Germinating Drosera cistiflora Seeds

[Wire Man]

I picked up a few seeds of D. cistiflora "Red Flower" last weekend. How exactly do I get these to germinate. I heard about heat stratification, but can't find any info on it.

 

[amphirion]

Ey Graham, im in the same boat.
What i am currently doing is leaving the seeds in their packet and allowing them to bake on the windowsill for a bit. Come early October, I'm going to sow them on some damp peat/sand. Worked with my hilaris seed like a charm. I also plan on skipping the dormancy period for their first year in life--once when february and march come around, they're going to be moved into the highlander tank.

 

[Wire Man]

I'll give that a try. I heard liquid smoke might help too.

 

[Not a Number]

http://carnivorousplants.homestead.com/D_cistiflora_cultivation1.html
http://carnivorousplants.homestead.com/D_cistiflora_cultivationPhil.html

Sowing them in pots with a thin layer of ash from burned weeds and scrub grass from a nearby vacant lot. Then baking on top of my light fixtures or heating mat for my petiolaris tank for a month worked for me. So did a 48 hour treatment of GA3. Baking the seeds in paper envelopes (4 weeks) and then sowing with ashes worked too. Not difficult to germinate at all. The trick is timing so the temperatures are cool enough for them to germinate and the growing season long enough to bulk them up for dormancy. My seedlings either died or went dormant recently. I won't know until Oct or November.

There was also a whole article on the cultivation of this species in March 2012 of The Carnivorous Plant Newsletter. Membership has its own rewards.

 

[Wire Man]

WOuld baking them in my car work? My windowsills don't really get that hot.

 

[Pyro]

The second link that NaN posted was my bible when I was growing this species from seed. I had pots and pots and pots of them doing it Phil's way. No tricks needed, no fancy hoops to jump through.

 

[hcarlton]

I still need to get some legit cistiflora seeds to try these techniques out on. Great plants they are, hope to see pics from you guys when they do sprout, as well as which technique works best.

 

[Wire Man]

Okay, the seeds are sown in my dew terrarium in a fairly large pot. Lots of room for roots to grow. I also picked up some ash from Meadowview the other day. I'm going to dilute it in rain/distilled water and spray it on the medium. Apparently ash has a pH of 14, which will burn and kill just about any CP. It's basically lye.

 

[DJ57]

OMG, a beautiful species I had not seen before now. Thank you Wire Man for your thread and Not a Number for the links you posted!

 

[Wire Man]

Mine will have red flowers, which is why I really want these to germinate.

 

[amphirion]

at this point, i think im gonna put them directly under my t5s for 3 weeks before sowing.