|
Post by dvg on Oct 28, 2011 22:49:25 GMT -5
If one has the patience to grow these plants from seed, it's an economical way to add some interesting new mexi-pings to one's collection. Recently, i had a chance to again try my hand at germinating a few Pinguicula species from seed. And though the following pics are in no way stellar, as the tiny starts look very similar to garden weeds first emerging from the ground after a summer's rain, they do show the beginnings of little green pings that hopefully will one day grace me with either unique foliage or delicate flowers. P. agnata - These had very good germination. P. lilacina - Only three of these seeds germinated. P. orchidioides - One of the last species to germinate, but germination was decent with these. An interesting species, this one also has the synonym, P. stolonifera and is the only Pinguicula species to date that is known to propagate itself through the stolons that it produces. P. moranensis (Huixteco) - Probably my favorite P. moranensis species, because of it's thick fleshy leaves. P. moranensis - Another known location mexi-ping with very good germination. P. moranensis - This one has red rosettes, though not at this stage, and again there was good germination with this species. P. sharpii - Only three of these seeds sprouted. All of these plants are currently in vermiculite, and once they are larger, they will be moved to an appropriate media mix, more suited to their personal preferences. dvg
|
|
|
Post by hal on Oct 28, 2011 22:55:45 GMT -5
Good stuff, dvg. Where do you get your seeds?
|
|
|
Post by lloyd on Oct 28, 2011 23:04:41 GMT -5
Good to see such results with ping seeds. I'm also interested in your supplier.
|
|
|
Post by 31drew31 on Oct 28, 2011 23:23:41 GMT -5
Very cool dvg! I just sowed about 100 and hope to see a few sprout. I didn't have vermiculite so will try that next time as it looks like you have great results.
|
|
|
Post by dvg on Oct 30, 2011 11:38:39 GMT -5
Thanks guys.
@ Lloyd and hal, the seeds came from BCP.
@ Drew, Nice! Good luck with your seeds and hopefully you get some good germination rates as well.
dvg
|
|
|
Post by 31drew31 on Oct 30, 2011 20:28:33 GMT -5
dvg, approximately how old are the seedlings in the photos? and how long would you say it takes to get adult plants.
|
|
|
Post by dvg on Oct 30, 2011 20:57:15 GMT -5
Most of those seedlings are maybe about a week or so old, and the P. orchidioides seedlings are only a few days old.
It probably takes close to a year for the seedlings to get to adult size, but only if they are fertilized or otherwise fed on a regular basis.
dvg
|
|
|
Post by 31drew31 on Oct 30, 2011 21:01:51 GMT -5
Cool, thanks for the info!
|
|
|
Post by dvg on Oct 30, 2011 21:04:00 GMT -5
You're welcome!
dvg
|
|
|
Post by dvg on Nov 5, 2011 17:31:34 GMT -5
To speed up the growth of these P. lilacina seedlings, i've opted to feed them with different types of the three species of springtails that i grow in culture. The bag of vermiculite that supplied the media that these seedlings are growing in has been outside for the last year or so, and upon closer inspection i had noticed that there were already local springtails, mites and tiny spiders cruising around in there and the seedlings had already managed to nab a few of these feral snacks. Here is a closer look at the middle and second largest seedling ping. It has managed to latch onto the most prey thus far and it will be interesting to see if this helps it out with a growth spurt. It already has captured one of the tropical springtails i released in the growing container. It's the white colored critter on the very right hand side leaf. And because springtails love to eat fungi, they can take care of any mold that happens to arise in the container on or near the plants and subsequently become part of the plant's diet. dvg
|
|
|
Post by dvg on Nov 21, 2011 15:39:37 GMT -5
Some of these Mexican Pinguicula seedlings are really growing along faster than i expected. P. lilacina is making the biggest gains thus far and is already taking Drosophila melanogaster flightless fruit flies for food as well as tropical springtails. Not sure if these mexi-ping seedlings are being overfed at this point in time, but i'll watch them closely and let them tell me how much they're liking all of the food they've been getting. P. sharpii is putting out the next largest set of leaves/traps. P. agnata is coming along quite nicely as well, with very good germination rates from that seed batch. And P. moranensis, the red rosetted form, even though it's still not yet showing any of that red pigmentation, isn't doing too badly either. dvg
|
|
|
Post by shoggoths on Nov 22, 2011 10:14:05 GMT -5
The amount of food surprised me when I first looked at your pics. Let me know how it goes please.
|
|
|
Post by dvg on Nov 22, 2011 15:07:51 GMT -5
Yeah, i had another closer look at the seedlings, especially the P. lilacina that were heavily fed and the leaf margins on those seedlings are slightly more curled up, maybe to contain the ensuing drool from the digestion process.
Both of the larger P. lilacina plants looked healthy, with both plants shooting up a new leaf.
And the leaves with plenty of prey on them looked healthy as well, with no rot or fungal growth to be seen.
In fact, it seems like the smaller seedlings that haven't yet been fed because they are still too small are lagging substantially behind the fed plants.
I'll try to feed them with some rehydrated bloodworms, because i've found that the powdered betta pellets did cause some mold to grow on some of the leaves.
dvg
|
|
|
Post by dvg on Dec 8, 2011 17:26:13 GMT -5
Even though these P. lilacina seedlings have been very heavily fed, as evidenced by the springtail carcasses left behind on their leaves, they continue to put out new growth at a furious pace. In fact, two of these seedlings have already started to form flower buds, with the larger one in the middle having two flowers in progress and the bottom plant forming one flower at the moment. I've been told that P. lilacina and P. sharpii are annual mexi-pings, so i might either have to remove the flowers or take some leaf pullings of these seedlings to keep them going for me in cultivation. To think that these seedlings are already making flowers, less than two months from being sown seems incredibly fast for Mexican Pinguicula. At any rate, because these P. lilacina seedlings are starting to encroach on each other's territory with their leaves overlapping, i'll have to find some time to separate these pings into a more spacious growing environment. Here are how the P. agnata seedlings are looking today, and the red rosetted P. moranensis, are still a ways off from showing any of their red pigmentation. dvg
|
|
|
Post by hal on Dec 8, 2011 17:37:37 GMT -5
Very nice, Doug.
You've inspired me and I've ordered some seeds.
|
|