D. gigantea

[Vagabond]

Well I just checked yesterday and I spotted a little D. gigantea seedling in the pot I sowed the seed months ago. Now that I've got a seedling I want to keep it alive. Is culture typical tuberous or are there some quirks? I ordered seed of the plant as a kind of afterthought, never really expecting any to germinate. It was cheap, what can I say?

The seedling is currently growing on pure peat in a plastic bag in strong light, basically the conditions it germinated in. Should I keep it there or what?

Also does it live up to its latin name? I seem to recall it being mentioned as one of the larger memberos the genus along with D. regia but thats about all I know about it.

Andrew

 

[Parasuco]

I may be wrong, but I recall reading that the gigantea refered to the flower size...

 

[Martin]

Drosera gigantea can get up to 1m in size. It will take at least 7-8, propably 10 or 15 years for a seedling to reach this size.
Like many other tuberous Drosera, Dr. gigantea need to be placed at a cool room during winter with plenty of light !!
My plants don't need high humidity.
Drosera gigantea needs a sandy soil and very(!!&#33

deep pots, especially if it gets older. Keep them "almost dry" during summer dormancy and not completly dry like many other tuberous Drosera.

Good luck

Drosera gigantea is one of my worst growing tuberous Drosera. I know that D'Amato says that it is easy, but for me this species is really hard to grow.

Martin

 

[Tristan]

It's actually one of the largest tuberous Drosera I think.

 

[Tristan]

Whoops Martin hit the botton before me.

 

[Parasuco]

Daaaarn! Wrong again! Heh...

 

[Vagabond]

Well as my plant is just one true leaf with about 6 tentacles and a bud I'll let it get a bit bigger before repot it. I'll start dropping the humidity down though to prevent damping off, but I'll keep it higher then outside the bag because seedlings generally are sheltered by other plants in nature.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Andrew

 

[Stone Burner]

could someone post a link or picture of D. gigantea. I've searched the web but cant find a picture.

 

[Khai]

http://www.cephalotus.net/images/dgigantea.jpg

peace

 

[Martin]

Repot it as an dormant tuber NOT as a growing plant. The pure peat could be a problem and prevent tuber formation.
It's always better to do some reseach before(!) obtaining a new plant.

----

How is it possible that someone can't find a picture of it on the net
Try for excample Bob's excellent new Photofinder :

http://www.humboldt.edu/~rrz7001/

but also google.com will show you lots of pics...

Martin

 

[goldtrap2690]

these plants r really easy to care for if you have the right conditions , you can buy a big mature plant for about 25 - 50 dollars at california carnivores .

 

[Martin]

"...these plants r really easy to care for if you have the right conditions..."

Under what conditions do you grow your Drosera gigantea ?

"...you can buy a big mature plant for about 25 - 50 dollars at california carnivores ..."

Are you sure ?
I can only find Drosera regia on their webpage. This is a completly(!) different sundew.

Martin

 

[Pyro]

I will side with Martin on this, I have a few tiny plants grown from tubers that were about 2-5mm when I got them. They grow slow and seem to die at the drop of a hat

 

[cephalotus88]

Lol, you gotta be kidding me(not to mean) gold-Easy.....my past seedlings died in a matter of weeks

, and I went to CC resently and the biggest of tuberous they are having for sale is nothin so far

.

 

[Vagabond]

Well as I said I didn't really expect any germination, and I couldn't find any decent cultivation info on the web. Anyway we'll see how it goes, at the worst I've wasted £.85.

Anyway its forming a new leaf so maybe it will do okay. Also, why do you say that the peat will inhibit tuber formation? Is it to do with the moisture or the acidity of the soil? The peat isn't very wet, only moist.

Andrew

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

I grew this for one season and I can say with assurance that this is not an easy species. It did well enough (I grew from a tuber) but despite careful attention to allowing it to go dormant slowly and maintaining dry dormant conditions, it failed to return this season.

 

[Martin]

Tubers of Drosera gigantea are so deep, that the soil around the tuber never drys out completly.
Martin

 

[Vagabond]

Just a little update:

The first seedling has been growing reasonably fast and now has 4 carniverous leaves with another forming, I also noticed this week a second seedling germinating. They're both still on the pure peat in a plastic bag and they seem fairly happy, good leaf color and dew on the tentacles.

Andrew

 

[Pyro]

I figured I'd toss in an update too. After moving my pot of gigantea under my new MH light I am suddenly getting new growth and it looks like a couple other plants a popping up too. I am wondering if it has something to do with the brightness and maybe the warmth. Possibly in the attempt to keept them cool they were too cold

 

[The Griffin]

When I ordered from lowrie last year, he gave me five D. gigantea tubers for free. I did not have room for a plant that big(or five in this case) so I gave them away. However, he had a suprising culture tip he included for them. He said to grow them in pure peat in a bonsai pot(ie a shallow pot). I can't remeber if that was the tray method for that, or not. Too bad I did not have the room. I would have loved to see what it would have done grown like that.

Regards,

Joe