Monday, June 30, 2014

Propagation interlude

I'm still planning a follow-up to my BACPS Show/Sale post, but in the mean time I wanted to do a little update from home. Yesterday I finally decided to get one more set of lights to use in a propagation area, but stupidly forgot to buy a 2 dollar set of hooks to hang the lights. I'll have a picture of my setup later, but I did want to share a couple pictures of my current running propagation efforts.

First up, my Drosera 'Marston Dragon' flower stalk cuttings that sprouted in water transferred well to the media. Each chunk had a small root or two, which made it a lot easier. Here they are acclimating to the media in a humidity tent.

Drosera binata 'Marston Dragon' flower stalk cuttings.
I've heard flower stalk cuttings work great, and they did well in water. On the media, not so much.
I'm gonna give them a few weeks in here and then start hardening them off. I also have some D. 'Marston Dragon' leaf cuttings that started on water, and transferred to media back at the end of April. I didn't mention it on the blog I think, but they rapidly declined and looked terrible. However, there are a couple of little strikes that seem to have made it. It was hard to get a picture with the angles and the humidity, but I've begun hardening them off.

Drosera binata 'Marston Dragon' leaf cuttings.
The D. 'Marston Dragon' leaf cuttings are much slower going, but a bit more time and maybe they'll become monsters too.
I think I should have let them get a bit bigger in the water before transferring to media. We'll see with my next round of cuttings.

I also started some Drosera ultramafica x spatulata some time ago, and have gotten a few robust strikes. I've also started hardening these guys off.

Drosera ultramafica x spatulata leaf cuttings.
I love the deep red color on this hybrid.
Finally, I wasn't able to get a decent picture, but in another pot I have at least 2 Drosera anglica CA x HI strikes. Hopefully they'll get easier to photograph in a couple weeks.

My Drosera capensis window box thingy is finally picking up some steam. There are probably 6 or 7 plants that have passed from the seedling stage to the plantlet stage and are starting to get nice and big. Also the moss is going crazy, but whatever!

Drosera capensis windowbox planter.
It's a whole ecosystem in here.
I bet they'll be looking great by Christmas.

As a last note, I fed my whole collection last night, and my prize Drosera burmannii are super excited to be eating again (I avoided feeding them for about a month before the show to get the color right). Eat up guys, you earned it!

Prize-winning Drosera burmannii enjoying a well-earned meal.
The flower stalk on that largest plant is enormous, like 18 inches (45 cm) tall.

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