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heavenlyfarm

Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea) How do you start these seeds?

heavenlyfarm
16 years ago

I really love the look of pitcher plants. I bought some seeds on ebay and of course I lost the instructions. (Shame on me!) So planting depth? light or dark to germinate? hard to grow from seed? how long till bloom? TIPS? I guess it is apparent I am completely clueless on getting these seeds to germinate. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

~mike

Comments (12)

  • carnivorousplants
    16 years ago

    Hi Mike,
    pretty much all you need is here:
    http://cobraplant.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=24&chapter=1
    BTW. Since sarracenia purpurea is a slow grower it would take it about 5 years
    till mature.
    Good Luck,
    Adrian

  • mutant_hybrid
    16 years ago

    Hello Heavenlyfarm,

    I use very similar methods as cobraplant.com does... basically an adaptation of their technique.

    In any case, always use sphagnum peat moss with perlite or sand as a neutral drainage material and mix them 50/50 in your pot. Use soft water that has not been softened by salt... only mineral free water with no salt works... best bet is rain water, distilled water, and reverse osmosis water using steam, deionization, carbon filtration, and ultraviolet methods of purification. Most carnivorous plants cannot take a buildup of too many minerals in their soil and will die if this occurs. Never fertilize carnivorous plants.. let them fertilize themselves the natural way.

    I just used a couple of 3 inch pots full of moss (just drop the seeds on the surface of the moss and tamp them down lightly with your fingers to stick them in place... do not cover them at all) and perlite and placed them in an ice chest with several bottles of ice water to bring the temps down to about 40-50 degrees... I opened it by day to air it out and provide some ultraviolet radiation from sunlight to kill mold. I sprayed them with a fine mist of distilled water a little every morning. The ice chest was kept closed at night and the ice was replaced every 12 hours. They were stratified that way for 10 weeks.

    When I warmed them up they germinated in about 2 weeks with stragglers germinating for up to half a year... most of the 100 seeds germinated but fungus and non-viability kills off many during their first couple of months... I now have about 40 that are 11 months old. I have kept them inside under 12000 lumens of florescent light and have repotted them several times. As Carnivorousplants indicated, it can take Sarracenias 4-5 years to flower as they grow rather slowly. Only a few of mine are barely 3 inches right now after nearly one year.

    After their first year or two you can get them slowly adapted to ultraviolet light in progressivley sunnier spots outside where they will eventually be placed in full sun outside all year if you have a good North American place to raise them in... S. purpurea is a very hardy plant that needs a dormant period each year, but you can let the seeldings grow for a couple years without dormancy under artificial light.

    The page below shows pics of my Sarracenia hybrids as they grew over the course of this last year.

    http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/carnivor/msg091103312886.html?21

  • petiolaris
    16 years ago

    My method is to put seeds in a small, sealed plastic container, with distilled water, in the fridge for a month or two. Then I spread the seeds out on moist media, covered, under light - sun or artificial.

  • ilbasso_74
    16 years ago

    I've been using styrofoam egg cartons. I take the lid off, remove one of the egg cups and poke holes in the bottoms of the other compartments. Fill the rest of the cups with the peat/perlite mix and use the carton's lid as a water tray. I remove one of the cups so that I can monitor the water level and add as needed (perfect with a turkey baster). Lay the seeds on top (don't bury) and spray with the fungicide. The egg carton has no problem fitting in the butter compartment in the fridge. I usually take them out after a month and either wrap it in a ziplock bag or put it in a terrarium. The holes in the front of the lid keep you from over watering, but it also means that it can dry out quickly. So far it has worked for me and it keeps the amount of soil needed down.

  • don555
    16 years ago

    It was mutant hybrid's post on kick-starting Sarrencia seedlings that I was looking for by going back through some of these older threads, so thanks for adding that link MH.

    And while I'm here, Heavenlyfarm, I take it that your seeds are now stratified and waiting for spring. Here's what you can expect. I too bought some S.purpurea seeds off the internet last fall, and put them in the fridge in a bag with some damp sphagnum on Oct.17. I took them out and planted them in a 4" pot of sphagnum on Feb.6 (3.5 months stratified), which I put under grow lights, covered with a plastic bag to maintain dampness. They began to sprout 17 days later, and here's some pics of them taken a couple days ago, one month after removing them from the fridge. It looks to me like germination is near 100%, so to avoid overcrowding like I've got, you shouldn't plant too many seeds in each pot.
    -Don
    {{gwi:546463}}

    {{gwi:546464}}

  • carnivorousplants
    16 years ago

    Hi don555,
    Where did you get those seeds and what type of purpurea are they?
    Your're really lucky to have such high germination rates on purpurea.
    They have a really low germination rate.
    I want to get some of those!
    Thanks,
    Adrian

  • don555
    16 years ago

    Adrian, I got those on ebay from a seller called "seedsandmore". Mine are the northern pitcher plant, but they also sell seeds of the southern variety, as well as seeds of Darlingtonia, and maybe some other carnivores. They are a huge seed supplier of all kinds of plant seeds, not just carnivores.
    -Don

  • carnivorousplants
    16 years ago

    Thanks don555,
    I found the seller and looked at his/her feedback which was really good so I'm going to buy some seeds soon.

  • carnivorousplants
    16 years ago

    Don555- How many seeds did you buy?
    The 300 in bulk, 50 , or the trio?

  • don555
    16 years ago

    I got 100 seeds. Maybe they aren't selling them in that amount right now? I think the choice when I got them was 100 or 300. Fifty will give you lots of plants.

  • man_2u_live_com
    12 years ago

    I'm from Newfoundland living in Ontario. Does anyone know where I can get some picture plant seeds?

  • SanDiego_Cper
    12 years ago

    My method is to:
    1) wet some paper towels (2 sheets) in water containing about a teaspoon of Daconil (antifungal);
    2) squeeze out most of the water, so that the paper towels are damp but not wet;
    3) sprinkle out the Sarracenia seeds over the middle of one the towels;
    4) put the other damp towel on top of the towel containing the seeds;
    5) fold the towels over a couple of times, as if you are folding a regular cloth towel;
    6) put the folded paper towels containing seeds in a ziploc bag - label the bag if you need to;
    7) throw the ziploc into the fridge, such as in the vegetable keeper, for about a month;
    8) take the towels out, unfold, and sprinkle the seeds on top of fairly finely chopped up sphagnum fibers that are sitting on top of 1:1 peat moss/sand (dont cover the seeds)in a 8 inch wide pot which is 9) put the pot in a tray of distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water - and keep water in the tray at all times- (optional- put it on top of a heat mat);

    1. put a piece of saran wrap across the top of the pot and hold it in place with a rubber band;
    2. put the pot/tray in indirect light;
    3. once the seeds germinate and form seed leaves (3 to 4 weeks roughly) - move into full sun and remove saran wrap.
      Germination rates are really high and you will have more plants then you will know what to do with - like me. For example, I have about 60 sarracenia alata 'red throat' 2 year seedlings that I have no idea what to do with.

    I just started stratifying the following seeds (step 7) about 300 flavas, 150 leukos, 100 moorei, and 100 leuko x gulfensis 'green'.

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