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Update: Best view in 1920 x 1080 resolution

Sunday 30 December 2012

Sundew germinated!

Last night I was looking into 1 of my old batch and observed another germination. It was a Drosera Rotundifolia seed. I was wondering why I had not noticed it a few days before while I was doing a lot of work on all my batches.

ST DA Batch : Drosera Anglica at Day 35
Naming it "Caterpillar" coz it's green and looked a little like this hehe 
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I think the pinkish part is the roots growth, just like the VFT
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Another angle
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Friday 28 December 2012

Some seed updates


ST DA Batch: Nothing happens except the fungus head remains even after the last time I'd sterilized it. I Sterilized them again today so to remove the fungus head.

RR DR Batch: Lost the DR seeds somehow, out of the 2 VFT seeds, only "Santa" is continue growing, the other one is keeping still.

"Santa" at Day 33
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Mixed Batch: out of 3 VFT seeds, only "fittest" is doing very well in moss now. The other 2, nothing happen to 1, how ever the other one that has a crack before I sow it remember? A small piece has chip off while I remove it for photo taking. What's inside is kinda funny, it looked exactly like the germinated seeds roots but only difference is totally pale white.

Mix batch before sow
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The chipped off seed
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Day 37 "Fittest". Sorry, i didnt realized I did not have a clear picture today
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Attempt seeds in in-proper Tissue Culture

I was reading about Tissue culture and thought about dropping some seeds in to agar-agar(that's how we call the jelly in Singpore). I didn't put much effort in sterilizing as I think seeds should be quite easy to germinate in these agar media.

Distill water 80ml
a pinch agar-agar powder
a drip of coloring
a pinch of sugar
a plastic food wrap on top with holds for passing of gasses

TC Batch - VFT anf Sundew seeds 21 Dec 2012


I continue to read about tissue culture and went to the very first post were Matt and a few others research very intensely in Tissue culture, it was really interesting on how they experiment with the methods, I was a little worried about germs and bacterial at that time.

One week later, I've observed some blackish stuff in the media, I could only suspect bacterial, I did not want it to kill my seedlings.


I quickly make plans to replate them, as I don't have any basic tissue culture equipments and tools, I resort to using what ever I have and sterilize as best as I could think of in an hours(thanks to plenty of reading over a couple of days before)

I use a baby bottle sterilizer and distill water to sterilze my used glass containe. Re-sterilize seeds using only 10% bleach, that is the only stuff I have at the moment. Distill water and sugar for mixture(No MS or BAP or PPM to be found in Singapore, I've tried google, etc), transfer stuff as fast as I could as I do not have any clean room or a good area to work with. My pincer was wiped with Alcohol swipes that was meant for wounds.
Its the best I could with everything I have.

TC VFT Batch and TC SD Batch - replated 28 Dec 2012
Keeping fingers cross

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Christmas germination, Santa is born!

Hi all,

I can't believe I''m almost at home all day during Christmas! Anyway to kill my boredom, I took out my gears and increase my camera's setup to maximum magnification. I don't know how many times is that but it's definitely more than 24X on paper. I've attached the picture in maximum resolution Flickr could handle.

Here's RR DR batch's "Santa" I named it that because I've observed it's germination on eve of X'mas :)

"Santa" at Day 30, germinated much later compared to "Fittest"
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Saturday 22 December 2012

"Fittest" first carnivorous leaf

Matt from the forum mentioned:
"The first two leaves that Dionaea make are non-carnivorous. They are the only non-carnivorous leaves the plant will make in its entire life cycle, barring any abnormalities. And it would appear that little guy in the photo hasn't made its first carnivorous leaf yet.
I wouldn't worry too much about the burning at the tip of the leaves. Wait for the first carnivorous leaf to come out, which appears to be forming now and see how it looks :)"
I think Matt is quite accurate, When  I went to take a close look today, he is right! the second set leaves are already forming! I'm very happy. Thanks for the heads-up Matt!  :D I'll be keeping watch on "Fittest"

Day 31, "Fittest" is growing 2nd set of leaves
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Here's a close up, I can't get any closer because my lens' too big to get inside the container
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Friday 21 December 2012

"Fittest" taking a little burn at the tip

After moving it to LFS, it starts to take some burns on the tip of the leave, probably it was due to a sudden change from 100% water to moist/dam moss. I'm not sure, but I hope it don't dry further, I guess the little "trap" (i think) won't make it either. If anyone have some good advise, please feel free to give out, I guess i need some right now.

