presoaked because they were sowed before I thought about using soap to make them sink.

Photos soon... maybe.

TTFN
Arvin

[strath76]

Good work Arvin. I am not surprised with your results. Spathulata seeds tend to germinate readily and if you allow a plant to flower you often get them everywhere. The smoke water is often used on species that are difficult to germinate such as tuberous drosera. These come from areas that regularly experience fires and so have adapted to germinate after this simulation.

Good luck with the experiments and I hope the nep seeds come good for you. Please keep us updated on these. Cheers.

[Khoas]

Good work. Hope you try other species of Drosera to see the results.

[edwardyeeks]

I can conclude that chemicals(natural ones) usually trigger the seeds to germinate faster. Like your smoke water. Nice try, I hope it will work. Perhaps you should have done i a little bit earlier, since I just sowed my burmanii and indica seeds just now.......

Thanks for sharing, arvin!

Cheers