FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

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The thread/post above details the sundews that I started stratifying back on....November 8th, 2022. I strongly suggest a reminder be put into your smart phone...not that I'd have forgot about them or anthing like that, but...

Included in this batch are:
D. filiformis filiformis New Jersey (MikeB)
D. tracyi (G. Kong/Etsy)
(Two batches) D. Dreamsicle (FTC seed bank)
D. binata "Marston Dragon" OP (FTC seed bank)

The filiformis varieties will have two cups each planted, the binata only one. Each batch of Dreamsicle will be in a single cup...so two cups of more thickly seeded than the other filiformis.

I'm still a newbie at growing CPs and definitely fumbling/stumbling around when it comes to growing plants from seed. Here's my plan (for now )...

I hope I'm not messing up here...

I prepared eight 20oz styrofoam cups yesterday. They were pre-punched with three drain holes along the bottom sides of each cup using my pencil tool (patent pending). I then put a thin layer of dampened LFSM (BetterGro) to "seal" the bottom drain holes to keep the grow mix from spilling out.

The grow mix is a 50:50 mix of Majestic Earth peat moss and Vigoro perlite...both pre-rinsed with rainwater. I filled the cups to about 3/4" to 1" from the top with the 50:50 mix.

I then sat and cut up a bunch of BetterGro LFSM moss with a pair of scissors...what fun!!! I'd take a bunch of the moss and wad it up in my hand, then stick one of the scissor blades into the wad and start cutting. Only cut my hand once!!!! I got it chopped up pretty well, hopefully good enough. I then wet it with distilled water, squeezing out the excess to "rinse" it. I ended up putting roughly 1/2" on the top of the peat:perlite mix and wetted it down good with some distilled water. Thoughts on the LFSM layer would be appreciated as I'm wondering about how the seedlings/sprouts will handle growing roots throught eh LFSM and on into the peat:perlite mix.

I brought the cups into the house to let it all warm up to room temp overnight. I also took the seeds out of the refrigerator so that the containers holding them and their water could come to room temperature. I have some pipettes I'll be using to transfer and scatter the seeds on top of the chopped up LFSM.

Bagging/humidity-dome: I'm trying to decide what to do in regards to humidity regulation. Some of us were recently talking about humidity levels, the micro-climate just about the soil surface, open-air, covered/bagged, etc.,. It is easy to create a humidity dome over the container...a sheet of clear plastic and a few pieces of tape. Cut a few holes here and there in the plastic and it works well for vegetables.

OR...I have some of those nifty dome lids that are used on milkshake cups and other frozen goodie cups. They reduce the 3.7" of the cup's top to roughly a 1-1/2" opening in the clear dome lid. I've only got five of these onhand (hmmm, that might be a good excuse to drive to town and get three milkshakes!<grin>). Anyhow, this would create a humid micro-environment directly above those cups there fastened to but yet leave the top opened for air exchange.

I have a spot underneath the shoplights that the container of cups can go or I could put it to "the side" of my flat-panel grow-light (currently a Mars Hydro TS600 but soon to be a ViparSpectra XS1000) for now.

Anyhow, this is some of my plotting and planning for today.

Ok. I ended up with:
1 cup of binata Marston Dragoon
2 cups of dreamsicle OP
2 cups of trayci
3 cups of filiformis NJ (MikeB gifted me the equivalent of one of Chef's "crap ton" of seeds!

Got a couple of thing to do and then I'll uber them over to the trailer and get them under some lights. I still haven't decided on a humidity chamber/method yet.