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Post by Syble on Jan 27, 2008 12:22:19 GMT -5
I've had this lonely little giant scorpiodes sundew for about a year now, poor things in a 2" pot probably hates it, but everyone says transplanting adult pygmies is a death sentance, so i left it. Well gemmae season for scorpiodes came and went for most growers I talked to but I kept it in the kitchen window hopeing that the natural light cycle migh still trigger something. Low and behold about a week ago I noticed that in the center fuzz where I can typically only see one or two bumps (that turn into leaves) i can see triple that! Had to wait a while longer to make sure it wasn't wishful thinking but sure enough when i looked today I can see four gemmae! I'll be putting these little guys into much more appropreiate container! I hope that the parent plant might do a couple waves of gemmae like my other pygmies used to, any one know if scorpiodes does or not? Thanks Sib
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Post by lloyd on Jan 27, 2008 17:24:02 GMT -5
Where exactly are the gemmae? The gemmae I'm used to are sort of little flaky things, like a tiny flat grain of rice. Are the bumps in the centre the gemmae? My scorpioides is sort of doing the same thing but I thought the leaves were sort of going into a dormant period.
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Post by insectivore on Jan 27, 2008 17:51:20 GMT -5
Congrats there Sib! I'll take some if you have any availible! Thnaks! Cya
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Post by andreas on Jan 27, 2008 19:22:50 GMT -5
Where exactly are the gemmae? The gemmae I'm used to are sort of little flaky things, like a tiny flat grain of rice. Lloyd, there are at least three shapes of gemmae. Flat, tear shaped ones such of Drosera pulchella, D. pygmaea, D. ericksoniae and D. occidentalis for example. Then there are thicker, conus shaped gemmae in various sizes - those of D. scorpioides are the biggest! - which is the majority among pygmy species, and finally flat, drop shaped gemmae with the germ bud and root appendage at the narrow side of the gemma. Drosera mannii is the only species I know which has such gemmae. I haven´t seen the gemmae of every species so far and therefore cannot tell if there are other shapes of gemmae. Are the bumps in the centre the gemmae? My scorpioides is sort of doing the same thing but I thought the leaves were sort of going into a dormant period. There are three capsular thingies clearly visible in the lower picture. Those are the gemmae, yes. Normally the last leaves before gemmae production become much smaller. Sometimes even only petioles are built without a leaf lamina. More often leafless petioles are grown after gemmae season before new normal trapping leaves are built. The lonely Scorpioides shown on the pics seems already a little bit weak. I don´t believe this plant will grow many gemmae. Though some more will follow I guess. It is possible to transplant pygmy Drosera under certain conditions! D. scorpioides "large form" or also called "Giant" is the easiest to transplant. Either you repot the whole clump of soil into a bigger pot - without disturbing the roots. Or you remove some soil around the roots but leave the old soil close to the roots and repot the plant. But you really have to be careful that the clump of soil doesn´t suddenly fall from the roots and tear half of the roots apart. That happened to me once and I could throw my plants away then! As a rule you better shouldn´t transplant pygmy Droserae! Best use big resp. tall pots to sow the gemmae in and you´ll have happy growing pygmies for about 3 years, maybe even 4 years in the same pot and soil. The pots should be 12cm tall, or at least 10cm. The stem forming pygmy species use to build so called stalk roots. These often look reddish in colour and are grown from the top of the stems. If these are long enough, let´s say only 1cm away from the surface of the soil, the plants could survive transplanting when the stems are planted a little deeper into the new soil so that the stalk roots are buried at least 5mm into the soil. Rosetted species could only be transplanted with the whole old ball of soil! Which only would make sense when you receive plants in very small pots and you would like to repot them into bigger pots. BTW: I still have lots of gemmae of Drosera lasiantha and - as it seems - a few of D. mannii and D. pygmaea. Just if someone should be interested!Pm me and we could work something out. Else I need to kick them all into the compost bin! Kindest regards, Andreas
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Post by lloyd on Jan 27, 2008 19:34:33 GMT -5
Thanks, Andreas, you are full of interesting information. When Mabudon sent me my scorpioides, I transplanted it and luckily it is doing fine. I have had no problem transplanting my other pygmies either but they are hybrids so are probably much more resilient.
