Hello carnivorousplants,

Venus Flytraps, even though they are not tropical, do not need stratification. The moment they drop their seeds, they are ready to germinate and grow for a few months until winter hits.

Other North American species, like the Drosera rotundifolia and Drosera filiformis will both require stratification in cold wet conditions for at least 8-12 weeks. Many people do this by sprinkling the seeds on the topsoil of a pot of damp peat moss and perlite or wrapping them in a damp paper towel and them placing them in the refrigerator. The main problem is that you will need to be vigilant for fungus at all times. Even though it is cold, the dark stagnant air in the fridge allows mold to grow slowly and creep up on you if you are not cautious with your seeds. You can periodically spray them with fungicide every couple weeks.

I used an alternative method to stratify my Sarracenia seeds that takes more work, but keeps the fungus off easier and creates a controlled environment in which the temperature changes slightly, like what would occur in nature. You can take an ice chest and place frozen water bottles in it and put a thermometer in there to make sure the ambient temperature is around 45 degrees. Place the pots of damp soil in there and sprinkle the seeds on the pot soil surface, don't cover them or plant them in the soil, just drop them on. Every few days mist them lightly as that will keep them moist and wash mold spores off. Cover the ice chest at night for 12 hours to take the temperature down to 40 degrees and uncover it by day to allow the temperature to rise to almost 50 degrees. Opening the chest will allow air and light in to sterilize the environment as well, so make sure the chest is in a window to provide some sun to kill mold. Replace the ice bottles every 12 hours to keep them consistently frozen. This method takes more work, but is well worth it since my Sarracenias germinated at about 70 percent in 2-3 weeks and are still going strong 6 months later. Just keep that work up for 8 or so weeks then take the pots out and place them in a well lit window or under florescent light and watch them grow.

The seeds from D. alicia, D. spatulata, D. capensis, and D. sessilifolia all grow as tropicals, so can just be dropped on damp peat moss/perlite in a pot and placed in a well lit area.

For seeds, keeping them inside would be best as birds and other animals and insects will eat the seeds and germinating seedlings if they are unprotected.

There is really no need to place a humidity cover over the pots as the seeds just need to remain damp to germinate. If you germinate them under a humidity cover, they will need adaptation for several slow weeks before the cover is removed later on and stagnant air can promote mold. Leaving the pot open reduces the chance of mold and keeps the seeds in normal humidity, so they won't need adaptation later; they will just grow and be pre-adapted. What you can do to keep them moist during the germination process is to just mist them lightly once each day with a sprayer of distilled water set for fine mist about a foot from the pot. That will allow the fine spray of water to cover the seeds, wash off mold spores, and keep the seeds hydrated for germination. Also keep the pot in a small tray of 1/2 inch water to keep the soil moist at all times.

There might be some other ideas out there, but the main idea is to keep the seeds moist, place them in pots of moist soil without covering them, and keep the mold off as best you can. Light and open air are the best preventatives for mold.

Have fun growing your plants. It will take them all, except most of the tropical sundews, a few years to mature, so be patient.

Thanks!

I forgot to ask one question.
Do I cover them while they are in stratification?

In stratification you can place them in a baggie in the fridge to help hold in moisture. If you use the ice chest method, they can be left open pot as the closed ice chest will trap moisture and condensation will occur, keeping the plants and soil moist almost constantly.

For the afore-mentioned tropicals, I use plastic pipette dispenser containers (I work in a lab). It comes with an inner part that has holes in it, nestled inside a solid part. It also has a hinged lid, to cover them. All I do is mix slightly moist media and sprinkle the seeds on top. Then I cover and place at an east window... and ignore for about 3 weeks. That's usually how long it takes for most sundews to germinate, at room temp.

As to Sarracenias, I had seeds of various species in sealed centrifuge tubes, with water, placed in a bucket of water, in the attic, nest to the window sill, for several weeks. That gave them cold, wet conditions for the stratification. After that I poured the seeds onto the pipette container media and closed the lid... and waited foir germination.

Here's the empty container. You can use anything that allows for keeping sealed or cold.

{{gwi:547178}}

Here's a picture of plants in a pipette container, open tray method, after having germinated in it:

{{gwi:550648}}

Nice work. It is always interesting to compare ideas. It seems we carnivorous plant enthusiasts use anything at hand to grow our plants or provide some benefit to them.

Rule of thumb: Don't use your wife's Tupperware!

What!?!?
I don't have wife!!!!
I'm only 10 years old!
And my mom lets me use her tupperware all the time,
In fact,that's the only things I use to carry my plants.
Thanks,
Adrian

petiolaris:

Also, if you do use tupperware, make sure it has large plentiful drainage holes. I learned that lesson recently with my mini-bog tupperware setup. I did not punch enough holes in the bottom and the holes were too small to boot, so the soil stagnated and got stinky. I just repotted all my Sarracenias into regular pots and rearranged my setup.

Auctully,
I use the tupperware as water trays.