Day 30, "Fittest" taking in some burns..
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That's a staple to give the estimation of the size.

Monday 17 December 2012

VFT Seeds don't look good.

 I recently started VFT seeds in distill water and sterilized cotton. Out of total 7 seeds, 1 germinated successfully and had transferred out into potting. The rest were either still sleeping or some weird stuff grew out of the tip of the seed where it was suppose to germinate. Before, I thought they germinated, now I could only suspect the germination took place and immediately died off what looks like fungus or mold to me.

Could anyone point out what had happened to these poor seeds? Should I had included a light concentration of fungicide in the distall meant for seeds in the first place?

Photos as follow - approx. 20 days now the slim were observed on day 7 or 10 I can't remember.
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Sunday 16 December 2012

Moving "Fittest" into a new home.

I've finally potted "Fittest" into a temporary take-away sauce container, 100% Sphagnum moss, modified water tray method and plastic wrap with holes to minimize water evaporation. I hope I am doing it right.

"Fittest" sitting in a temporary container. 



It's weekend and I had some free time to myself. The picture below is stacked with a total of 102 pictures in different focus point of the VFT, when stacked together - resulting in an "all area" clear focus photo. The area of focus is targeted on the plant only. The transparent "traps" (i think) is too small to be in clear focus. But I'll try to get a clear one when I have time again. Please forgive for the harsh photo, it was due to stacking.

Photo stack of "Fittest" @ Day 24
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Saturday 15 December 2012

VIDEO: First attempt on VFT germination time lapse

Made "Fittest" into a time lapse video, focus point has been moving around due to water evaporating and refilling, seed growth etc. Hope you'll enjoy it.

http://vimeo.com/55704361


edited : 16 Dec 2012 - made an improved version and uploaded in youtube and vimeo
p/s: Thank you Stratofortress for some encouraging words.

The link:


Older version:

http://vimeo.com/55653702

Friday 14 December 2012

I've learn something new today "Cotyledons"

As I was trying to figure out why was the tip of the VFT so hairy and pinkish. Little did I guess it was actually the roots of the VFT, now it kinda make sense that the roots would be the first to develop since water is 1 of the main source for it's growth. The tip that push the seed shell out were leaf.

BTW: It was a bad idea to use sterilized cotton as a backdrop for my photo taking, they tangled up with the roots so I had problem removing the ones in the roots, I had to leave a small portion in there. Not to mention I had some trouble untangling them from the leaves too.

edited
Day 23: Mixed Batch sole seed to rise out of all 3 batches.
HELLO WORLD! I AM "FITTEST" thats what I'll name this VFT.
First 2 non-carnivore leaves (cotyledons)
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Saturday 8 December 2012

Some good and bad seeds

A little update from before, all the seeds I thought had germinated, stood in the same state. So it turns out that I was wrong. Even the one with the fungus head didn't grow anymore that before. It just stood there the same way.

The only one that had progressed was the sole seed from Mixed batch.

Day 17
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Sunday 2 December 2012

Seed progress observations

While I was looking at the seeds yesterday, I already suspected some were germinating, but I couldn' confirm as there wasnt much light at night. This morning I went to inspect each of the VFT seed, what looks like to me are the early stage of germination.


Some of the seeds from the 3 batches I suspected has already started germinating
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Here a seed from the ST DA Batch which I have been suspecting if it had germinated, because it look like a fungus head. If someone could confirm for me. But since it came up from the tip of the seed, I would 90% say it has germinated.
Day 7
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2 Seeds from RR DR Batch which I highly suspected has germinated as well
Day 7
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Another one from RR DR Batch
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And Day 11 from the Mixed Batch, the same one I've posted earlier yesterday has grown so much over a night
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Saturday 1 December 2012

2nd Batch iof VFT Seeds

A few days later, the other batch of VTF seeds came, and I too had them in distill water the same as the mixed batch. Ever since that day, I've been looking at them everyday, sometimes twice a day to make sure I do not miss out the miracle of germination.

