Byblis Seeds Germination - A Summary

[Cindy]

Alright, we have several ways to help the Byblis seeds germinate which growers discovered by accident.
1. PingMan's Heat and Bleach Method
2. Cindy's Pinch and Sow Method
3. Dewy's Forget and Leave Them for a Month Method
4. Dewy's Peat First and Distilled Water Later Method

So for my latest batch of seeds...well yes, for Byblis there is always seeds...but getting them to germinate is another story...anyway...I decided that I would carry out a combo of several methods.

* First, I left them in an open plastic container for a month.
* Then I gave some away for other growers to experience the frustration and kept some for my own insanity.
* Soaked them in hot water and noticed there was no purple colouration leaching out. Skipped the bleach.
* After leaving them overnight in the water, I sowed them on live sphagnum moss. Not sure if it helps with germination but it is just that I can see the seeds better than if I sow them on peat.
* I pinched one seed last week to remove the seed coat and it germinated yesterday.
* Today, I saw that another seed germinated. This seed had its seed coat intact and it germinated in 2 weeks.

Not as quick as some growers might have experienced but it is the fastest for me. Recently, I had one seed germinate after 6 months. The seed was a month old when I received it and it was treated with hot water and bleach. There are others like it which are still in the same pot and I really wonder when or if they will germinate.

 

[Christian Dietz]

Hello Cindy,

What species of Byblis are you speaking from? I found, that Byblis liniflora easily germinates without any treatment as long as the seeds are fresh and kept warm and bright enough. I had great succes with Byblis lamellata, rorida and filifolia by soaking the seeds in smoke water (made with smoce discs) for 24hrs. The seeds germinated really good after this treatment.

Christian

 

[Cindy]

Christian, it is liniflora.

I was given fresh seeds in December last year and have only one geminate after 2 weeks. The rest are still in the pot. My growing area is hot and bright year round.

 

[RavnKing]

I sowed some byblis seeds last month using PingMan's method with the heat and bleach. The seeds were almost a year old so I really expected nothing. Low and behold out of about 20 seeds, 12 of them have germinated and are growing. I was totally shocked that any of them germinated nevermind 12 of them. Oh ya... and they germinated in 8 days! I must say that PingMan's method has been the most successful for me to this point and I can't argue with the results.

 

[jimscott]

I just received some B. liniflora seeds. The instructions say to saok in lemon juice, instead of 10% bleach.

A couple of people suggested that the reason why the inhibitor (purple dye) is there is because it is nature's way of preventing germination before it is ready.. specifically when spring rains come, to sustain the seedlings past germination. Sounds plausible to me. But I don't know what their natural habitat is like, so I can't verify this. I've tried the bleach and soak thing and got nothing. I've done absolutely nothing special to a batch and went 23 for 23. I also went 0 for ~10. I tried swampy, live LFS and got ~half to germinate and they did very well in that environment - until the Nep basket crashed into it.

I have heard described a month of cold strorage, a month of room temp storage, and the afore-mentioned - with success and failure with all combinations and permutations of approaches. This is confusing and somewhat frsutrating!

I have another approach. I plan to try a little lemon juice soak and then I will put them in a plastic ice conatiner, that is tall and narrow, so it can fit on a window sill. I plan to mix sand and peat and have LFS on top. I am going to overfill the container past the media surface and sow the seeds. I think the water is similar in concept to that of cold stratification of sarracenia seeds and having them be in very cold water. It's supposed to break down the seedcoat. In like manner, I think that will happen if the seeds are germinated in water and then allowed to nestle into the media. Then I will poke holed in the ice tray and have them "open tray", at the window sill.

That's MY 2 cents worth!