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Post by Devon on Nov 12, 2014 0:09:11 GMT -5
Hello, Here are some pics of the few pygmies I have at the moment. I`m hoping to buy more gemmae soon to re-build my collection of pygmies. To start, an unidentified plant. I lost the label. It could be a hybrid. It looks like it started making gemmae but aborted. D. citrina sent to me from Shoggoths. I fed it just before the picture. D. mannii x helodesI think this is D. mannii B. I received these from Shoggoths as well, correct me if I`m wrong on the name as I lost the label from this one too. (I swear I`m actually organized) The few that started making gemmae turned yellowish You can sort of see the yellow-tinged plant on the top left here. Thats all for now! Thanks for looking.
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Post by shoggoths on Nov 12, 2014 19:39:17 GMT -5
You did a really nice job on the citrana Devon. Nice pictures too.
For the mannii, we will have to wait for a flower ... I don't have this species anymore so I can't compare and didn't keep track of the gemmaes I sent. If it is from last year, I would rather say platystigma or callistos.
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Pygmies
Jan 29, 2015 18:47:12 GMT -5
Post by Devon on Jan 29, 2015 18:47:12 GMT -5
It still hasn't flowered for me yet, but the gemmae you sent with the citrina flowered and are definitely D. platystigma. Here are some new pics - they are much more colourful now under the t5 vho. The unidentified pygmies. These don't quite look like mannii, my guess is they are also D. platystigma. Super tiny D. occidentalis subsp. australis flower The plant.. Not very big yet! A dime for reference. I forgot to take a reference pic with the good camera, so I lazily took one with my phone. And D. oreopodion
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Post by Apoplast on Jan 29, 2015 20:36:51 GMT -5
Hi Devon - Very nice looking plants! I love pygmies, but am terrible at growing them. You seem to have found the perfect combo - pygmy dews and you exceptional macro-photography! Good stuff.
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Pygmies
Jan 29, 2015 22:19:13 GMT -5
Post by lloyd on Jan 29, 2015 22:19:13 GMT -5
I find pygmies are the some of the easiest of CP's to grow, for me anyway. Just throw them in small pots of peat/sand and let them grow. The bigger ones like scorpioides, I feed when I think of it.
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Post by Maiden on Jan 30, 2015 10:17:45 GMT -5
Jeez ! Its beautiful.
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Pygmies
Jan 30, 2015 18:04:07 GMT -5
Post by Dennis A(cook1973) on Jan 30, 2015 18:04:07 GMT -5
I find pygmies are the some of the easiest of CP's to grow, for me anyway. Just throw them in small pots of peat/sand and let them grow. The bigger ones like scorpioides, I feed when I think of it. Do you have a easy growing pygmy I can try?
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Pygmies
Jan 30, 2015 19:41:20 GMT -5
Post by Apoplast on Jan 30, 2015 19:41:20 GMT -5
Sure Lloyd, rub it in.
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Pygmies
Jan 30, 2015 22:34:00 GMT -5
Post by lloyd on Jan 30, 2015 22:34:00 GMT -5
I don't have any gemmae at the present. If I do, I will announce a give away.
Apoplast, I have no idea why you have trouble with pygmies. I grow them the wrong way, in tiny pots and don't do anything with them and they thrive. Flowering and gemmae production has not been that great since I moved them to the basement under lights. I think they flower and gemmae better with "seasonal" changes.
Other of my plants either never do well or do great and then decline for no obvious reason. Some like U. gibba wax and wane for years until I give up and dump them in the bottom of the growing dome where the gibba goes crazy and is now a tangled, thick mat of stolons and flowers.
So keep trying the pygmies, they are fun and one day you will get it right and they will go crazy.
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Pygmies
Jan 31, 2015 2:10:06 GMT -5
Post by Devon on Jan 31, 2015 2:10:06 GMT -5
Thanks Apop and Maiden. Apoplast: I still can't grow mexi-pings properly when most others can. lloyd: I agree with you that they need seasonal changes for gemmae. Otherwise they just keep on growing. . . not that that is a bad thing. I have a couple of questions. Do you rinse your peat/sand before use? I am wondering because I do, but I think it must get rid of a lot of micro nutrients or something. My pygmies don't get to size unless I feed them. I'm also using coir for quite a few of them and it's the same thing; they don't get bigger without food. Do you grow them in high humidity? Fungus gnats seem to like high humidity a lot, and they make good food without having to do anything. More pics to come soon!
