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B. aquatica

  • #21
Those little guys look great, Cindy! About how many germinated from the 40 seeds you planted?

About 15 has germinated, but only 7 are alive. I kept on the drier side - they dried up. I kept them on the wetter side - they rotted. Arrrrrgggggg....
 
  • #22
Hi Cindy,

I forgot to tell you in the email- I strongly suspect that b aquatica benefit greAtly from being fed. Try feeding them small flies (aphids are ideal) or tiny drops of milk.

Cheers,

Greg

Thanks! I'll feed them bloodworms 'cos I am going to feed my Pings that as well.
 
  • #23
Finally, after four painful months of hoping...the ONLY B. aquatica plant is flowering! None of the other seedlings survived, despite being fed with blood worms. In fact, I think they might have died faster because of my overly humid condition (stale air vs B. aquatica growing in wet conditions in the wild). :blush:

The photos were taken with the Olympus TG-3. The camera is supposed to be very good at macro shots/microscope shots but I am not getting what I used to get with the Sony Cybershot (the supermacro models are no longer in production, sigh). My dad says it's the setting but the camera is too smart I think. Flat stuff like text on dollar notes are fine but with really small plants...the end product is not sharp at all. If anyone else on TF uses this model, please enlighten me. :hail:

Pics taken with Focus stacking mode - same shot but differing degrees of depth of field are merged for the 2nd


 
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  • #24
That flower has set seeds. I soaked half of them in GA3 solution and almost all of these sprouted. After 2 weeks, none of the un-treated ones germinated so I soaked them in GA3 as well. Then I forgot about them and they germinated in the solution. :-))

I am trying to see if the seedlings survive better this season with wet and cooler weather. As you can see, this species gave me only one plant since April this year after sowing at least 50 seeds. :headwall::
 
  • #25
Wow! The leaves look pretty thick to me, although it might just be because the picture was taken close up. Beautiful.
 
  • #26
The way I see it - if you brought one to flowering you are on the path to total success. I have never heard of germinating seeds in GA3 but maybe I should give it a try! :-D A very attractive species and one I probably won't see in person for quite awhile. I appreciate you posting your experiences with it, Cindy.
 
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  • #27
Just a quick update...

I've got 10 seedlings still alive since I posted the last time in mid November. I'll continue to monitor them and post here. Cheers!
 
  • #28
Out of the 10 seedlings still alive last December, I finally have ONE flowering plant (and two seedlings still at only 1-2" tall).

The pics are for some of you, like me, who has a love-hate-affair with this species. :-))







 
  • #29
This year, perhaps and just perhaps I may have broken the Da Vinci code of growing B. aquatica to adulthood... :-))

There are now 9 plants growing at my balcony! Well, I didn't sit down, mull over it and think very hard. I just forgot about them after they germinated in a covered box! Subsequently, they were much easier to transplant after they reached past 1" tall under 100% RH and none keeled over even when they were potted up and placed at the balcony right away.

That's all for now, for those like me who love this species but have been wasting a number of seeds just to get one plant going. I'll post pics once these flower! Cheers!
 
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