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Post by andreas on Jan 27, 2008 19:41:08 GMT -5
Erm, HOW did you transplant your pygmy Droserae? Have you removed all the old soil from their hairy thin roots??? When I was a bloody beginner I transplanted my first pygmy sundews by removing most of the old soil from their roots. Most roots broke and I finally lost 80% of the plants! Funny thing is: After transplanting they look even healthy for about one to two weeks and then suddenly collapse! Regards, Andreas
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Post by Syble on Jan 27, 2008 20:01:56 GMT -5
I don't expect many gemma from this plant, I count 4 when looking at it today. I only had the one so I never wanted to risk it by transplanting. At the time I was very streached for room which is how it ended up in a 2" pot. I have nice deep pots for the gemmae to go in. There were 2 species I liked for pygmies, scorpiodes and i think rosea? although I'm not sure that the later was named right, but a beautiful spherical plant. Thanks Sib
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Post by lloyd on Jan 27, 2008 20:47:33 GMT -5
I just took the scorpioides out of the pot and put it into a new pot with the usual care. I gently soak the soil ball in distilled water so I don't mechanically disturb the roots while I remove the old soil. The same with the other pygmies-just soaked them in some water and put them gently in the new soil. As I said I've really only had experience with some hybrids which seem impossible to kill.
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Post by lloyd on Jan 28, 2008 20:55:18 GMT -5
My other pygmy gemmae are like little green flakes and just fall off to the touch when they are ready to plant. Are the scorpioides gemmae the same? How do I know when they are ready to detach safely?
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Post by andreas on Jan 28, 2008 21:48:20 GMT -5
Hello Lloyd, the conus shaped gemmae like those of D. scorpioides aren´t removable with the slightest touch. They´re ripe when they can be easily pulled with forceps. But they´re surely ripe when the crown of the plant is overcrowded with "fat" gemmae and looking similar to a broccoli. The marginal gemmae then spring from the crown with little pressure. The much smaller gemmae close to the center of the crown aren´t ripe yet. The three bigger gemmae visible in Syble´s pic could be already taken for growing new plants. Weaker plants often don´t build a full, broccoli-like crown of gemmae, but only a few like in Sib´s picture. A full crown of ripe gemmae can be seen here: img245.imageshack.us/img245/1738/dscorpioidesgemmae8cm.jpgRegards, Andreas
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Post by Syble on Jan 28, 2008 21:57:11 GMT -5
Aww my poor un happy plant, the butt of jokes hehe Sib
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Post by lloyd on Jan 29, 2008 12:16:03 GMT -5
I Carefully plopped my scorpioides in a bigger deeper pot without any root disturbance. Then I flipped 5 gemmae off and "planted" them. There's about 10+ gemmae left but they didn't look mature. The fat ones on the outside with a little thing (embryo?) in the middle on the flat side were really easy to pick off. In fact I had to be careful because they fly off.
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Post by Syble on Feb 11, 2008 14:20:50 GMT -5
Ok so my plant didn't get anywhere near so many gemmae as andreas's picture there, but it's got a nice dozen, which will be enough to carry it in my collection yay, much better then 3! I'll post some pics later Sib
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Post by andreas on Feb 11, 2008 18:23:31 GMT -5
Wow, a nice dozen - that´s really not bad for such a poor plant *cough cough*! ;D Congrats! A few years ago I´ve also had to save my stock on Drosera roseana via a lonely survivor. Regards, Andreas
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Post by Syble on Feb 11, 2008 19:48:11 GMT -5
LOL surrreee, pick on my poor 3 year old plant hehe. a dozen is sure better then the innitial 4 that i thought i was gonna get hehe. I'm proud of my decripid little plant hehe. Sib
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