cephalotus seed plan

[Ras]

so this is my plan, let me know if any of it is a bad idea

going to use chopped dead lfs in a clay pot which will be sitting in water similar to this

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq3190.html

but with water around the pot rather than soil so the clay will soak up the water like a self watering African violet pot

since I read that germination rates of fresh cold stratified seeds is no better than fresh no-stratified, and the seeds I'm getting were harvested April 29th I was thinking of sowing them with no stratification but I'm still unsure if I should
and should I add perlite to the chopped lfs?




so summary
is a hole-less clay pot in water ok for ceph seeds?
would chopped dead sphagnum be a good media for them and should I add perlite to it?
should I stratify the seeds or not?

 

[Bio]

Why the sphagnum? The seeds could get washed into the space between the strands. In addition, the sphagnum wouldn't be the best for the African violet pot idea. Peat and sand would be better IMO.

Also, I'm not sure if terracotta pots will allow the wicking that the AV pots do. The AV pots seem much more porous.

 

[Ras]

I figure if they work being buried in media it should work in water so I did a test last night and the pot media was moist in the morning
after just a few mins of sitting the pot in water the entire pot was dark with moisture
I was just going to use crumbled sphag because it is a bit more sanitary and the ICPS guide suggested it "Finely chopped sphagnum moss works well as a seed germination substrate. Place the seeds on the surface of the substrate and do not bury them." http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/GrowingGuides/Cephalotus.php

I thought if it was crumbled and cut up enough it wouldn't have spaces
I have no sand that I trust though so should I substitute perlite or crushed perlite for sand? or if I cut the sphag up enough could I just stick with that plan

 

[Bio]

I thought if it was crumbled and cut up enough it wouldn't have spaces.
I have no sand that I trust though so should I substitute perlite or crushed perlite for sand? or if I cut the sphag up enough could I just stick with that plan.

I didn't even notice that you said chopped and crumbled. That's what I know as milled sphagnum. That should work very, very well for this. And yes, milled sphagnum will work with the AV pot.

After just a few mins of sitting the pot in water the entire pot was dark with moisture

I thought terracotta pots could work, but now we know they do.

 

[Ras]

but like i said in pm I was reading some reviews on AV pots and if the unglazed clay is too thick apparently it doesnt work. though I havent been able to really test that because all my pots are thin cheap ones

 

[PsychoSarah]

I thought clay leached unwanted minerals into soils? Unglazed clay I mean.