Drosera from seed

[mackthompson]

Those are doing great!

[corinac]

Thank you guys and thank you Mack for sending them to me, you know you said there were 20 seeds in the package, I was able to count so far about 50 seedlings in each pot and I see even more coming out Just curious, when did you harvest those seeds?

[mackthompson]

Hi Corina I didn't have the patience to count them so I just made sure there was lots! I think those ones are from July.

[corinac]

My little "army of dews" : ) seedlings are still growing, I am not sure is just me or they kind of have a light green color, is that normal or they don't get enough light?
In almost the same with the seeds I planted from Mack, I also planted some seeds of Drosera stolonifera from e-bay "seeds4change_ny" in the same conditions and they never sprouted, not even one. Did anyone ever ordered from them and had success? I was thinking it was my fault because the instructions say to scarify the seeds by lightly rubbing between sheets of sand paper to scratch the outer surface of the hard coating, which I didn't do because they were so small and I didn't want to damage them. I never scarify the seeds from Mack and sprouted so fast, is it different from one type of drosera to another? I apologize if this sounds like a stupid question but I really don't know much about droseras and especially about growing them from seeds and you guys are pretty good, any advice or opinion would be much appreciated.
I didn't give up on them yet, still water the pot from beneath in the same time with the others so the sphagnum moss doesn't get dry. I e-mailed them and they said I should've scarify them so I ordered another batch at my cost and asked them to pre scarify for me. I am curious what will happen.

[lloyd]

Easy Dew seeds are like weeds. Hard ones are, well, hard.

To scarify little seeds, flatten a piece of very fine sandpaper and gently rub the seeds around on top of it with your finger or a smooth surface.

[corinac]

Lloyd, I appreciate you answer but you confuse me more than I already am Do you mean drosera spatulata are easy and the solonifera are hard so they need to be scarify? You can explain me as much as you want how to scarify the seeds, I am too shy to do it, worried that I will damage the seeds or if I am to gentle I won't remove the hard shells.

[lloyd]

I mean that some seeds are just so easy, like D. capensis, tokaiensis, spathulata. Just throw them on the wet media and they will sprout, so many that you have to cull them.

Other seeds are more difficult. In other words they have some sort of dormancy mechanism. They won't germinate unless they have the proper sequence of events. Each species (in fact each seed) will have a different way of fulfilling the germination requirements. You can give them the natural circumstances they require to germinate or you can try to hurry things up.

One simple example is cold stratification for Sarracenia seeds. Keep them moist in the fridge just above 0C for 6 weeks or more and they will germinate reliably.

Other seeds will have different requirements, often very involved and exact. Take the local climate, soil conditions, local plant/microbial/animal communities and imagine the possibilities.

Sometimes you can break dormancy by breaking the seed coat water barrier (scarification). Chemicals such as GA3, kinetin, hydroxyurea can help sometimes.

I believe tuberous dews respond to warm temperatures. Look up what other people have suggested and try to follow their techniques.

You can damage seeds with scarification but if it'e highly recommended, it's still worth trying. My drosophyllum germinated after careful scarification.

Remember that seeds that don't germinate are no better than seeds that are scarified and don't germinate because they are damaged. Maybe try different approaches with a number of seeds.

[corinac]

Thank you so much Lloyd, this was a very detailed answer and very useful.

[allcanadianboy]

Looking good