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Post by shoggoths on Jan 31, 2015 21:04:20 GMT -5
Hi Devon, Really nice pictures. The macro shots are so great. Well done with the flower too. Did it gave seeds. I only have one pygmies that gave me seeds and Sokkos don't seems to be able to make them sprout. I don't want to hijack your thread but feel a few pics would go well with my comment. Reading the other comments, I also find it would be a good place to share my growing conditions. Here's my setting : P1090573 par Shoggoths, sur Flickr Like you can see, it is a really common setting. Pygmies sit in 4 inches pots 15 inches from two T5HO 54W. On this pic, we can see my platystigma are less red than yours : P1090574 par Shoggoths, sur Flickr That is perhaps your answer to pings growing. I really think they need less light than other CP. You could try a 100% mineral mix too. Works well for me. That is also perhaps why I have problem with scorpi ... they perhaps need more light. Back to pygmies, I don't follow the recommendation regarding the seasonal water level variation. I put 2 cm of water in the tray then let it dry before I put some water again. The plants grow on normal Quebec RH so very low in winter and rather high in summer. The only one under high RH are the scorpi you sent me last autumn. They'll stay in the bag until Spring. I boil my peat and discard the water before mixing it 50/50 with rince silica sand. A little abusive perhaps but it seems to slow algae growth. Pygmies are giving me gemmaes and flowers from time to time. They don't all seem to follow seasonal changes. I usually get my gemmaes in late autumn which is bad for trading but I think I'm on something. In Winter 2014, I put a few gemmaes in water in the fridge and totally forget about them. Two weeks ago, I found the vials. There was still water in the vials and all gemmaes had a tiny white root. Not knowing if they were still alive, I put them in my job terrarium. In less than a week, a lot of them are starting to grow a rosette. Those gemmaes were more than a year old. So, I'm trying again with new gemmaes. I'll keep them in water in the fridge until next Spring to see if they will still be alive then. Cheers, Shogg
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Pygmies
Jan 31, 2015 22:07:38 GMT -5
Post by lloyd on Jan 31, 2015 22:07:38 GMT -5
I thought Mexi-pings did best in high light. Maybe that's why mine tend to dwindle with time. Anybody else try lower light with Mexi-Pings?
For my pygmies, I just use unwashed peat/sand. Coir should be good if it has been well rinsed or is known to be low in salt. They sit in water and never dry out.
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Pygmies
Jan 31, 2015 22:22:05 GMT -5
Post by Devon on Jan 31, 2015 22:22:05 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your set-up and tek, Martin! Your pygmies look very lush and healthy. If you get a chance, can you post more close-ups of the other species?
I grow almost all of mine in 6" tall pots, but the platy is growing in 4 a inch pot very well. . . I think the tall pots are actually worse because the top of the soil dries more easily - but I also grow my dews in low humidity which obviously contributes to this. Definitely switching back to 4 inch pots next time.
I'm growing most of my pygmies under T5 vho 95W. I don't think I'm going to buy another vho fixture though, it's not worth it. It gets very hot too, so I have a fan running during the day which keeps some of my sundews from producing a lot of dew unfortunately. I'm thinking of making a big terrarium to combat this.
Boiling peat is a good idea. Rinsing it doesn't seem to make much difference anyway, though coir and sand should always be rinsed imo.
Thanks for the info on pings. I'll try growing them under the T8's when I get more.
I haven't checked for seeds; I think the plant may be too small. I have heard that pygmy seeds are a challenge.
edit*
Where do you get your sand, Lloyd? The stuff that I get usually has ppm of 250+. It would be nice to get sand that doesn't need rinsing.
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Pygmies
Jan 31, 2015 23:07:02 GMT -5
via mobile
Devon likes this
Post by hal on Jan 31, 2015 23:07:02 GMT -5
I used to keep my mexi-pings under 2 x T8 bulbs, 50/50 peat and perlite in a tray with water, and I had great success with the larger-leaved species and hybrids. When I tried to go to all mineral and a less frequent watering schedule, they began to decline. But my success with the smaller rosetted species improved.
I kept my Pygmies like Martin and the light would be reduced each winter. I'd say half of them would produce gemmae in the fall and winter and the rest whenever they felt like it. They only lived a few years so I'd start new gemmae each year.
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Post by Apoplast on Feb 1, 2015 16:15:50 GMT -5
Hi Lloyd - Thanks for the encouragement! I agree they are great, but they never do very well for me. They bloom and make gemmae, but don't last well and never look very happy. I grown them in a variety of ways, and they never seem satisfied. I often have trouble with "easy" species like pygmy dews, "weedy" utrics (I managed to lose U. bisquamata for Pete's sake!), and even many of the easy rosette dews. The CP's that seem to do the best for me are tuberous dews, Cephalotus, and Roridula. I can't tell you why. Just how it works out.
Hi Devon - I am sorry to hear of your troubles with Mexi-pings. I totally understand though. Regarding your concerns about soil nutrients and feeding pygmy dews, I don't have the references on hand, but some investigators have found that at least a few species of pygmy dews are so specialized on carnivory that they lack the ability to absorb nutrients through their roots at all. That means if they are going to get nutrients, it's by feeding. I think this might account for the pattern you've observed with the growth of your pygmies.
Salut Shogg - Nice dews you have there!
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