Growing Sundews from Seed

[Tyler Hayes]

First time growing anything other than tomatoes from seed, hoping that these take off.

Would this be too much perlite for drosera seeds? Used the typical 50/50 peat perlite mix, though I worry the seeds might have a hard time rooting around the perlite.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

That looks fine. The seeds should be on the surface. If any grow right in the middle of a perlite piece, you can just move the seedling.

 

[Tyler Hayes]

That looks fine. The seeds should be on the surface. If any grow right in the middle of a perlite piece, you can just move the seedling.

Thanks for the info! Should be good to go then. Just need to grab a bit more distilled water to fill the tray.

 

[Tyler Hayes]

Coming along nicely. Starting to ween em off the humidity dome to ambient (70%) humidity over fears of dampening off. Coverage is roughly 100-125ppfd, should I up it a bit now that they’ve germinated?

 

[legur]

Hi Tyler, I am just wondering where you got sundew seeds. I have tried once, but with no success.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

As soon as the postal situation is over, there will be seeds available on the forum. Also if you know which dews you want, people could make suggestions as to vendors.

 

[legur]

Thank you Lloyd!

 

[Tyler Hayes]

Hi Tyler, I am just wondering where you got sundew seeds. I have tried once, but with no success.

I got them from this forum’s seed bank!

 

[legur]

Thank you for info.

 

[Tyler Hayes]

Excited to see the first carnivorous leaves starting to emerge. Perhaps I’ve sown em a bit too dense, though I assume it can’t be too difficult to separate em once they’ve grown enough roots.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

If you want to move them, earlier is better, less roots to disturb.

 

[Tyler Hayes]

If you want to move them, earlier is better, less roots to disturb.

I see, would now be a good time then? Just to thin em out a small bit.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

It would be easy now, just gently wiggle them out and carefully put them somewhere else.

 

[Tyler Hayes]

It would be easy now, just gently wiggle them out and carefully put them somewhere else.

Finally got around to potting a few, thanks for the advice! Surprised that they still had basically zero roots despite the nice colour & growth

 

[Tyler Hayes]

Done tons of repotting/gifting and still have so many seedlings left. Would keeping them this clumped together cause problems in the long term? I assume about 80% will die, but would the remaining 20% flourish? Or would the amount of rotted leaves/roots cause the whole pot to die off?

 

[Sundew]

I would recommend separating them out once they get larger, because they will grow better (and faster) this way. However, your seeds are D. capensis, binata, and spatulata - tenacious species- that (in my experience) can survive for a while (not indefinitely) even if left tightly packed.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

I find that as soon as they crowd, they should be separated. In the past, if I waited, I lost a lot.

 

[DevonNS]

I agree with Sundew, let them grow some more and separate.
Extreme example from a couple years ago, but once you reach this point, it's the great dying lol....

 

[Tyler Hayes]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I’ll keep on top of repotting all the healthiest then.

(98% 50:50 peat/perlite, only top 1cm of pot is pure peat to make potting easier)