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Post by sdeering on Mar 27, 2008 19:57:44 GMT -5
I think he is from Singapore FT. It would be nice to see these in Canada though.
By the way have you talked to Dan lately I emailed and PMd him about broms and no reply. This was about 3 weeks ago. Stephen
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Post by lloyd on Mar 27, 2008 20:15:25 GMT -5
Very nice falconeri, we'd all like to have some here.
The first green one is the typical mould I get with PPM, slightly raised, white and spreading on the surface. Sometimes you can scoop it up and save the bottle.
It's hard to see the nep seeds colour, are they black? Mine never turned black but never germinated in TC, maybe old seeds. Probably the bleach was a bit harsh.
The explant agars are all coloured. I assume they were clear to start with. That discolouration is phenolic oxidation and is quite toxic to the plants. When I try explants again I will try activated charcoal (I have some good grade PURA) and the potassium citrate/citric acid. It seems to prevent the oxidation but I still didn't have any luck. However you have to keep trying to succeed.
Good luck.
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Post by dvg on Mar 27, 2008 20:44:30 GMT -5
Very nice collection of D. falconeri, Alex. Could you share some cultivation tips with us for when we get our own plants. It looks like you are using 80% perlite to about 20% long fibred spagnum moss for your medium? Do you have to give this plant a dormancy period of dryness or can you keep it wet and growing year round? Are you able to propagate with leaf pullings? And about seed: does it self or do you need two genetically different plants for successful seed set. I'm hoping to obtain this plant sometime this year and would appreciate your advice on this. Thanks, dvg
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Post by Flytrap on Mar 27, 2008 23:50:54 GMT -5
Singapore!? Oh well... thanks for the info Stephen... That's okay, it's still nice to see the plants gracing our forum. I'll probably in Singapore again this year. Maybe I 'll check out Cindy and others' collections. I still remember when D falconeri was first discovered by Peter Tsang. That was back in the early 80s I think. I remember writing to him for photos and stuff. It was too bad that after Peter passed away, his beautiful collection ended up in some incapable hands and the whole lot perished. D I think he is from Singapore FT. It would be nice to see these in Canada though. By the way have you talked to Dan lately I emailed and PMd him about broms and no reply. This was about 3 weeks ago. Stephen
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Post by ischan on Mar 28, 2008 16:39:29 GMT -5
lloyd -- actually I had put some food coloring into some of those agar so that I could tell apart which ones had BAP, which ones had 4g of Agar per liter, and which ones had 8g of Agar per liter.
The seeds soaked in 2%PPM for 4 hours turned black and have done nothing. The seed soaked in 20% bleach for 5 minutes have whitened at the tips and turned black in the centers and also done nothing.
I can't comment about the oxidation because a lot of the agar is colored. The next batch I made is all clear and I'll be using that. Stay tuned for more photos.
Flytrap -- I live in Singapore but I have received tons of stuff in the mail in small amounts from various folks in Thailand, USA, and Czech republic without the need for pytho certs. If I actually manage to tC these plants, I'd be more than happy to send some over. But I've yet to succeed after about 100 falconeri cuttings. (!)
Hope you guys may help me along with that part! Hehe.
Do let us know if you're in town. We've got a few growers with nice collections here although I havent met some personally yet.
dvg -- Falconeri does not self unfortunately. I dont think any of the petiolaris do. But oddly enough they produce viable hybrids so you can make really complex grexes. I've also grown some petiolaris for 2 years and have yet to see one flower. The media is actually a mistake. I ordered these from Chuck Lyon and they were outside for a while. I had carefully prepared the peat / chopped sphagnum / sand / perlite mix for them. I came home one day and saw a ridiculous aphid infestation on them all. More aphids than leaves at some point. I threw the whole bunch of them in a tank of water, and started rubbing the leaves with my fingers. The terra folks said to soak for 3 days but i didnt dare do that in case I drown the whole plant to death. It was hard enough getting these, let alone where to find replacements. In my rush to repot things I dumped everything in to 50% perlite / sphagnum and it's been sitting there since August last year. This is supposed to be a non-ideal mix but I havent tried to move them since.
With regard to dormancy, I notice they go dormant if the environment is dry. Water it , never let the tray dry out, and if you see roots exposed on the soil surface quickly bury them. the green clone is so small cause it was trying to go dormant until I buried all the roots. It took off again after that.
Apart from that they're easy growers, probably around the same speed as a VFT. They dont go dormant anymore with the t5's and aquarium setup. But they are half their size. Outdoors they were twice as large. But risk the aphids again? I think I'll wait till I TC it until it's multiplied like rabbits. I will only move them back out if I have so much falconeri that when I wake up I step on pots of falconeri on my balcony before I move these out again. The rumor's that the aphids came from the seller though. I know two other guys who ordered and also got aphids, and only on the seller's plants, not their other plants. But it's alright, they're all gone now.
I've seen the rest of the petiolaris complex on sale online and I want to buy them and TC them but only if this one works. The online place I've seen them at charges 80 bucks for a caduca. It's on the pricey side.
Oh and leaf cuttings from falconeri is easy and difficult. The first time I plucked 5 leaves and left em alone. I threw 1 away, and of the remaining 4, 3 struck in the amt of time a VFT takes to strike. Ever since I havent been able to replicate this however! I've tried another 40 leaves!!!