So now I had 3 batches
Nov 21th : Mixed VFT Batch - 3 VFT seed (Indonesia - Mixture cultivar 10 seed)Nov 25th : RR DR Batch - 3 Drosera Rotundifolia and 2 Royal Red VFT cultivar seeds (Germany)Nov 25th : ST DA Batch - 3 Drosera Anglica and 2 Saw Tooth UK #1 VFT cultivar seeds (Germany)

The Packet of various CP along with 2 other VFT cultivars' seeds 


The other VFT seeds look almost exactly the same
Zoom in (real dimensions: 1024 x 618)
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Some Sundew seeds that came together in the batch
Zoom in (real dimensions: 1024 x 684)
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Zoom in (real dimensions: 1024 x 638)
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Drosera anglica
Zoom in (real dimensions: 1024 x 669)
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Drosera rotundifolia
Zoom in (real dimensions: 713 x 474)
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My first VFT seed germinates!


I'm quite happy today, when I took up the mixed batch to take a good look, I realized one of the seed had something pointing out of it's tip. I took my Camera and snap on a magnification lens and I see 1 seed had germinated. This is my first experience on VFT and water germinating them.

Mixed batch Day 10: 1 seed germinated in distill water
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Here's a closed up
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Wednesday 21 November 2012

The journey begins...

Hi all,  I've got my first batch of "mixed VFT" seeds from ebay and has started 3 of them in water. I intend to start this to take down the growth of my VFT. I have also bought 2 more packet of VFT seeds from "Royal Red" and "Saw Tooth UK #1" cultivars hoping they will grow up with similar traits to their parent.



VFT Seeds bought from Ebay advertise as "Mixed VFT Seeds"


They are really small using a ruler to measure, approx 1mm


Randomly picked 3 seeds intended to sow



Water Germination : Using a transparent container and distill water with sterilized cotton
This is the first batch and I call them Mixed Batch, started 21th Nov 2012



EDITED: Some info in my region: Singapore
March 2013 Humidity 57-73%
Temperature 28.6 - 36.2 ºc  or  83.4 - 97 ºf

Carnivorous Plant Seeds for sale update 2016

Carnivorous plant Seeds (2017 batch) Worldwide shipping

  1. Drosera Venusta US$2.20 /30 seeds 
  2. Drosera Capillaris US$2.00 / 30 seeds 
  3. Drosera Burmannii Humpty Doo US$2.80 / 30 seeds 
  4. Drosera Burmannii US$2.20 / 30 seeds 
  5. Drosera Intermedia EM Pond US$2.20 / 30 seeds 
  6. Drosera Intermedia US$2.00 / 30 seeds 
  7. Drosera Intermedia Big Audrey US$2.20 / 30 seeds 
  8. Drosera Natalensis US$2.20 / 30 seeds 
  9. Drosera Sessifolia US$2.20 / 30 seeds 
  10. Drosera Tokaiensis US$2.00 / 30 seeds 
  11. Drosera Finlaysoniana US$2.20 / 30 seeds 
  12. Byblis Liniflora US$3.00 / 30 seeds

Minimum order: Any 2 set of seeds. Payment via Paypal only and add 8% for paypal tax.

 ***Worldwide shipping handling US$1.30 non registered or total US$4 for Registered Tracking.
***Please check your import restriction before purchasing, I hold no responsibility for package lost or confiscated.

My guide for starting seeds can be found in this link

Kindly please drop me an email
tishcp@gmail.com


Plants for sale only in Singapore

No plants for sale at the moment. 
As I'd acquired more plants, especially nepenthes. 
I have no more plant space to propagate .
Thanks

Guide for growing Carnivorous Plants from Seeds. (Singapore Guide)

Choice of basic soil media for starting Carnivorous Plant seeds

Plant group :
Drosera, Dionaea Muscipula, Byblis, Nepenthes, Heliamphora, Pinguicula, Darlingtionia, Sarrracenia, Cephalotus.

Sterile Peat moss (Composed sphagnum moss)
Sterile Dried Sphagnum moss (LFS)

Note: I do not recommend mixing soil with perlite for germinating seeds. Perlite helps the soil to be loose, it does not hold much water/moist.

Places that sell them in Singapore are:
  1. Big outlet Supermarkets "Horti brand"
  2. Far east flora
  3. World farm
  4. Candy Flora
Preferred pots

Drained pots : Material can be plastic/glazed/styrofoam with at least 6 cm dimeter and  6 to 10cm height to hold moist.


