Greetings from Singapore

[WetFingers]

Hi all,
I recently rekindled an interest in platycerium species and was referred to sign up here, to read the platy discussions, which have been very interesting.

Like Shawn and other platy-hobbyists, I've also started propagation via spores and have some grow-out boxes reaching the sporophyte stage. Although lagging way behind, I'm still keen to learn, exchange ideas and hopefully, do my bit in platy conservation, however insignificant our efforts may be.

Regards,
Ronnie

[plantlover]

Welcome to Petpitcher.

[TS]

Hello Ronnie, welcome on board Petpitcher!
Platycerium!!! Yes, I love platy too. There are quite a number of platy enthusiast here in PP. Please share your growing experience, so we could learn together. Hope you enjoy here and have fun!

[David]

Yes, we need more enthusiasts to share their experience in the Platy section so that inexperience members like me can learn how to care for them well.

[shawnintland]

Hi Ronnie,
Welcome to PP! Glad to see more and more people getting into growing these from spores. It's a lot of fun to see them develop as time goes by. If we can help with anything please just ask. What species have you started?
~Shawn

[WetFingers]

Thanks guys for the welcome. Hope to share my brief experience and mistakes, and learn from those who've done it before.

Shawn,
I've made many attempts with P. ridleyi and it was only recently that I saw some results. Still working on the ridleyi but I seem to be growing more weeds.

Posted the following pics in a SG forum on 20th July and was sooo happy, thinking that these were ridleyi sporophytes stage but was informed that these are more likely to be Nephrolepis biserrata, since the leaves are lobulated (or divided into lobes).


Click on image for larger pic.







I was looking for images of ridleyi sporophytes and finally saw it in one of the threads here. Searching through my grow-out boxes, I found a few and transferred these to a decom'ed aquarium (glass-covered), with sphagnum/peat base (much like yours).

Encouraged that I could actually grow some platys from spores, I've recently sown P. alcicorne (Madagascar form), coronarium, holttumii, wallichii and more ridleyi. Possibly, P. andinum as well in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, the weather was great and thought it'd be a good idea to bring my youngest daughter along to the nurseries for a quick look-see. Hah! I was right to stay away from nurseries... because I came home with another elephantotis!

Regards,
Ronnie

[shawnintland]

Sounds like you've 'caught the bug' yourself! I have had the same experience with ridleyii and 'contamination' spores. I really try to be careful about contaminating my germination boxes but still get weird ferns sprouting in them anyway! I've now started collecting spores from various tree ferns and a few other genus of ferns. It's a slow process but one that can really turn out the numbers of plants over time. I'm still waiting to see if they are 'real' or not but seem to have had great luck with elephantotis spores (I think!).
~Shawn

[WetFingers]

Shawn,
To be honest, I'm not really sure where these contaminants came from. There are no 'wild ferns' near my growing area and I've quietly yanked off those I found at my neighbour's area (ssshhh... ).

Spores were harvested directly from the ridleyi 'cup', which was loosely covered with a plastic bag (as it was turning brown) to catch all the spores, lest I overlooked their release (and ya, these are dropped in huge clumps!)

I'm sending a sachet of ridleyi spores to a member here. Likewise, a SG member is trying to OD me on elephantotis spores! Looks like fun times ahead!

Regards,
Ronnie