platycerium!

[rsivertsen]

Wow! That is a massive P. ridleyi! They are well known to be difficult to keep. If they lose their apical growing point, they rarely recover and produce another growth point. They are related to the P. coranarium, in that they both produce paddle spore pads, the only two species of the group to do so.

I have a 10 yr old P. superbum, and a form of P. bifurcatum, cv. hillii. I'll try to post a pic of them soon. - Rich

[atmccmn]

Guys,

I think this link will help a lot in the identificaton of your platyceriums.

http://www.tfeps.org/platycerium_ridleyi.htm

Good luck!
AT

[shawnintland]

The Platycerium Hobbyists Handbook, by Roy Vail, is fantastic! I was given a copy by a grower/seller here in Thailand with a large order and must say it is THE best book I've ever seen on Platyceriums. It is produced by photocopying by the author so the photos do not do justice to the plants he is showing, but the information is outstanding and based upon a lifetime of experience studying them. Roy also sells DVD's and CD's (5 seperate ones, I think) and I bought them a few months back. All the photos from the book are on the CD and more. The DVD's are of various trips through Australia and the Andes and many visits to both growers' homes and naturally growing platycerium sites.
There's an earlier post under "platys" in which I posted a couple photographs of diagrams useful in ID'ing platys based upon their spore patches.
Start growing them from spores! It is really fun and great for the species themselves as you don't remove them from nature. Most people are more than willing to give you spores off of their plants as it only takes a tiny bit to make hundreds or thousands!

Here's some really fast growing P. elephantotis prothallium/gametophytes at about 3 months;


And these are P. ridleyi at about 5 months with the first 'true' leaves just forming;


Good luck growing!

[rsivertsen]

Those baby "rid's" are looking mighty fine! - Rich

[wijaya]

@malowie: sorry I got you confused, the picture I last posted not 'ridleyii' it is to show you that is called 'tanduk kijang'.

@Rich: yes, I killed my ridleyii as I didn't tie it strong enough, the whole crown fallen and crushed on the growing point, hence never recover.

@shawn: wow, that is a lot of platys there , now you really ready to open up a nursery, nice elephantotis. btw how do you propogate them by spores?

Ed

Originally Posted by wijaya

@malowie: sorry I got you confused, the picture I last posted not 'ridleyii' it is to show you that is called 'tanduk kijang'.

@Rich: yes, I killed my ridleyii as I didn't tie it strong enough, the whole crown fallen and crushed on the growing point, hence never recover.

@shawn: wow, that is a lot of platys there , now you really ready to open up a nursery, nice elephantotis. btw how do you propogate them by spores?

Ed

its okay..

anyway, feed your platies banana skins. its the best fertilizer. very very high in potassium.

[shawnintland]

Well, I used to start by chopping dry sphagnum in a blender until it is really fine. I have now switched to using peat (powdered form). The results with the peat are far superior in terms of health of the plants. Place this about 1 cm thick in a sealable plastic box. (Best to mist layers as you put it in or the bottom will stay dry with air pockets) you want it moistened but not so soggy that there's standing water. Some people use big plastic trays like you carry potted plants inside of, but I think they are mostly greenhouse growers that have very high humidity all the time. Then, just try to spread the spores evenly across the top surface (not too thickly or you'll never be able to transplant them individually!) and cover them. Leave in medium bright light but not direct sunlight, misting whenever they need it (depends on your cover).

After 1-3 months it will appear to have a fine green 'mist' on the surface. As time passes you'll see the first growths as transparent, filmy, circular prothallium/gametophytes. (Like the first photo) These are still not fertilized 'beings' yet...the sperm need to 'swim' between the individual plants so you can't forget to keep misting.

After they are fertilized, they start to grow the first 'true' leaves (like the second photo of the P. Ridlyii) You can see them as little 'flags". Anytime after that you can start to transplant them to a new container so that they have room enough between plants to grow without crowding each other out. Again, I use boxes with peat moss, and a tweezers and/or a needle to move them. It's a little hard without a magnifying glass but they are pretty resilient, so just try to get them right-side-up! You can just set them on the surface, no need to "plant" them. And lightly mist them again so they settle onto the surface.

They are pretty slow growing for the first year to year and a half, but really start going after that. High humidity really helps and drying out at anytime while they are young is instant death!

Before you know it you will be looking to buy shelving units to store all your boxes as it is so easy you won't be able to pass a new species without collecting spores! By the way, this method holds true for almost any fern species. You just have to be there at the right time to collect the spores as they are ready to drop. Scratching off spores before they are ready to drop on their own is a waste of time.

I definitely recommend trying this and wish I had started doing it when I was younger...I'd have millions of them by now...well...I do anyway! But they would be much bigger! You will feel great being able to give them away to people or just start putting them in trees everywhere you think they will survive...help put the 'jungle-rapist' out of business! Better yet - teach them how to grow 'em from spores! There are a lot of websites that discuss growing Platyceriums from spores as well as numerous forums with helpful people where this is discussed (just like we discuss CP growing here). As mentioned above, Roy Vail's book is the best I have read on the subject.

Try It! Good luck growing! And post your results!

wowh! shawn! i never knew platyserium can be propagated that way. i just thought that in captivity, the spores just die off.

im definitely gonna try it as my coronarium keeps producing spore caps.

thanks!

[rsivertsen]

If you ever get some small plants from those spores of P. coranarium, let me know, I'll either buy, or find something to trade something in exchange for a few. - Rich

[wijaya]

@shawn: thanks, that is very informative. Surely will try it once I have spores on my platys, not yet so far.

@malowie: thanks for the tips, I got the tips from TS last time but never try yet.

Ed