Rinsing soil media

Peat:
I personally prefer to keep the peat cleaner by rinsing them at least 5 times or until the water is  clearer (impossible to be 100% clear) to my liking. For the process, I pour peat into very fine laundry bags and zip up. I place the bag in a pail and fill it with water. I will massage the bag and pour away the dark water. Repeating the process until the water is clear to my liking (at least 5 times). I prefer to kill everything in the soil, so I will pour boiling water for the final process into the pail and let the peat soak for 10 minutes before cooling it down with tap water. This keep the soil sterile and slow down the process of algae. I will twist dry the bag and pour out the clean peat into big tub or container for storage.

Dried sphagnum:
Similar to the process with peat, or you can also put it into the pot straight from the pack and rinse over with running tap water. Repeat a few times before 1 last rinse with boiling water to kill everything in it. I can use sphagnum immediately this way since it doesn't fall apart like peat.


Preparing the pot

I always cover the pot holes with some fibre cloth (Magic clean wipes) before filling the pot with peat or sphagnum. The cloth will hold the soil in place so mostly only water will pass through the hole. Alternatively is to use some sphagnum before putting peat in, which will somehow still hold the peat in place. Then I add my choice of soil media into the pot up to 1/4 or 1/2  pot height reminding. The remainding pot walls act as a wind barrier keeping some humidity in place. I like to use styrofoam pot because not only it insulate against heat, but white also reflect light into the seed or plant.


Sowing seeds

Before sowing the seeds on the soil, I pack down the soil by lifting the pot slightly and knocking flat down on the table or ground so the soil will compact down with some space for air. I do not press them down because the soil (especially peat) will be too compact, it'll hold too much water with no space for air. No issue with sphagnum as they have air pockets. So, compacting down the soil a little also helps to prevent seeds falling into the soil gaps and hold moist.  For sphagnum, it is good to rub or tear the dried sphagnum leaves for the top 1 cm of the soil so it is more compact to support the seeds.

Since most of carnivorous plant seeds are very tiny(1mm), do not handle them in windy place. Gently spread the seeds over the surface of the soil. If the pot is not very big (6cm diameter), sprinkle 15-20 seeds over the surface to prevent overcrowding. It will be hard to remove the seedlings in future and overcrowding will cause plants to fight for survival.


The Routine

1. Watering:
From seeds to seedlings, it is ok to keep the soil slightly more moist than usual. Do not top water as the seeds will be misplaced or drop into soil gaps. Always use water tray method (pot bottom wicking method). Fill a container with water (0.5cm height from bottom of pot) and let the pot absorb water for 10-15 minutes, then pour away the remainding water from the container to prevent over watering as too much water will cause algae and introduce moulding.

Monitor the soil condition. Make sure the soil surface is always moist, not almost dry and not always very wet. Dryness kill seedlings and wet will promoted algae/mould and invite small gants larvae to feed on roots/seedlings. Watering frequence will depend on how fast the soil dry.

Avoid direct rain as it is as good as top watering, the seeds will be misplaced.

***Do take note Pinguicula dislike wet soil. Water rot the leaves. So keep soil water condition between almost dry to dry.


2. Light:
Sun: Keep the pot away from direct sun if possible, morning sun is ok. Use a filter shade/cloth if you cannot avoid direct sun.

Artificial / indoor light:
Direct under lights is fine. Not closer than 6cm. At least 12 to 16 hours of photoperoid.

Note: Some seeds do not require light to germinate but temperature and water.


3. Temperature:
Keep the seeds between 20 - 40 Degrees Celsius. Some people add fan or use ice bottle in high temperature tanks


Note: Seeds germination rate depends on how fresh or what type of seeds they are. Ranging from 1 week to 2 months. If seeds has not germinate by then, please check if the seeds require stratification (cold treatment) or scarification (Smoke treatment), perhaps seeds are too old and not viable or then enviroment is no suitable.



Other Links

Some website which I find the guide very useful and informative:
  1. International Carnivorous Plants Society
  2. Growsundews.com
  3. Sarrcenia.com : The CP FAQ



Shortcut link to my guide page bit.ly/TishGd1

Version 1.1
05 Dec 2015