Germination: 15% in three weeks

[dToad]

I planted 200+ seeds from Rick Keehn's harvest of this year's open pollenated seed three weeks ago today. Over 30 plants have shown themselves already.

The seed was planted in a 1020 tray with about 10mm (3/8") spruce mulch in the bottom. A 2" layer of 50% peat, 25% playsand, 25% perlite was used as the growing medium. An empty 2.5" pot keeps a clear area in the tray for watering. Water level is kept at about 6mm deep in the pot. The seed was dropped onto the medium using an egg crate diffuser for florescent lights as a planting guide.

The tray was kept on a heat mat in a 19C room. Lights raise the temp to 26Cduring the day, and humidty is 55-65% over the tray.

What I'd do differently is cover the above medium with a 6mm (1/4") layer of 50% peat / 50% sand to cover the exposed perlite. The exposed perlite has proven to to provide a growth surface for algae.

My reading led me to expect a 2 month germination time, with some seed taking up to 2 years and 2 dormancy cycles. I'm happy with the progress so far.

[lloyd]

I find vft seed germinates quickly if it's viable. I also use GA3.

[jdallas]

DToad,

Were your seeds stored under refrigeration before sowing? Even though I've grown cp for a long time I had been treating flytrap seeds similar to Sarracenia and hardy Drosera only to fine some recent literature showing they are different. This may have been the source, but I've read it elswhere too: www.flytrapcare.com/propagation-of-venus-fly-traps.html

Flytrap seed has a short viability, 100 days roughly, unless stored under refrigeration, then you have about one year. They don't need any stratification since Venus flytraps bloom and set seed early in their native North Carolina habitats.

Jeff

[lloyd]

I keep my seeds in a cold room: ~21C in the summer and ~17C in the winter. I find sarr seeds need GA3 and/or cold-wet stratification.

[jonas]

Nov 18, 2011 19:38:57 GMT -5 dToad said:

My reading led me to expect a 2 month germination time, with some seed taking up to 2 years and 2 dormancy cycles.

Germination time of VFT is greatly dependent on temperature.

You can germinate them @18°C and the need 2 months to germinate.

You can germinate them @23-27°C and germination occurs much quicker.

Germinating VFT at low temperatures should be avoided. As I found out, seedlings germinated at low temperatures will always stay at a slow growth rate, even if you increase the temperature afterwards. Seedlings germinated at 23-27°C will have much quicker growth if you keep temperatures in the 20-27°C range the following months (and provide good lighting, of course).

BTW: Only fresh seeds of VFT will germinate. When stored for 12 months at room temperature, the seed is no more viable. I think that up to three month old seeds (stored at room temperature) of VFT will have good germination, then the germination rate declines quickly.

[dToad]

It's now five weeks. Well over 60% have germinated. Over half of these are developing their first traps. The seed was not stratified / refrigerated prior to planting. The temperature has been maintained at 19C during the night, and 23-25C during the day.



I did a lot of research on natural and T5 fluorescent lighting. There's a lot of false information on the net, including in this forum.

Manufacturer's specifications state that T5's maintain at least 80% of their output for 20,000 hrs of use, so they do not have to be replaced every six months, or annually as is often stated. They should last about 4-1/2 years at 12 hrs per day.

Output at 25C is only 80% of that at 35C, so the statement that T5 output at 35C is higher than at lower temperatures is fact, but check the manufacturer for the specs of your lamps.

My fluorescents are in an aquarium lighting fixture. These and grow light fixtures (with reflectors) focus the light directly under the fixtures, with very little spillage. This makes the light system much more efficient than open or workshop type fixtures.

Different manufacturers have different spectral outputs for lights with identical colour temperature ratings. You can usually find the spectral outputs for their lamps on their websites. Compare the output of a 6700K Daylight HO T5 from coralifeproducts.com/product/lamps/ to that from any mix of lamps from GE, Phillips, and Sylvania. The Coralife lamps have much more of their output distributed across the spectrum needed for plant growth as specified at www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BiobookPS.html. The aquarium lamps are more expensive, but appear to be better than the general purpose lamps, so I went with them.

My fixture has two, twin tube ballasts. Each is controlled by a separate timer. One is set for 14 hrs, the other for 8hrs, providing a more natural light environment.

I use X10 AM466 modules with ActiveHome Pro to control various electrical systems. Daytimers and Dusk/Dawn timers for any latitude are possible with a basic system. This system rapidly becomes cheaper than dedicated timers as you add more controlled functions. If you also have the SmartMacro plugin, you can run repeat cycle timers to control pumps for hydroponics and other systems at a much more cost-effective rate than a single dedicated cycle timer.