They arent self dividing either cause I torture them too much making them donate leaves on a weekly basis for TC... Maybe I should stop till I figure out how to TC properly.
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Post by vraev on Mar 28, 2008 17:30:07 GMT -5
fantastic falconeri. WOW! very very nice. Damn! I should have taken the lab course which teaches how to do tissue culture.
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Post by dvg on Mar 28, 2008 19:32:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the cultivation advice regarding the falconeri. Really appreciate it. regards, dvg
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Post by ischan on Mar 28, 2008 20:14:49 GMT -5
Wow... all the terra folks are here too... hehe...
I've decided to stop using dish washing detergent in my bleaching portion. 1 to 2 drops into 200 ml of bleach solution / or rinse , may be killing the leaves.
Its only a day and I see the tips of the new batch blackening -- both the 4 % PPM and the 0.5% bleach explants.
I also currently use 1ml PPM per liter of sterile water. It's in Dr Carol's TC Kit recipe. I will try taking it out and making sterile water in the microwave without the PPM. This may not kill all the bacteria spores but I'll give it a shot. My new media has 1.5ml PPM per liter. It's 0.5ml more than the previous batch.
I also notice the pH of the media is all over the place. Last week I balanced it to 5.6, then I set some aside for the 4% PPM sterilization. Today I checked and the pH of that same media is 6.5. What gives?
Alex
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Post by lloyd on Mar 28, 2008 21:38:13 GMT -5
I think the buffering power of the medium is really low so the pH will be affected really easily. When I pH the medium with vinegar a minuscule drop from a #30 needle will drop the pH of 100cc by about 0.5 pH units.
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Post by Flytrap on Mar 29, 2008 3:43:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the invite ischan. It will be nice to see everyone in person. Best of luck on your TC. D
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Post by PingKing on Mar 29, 2008 12:31:37 GMT -5
Sad to say i bought about 200$ of seeds from chuck and it is all gone never send my money back or seeds. chuck is a thief. maybe you were lucky ischan but i was not. his plants were definally beautiful. the guy seem to be good seller but sudendly he went bad. I am not expecting anything back from him, i just do not understand why people have to be like that. Hi lloyd. I got my falconeri from Chuck Lyon. He seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. He wont answer personal emails, and has cancelled his ebay store account. Maybe its time I gave him a ring if he still keeps that number. If I manage to TC it successfully I could send you some! Here's some photos. They exhibit the blackening at the tips. Usually after this, cloudy liquid starts leaking out. One has a fungal contamination but its not clear and easy to spot. These are a week or two old each. The nep seeds are a month old. Both the 2% PPM 4 hour soak seed, and the 20% bleach for 5 minute soak seed have turned black. No change since.
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Post by ischan on Mar 29, 2008 17:15:31 GMT -5
Chuck suddenly dropped off the face of the earth at the end. His ratings started to plummet and a lot of folks were complaining they paid and nothing came -- both local and international.
Have you tried making arrangements with paypal to reverse the transaction?
I have always wondered what happened to Chuck. I hope something like sub prime didnt get to him.
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Post by PingKing on Mar 29, 2008 18:21:49 GMT -5
well paypal had nothing to do with it. i went to ebay and made several complains and up to this day i have been waiting for a message that says hey we got your money not the ones ebay sends me that says i hope we have been great help on solving this issue but really nothing was ever solve.
it is ok
i think there is more good people than bad ones and i was the unlucky one to cross one.
man D. falconery is definally one of the most beautiful Drosera out there.
cheers
xavier
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Post by ischan on Mar 30, 2008 2:09:43 GMT -5
An odd thing happened today. The 4%PPM for 3 hours batch I made on Thursday (today is Sunday here), is in worse condition than the 0.5% bleach control group I made. The explants have black clouds appearing in the agar at the tips of the leaves! PPM 4% batch: 0.5% bleach batch: I have made a new batch altogether today and I have thrown out the detergent in the distilled water for my first rinse before bleach / ppm. I also rinsed with microwaved tap water, no more ppm in the water, no more detergent. Hope this will keep the explants alive longer! I changed my blade to a sharp box cutter exacto instead of the blunt kitchen knife. I also started dipping all my tools in sterile water before handling plants instead of straight from the rubbing alcohol. I'll be watching for any increase in contamination as a result, but more importantly, the explants must live longer! Now ironically, after struggling for 6 weeks, my very very first batch of TC did something today. Viking seeds: I see two tiny rootless sprouts with 2 leaves, and a black bottom. Do I just leave em alone or do I need to transplant em? The TC test tubes are in horrible state. All the condensation on the inside of the test tubes has formed a puddle of water . Those seedlings arent touching agar. They're FLOATING. Lastly, a few falconeri photos to show the subtle leaf structure differences in shape. I wonder if some a hybrid causing the change in leaf shape...
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Post by ischan on Mar 30, 2008 2:12:47 GMT -5
i take back what I said about dormancy. i'm watering a lot and the bottom fellow looks like he wants to go dormant! Bah....
Well, it's not seasonal, the rest are quite happy to grow for me right now which is good. I'm not done torturing them taking leaf cuttings for TC yet!
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