Germinateingd.peltata ssp auriculata, d.gigantea

[will_Work4Plantz]

hey i've been wanting to try these for quite a while, if theres anyone out there who has had succes growing these .
let me know if i should try or not.
thankx.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

You should always try! Maybe you will succeed or maybe you will fail, but you will learn either way, and that's what the hobby is really about.

Tuberous species are often difficult to germinate from seed, and they require a lot of light to prosper. I have had limited success under flourescent lights. For me the plants do well for a season or two, but often fail to produce good tubers needed for the next seasons growth. I am still trying and learning though.

Some of the easier species include D. peltata, D. auriculata, D. whittakerii. Last season I grew and flowered U. menziesii and am waiting to see if it returns to growth this winter.

If you are thinking of purchasing tubers from Australia, you have to take into consideration the reversal of the seasons: tubers need to be acclimated to the Northern hemisphere's seasons.

 

[Tom]

I have grown almost (except D.modesta) all my tuberous species from seeds: D.peltata, macrantha, menziesii, neesii ssp borealis, stolonifera, heterophyla (which recently die), and as Tamlin said, most are hard to keep inside, under artificial lights, unless you have a HID lamp.

Still, D. peltata is growing well for several years, under fluos, HID or natural light. It is a pretty easy specie, and I sow the seeds 'the usual way' aka as others sundews. The germination hadn't took too much time: 1-2 month MAX (I can't remember). But the germination can be long in several cases, so you might want to sterilize your substrate to avoid mosses to overgrow the substrate surface before the seeds can germinate. Make sure you are sowing the seeds in the 'definitive' pots, most tuberous seedlings do not handle well the repotting, even if they hadn't the time to send their roots far into the soil (The 2 D. heterophylla seedlings I had died this way...).

D.peltata can often grow without having dormancy (mine are doing this for 3-4 years now), when the plants are dying to their tuber, they hadn't the time to die completly that new plantlets are already coming up from the soil... D. stolonifera has the same habit since this winter too...

Good luck with it, they are marvelous but tricky species.