Drosera hamiltonii Seed

[Not a Number]

Last year I acquired a clone that was labeled with different location information of the plants I already had. I was fortunate to get both clones to flower this year and I was able to pollinate some flowers with pollen from the others.

And now (ta-daaa) - D. hamiltonii seed:

Very few seed, and only from the flowers that were pollinated from the other plants. I may have waited too long to collect the seed but I've noticed that many of species that produce many offshoots seem to produce small seed amounts.

 

[kulamauiman]

woots. all time kick butts

 

[RL7836]

Major congrats!

Those are 1mm squares on the grid - correct?

 

[Not a Number]

Correct. The seeds look like D. natalensis.

 

[corky]

well done NAN

 

[Tacks]

Nicely done! These are the two clones you sent me for the NASC auction, right? Guess I have some serious cultivating to do.

 

[jimscott]

In case anyone wants to see what his plant looks like:

 

[bluemax]

A slick accomplishment, NaN. Congrats!

 

[Not a Number]

Nicely done! These are the two clones you sent me for the NASC auction, right? Guess I have some serious cultivating to do.

Yessir! They should get an adequate winter outdoors in your area to flower. I recommend deep pots (6 inches minimum).

In case anyone wants to see what his plant looks like:

It'll get better looking with more sun. That on came out of my propagation cup on the windowsill and not getting a whole lot of light. I'll send you one of the other clones when I can.

 

[Not a Number]

And now - seedlings:

 

[Not a Number]

Progress report:

Total of 8 germinations. I sowed 10-15 seeds, probably around 10 since I had so few to begin with. Red arrows indicate germinations. Blue arrow shows ungerminated seed.

Raw link
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o182/Not_a_Number/Drosera/hamiltonii/IMGP9099_zps701b5049.jpg

 

[corky]

Nice germiation rate.Do you worry about moss growing or do you microwave it or similar to make sure it can't? And was that all the seed or did you keep backup cheers

 

[Not a Number]

I still have some backup seed in case they might do better with some sort of treatment like stratification. I also gave some to Ivan Snyder but he hasn't tried to germinate it yet.

They are in chopped long fibre sphagnum. I heated it wet and covered in a microwave oven on high for 3 minutes which is what Ivan Snyder normally does in for germinating seeds. The media should be changed or the plants should be repotted within a year if you do this.

Nobody knew anything about germinating this species. It wasn't known if the same protocols for germinating Cephalotus would apply or not. Since the plants flower in the late spring to early summer and the typical environment is black wet peaty soils Robert Gibson thought a heat pad might help to simulate the conditions under the hot summer sun.

I just sowed them on chopped sphagnum into a covered cup and put it under lights on my grow shelf. After two months of no activity other than the swelling of the seeds (usually a good sign), I partially uncovered the cup. Some seeds won't germinate in high humidity. Either the lowering of the humidity, seasonal drop of ambient temperatures or just passage of time seemed to trigger germination.

 

[bluemax]

'Seems like a very good germination rate and 2 months is nothing excessive when dealing with Drosera seed. A good, logical assumption working from Cephalotus seed methods.

 

[corky]

Thanks for the explanation NAN

 

[Jcal]

Very very impressive NaN! I have been trying to get mine to flower but no success yet. Congratulations on getting viable seed and germination. This sundew is underrated and one of my faves

 

[Not a Number]

Progress report - there are 14 seedlings now

 

[Not a Number]

Some recent pictures