FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all,

I met a kind person online who shipped me four Dork's Pink gemmae for free, and I've been trying to grow them with no success.

I received them in the mail a few weeks ago, and put them on the surface of a 50/50 mix of perlite and peat moss, then put them 9 inches under my Yescom 225 growlights. At first, it looked like they were starting to grow, but as the weeks have passed it looks like the gemmae are failing.

I mist them every day with a little distilled water on the surface.

I've included some pictures below. Do they still look like they'll make it, or is this a failure?

Not sure what I did wrong. Is the strike rate just low for these? Were they damaged during shipping due to the cold? Did I mist them too frequently? Too much/too little light?

A few days ago one looked like this:


Now they look like this:

Personally I always mist mine one time when I place them in the pot, sit the pot in a small amount of water and then just cover with saran wrap (slightly loosely to let out heat) for a couple weeks until I start seeing leaves. Never had any issues doing it that way. I also prefer using peat/sand rather than perlite for pygmies since it makes for a much more uniform substrate at small scales. Honestly if I had to guess personally I'd say it looks like they may have just rotted from getting misted so often and being placed on a spot of pure peat. Your soil looks a *lot* wetter than I keep mine, at least.

NightRaider wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 11:42 pm Personally I always mist mine one time when I place them in the pot, sit the pot in a small amount of water and then just cover with saran wrap (slightly loosely to let out heat) for a couple weeks until I start seeing leaves. Never had any issues doing it that way. I also prefer using peat/sand rather than perlite for pygmies since it makes for a much more uniform substrate at small scales. Honestly if I had to guess personally I'd say it looks like they may have just rotted from getting misted so often and being placed on a spot of pure peat. Your soil looks a *lot* wetter than I keep mine, at least.

Ahhhh, gotcha. Damn, yeah, you might be right. I should have wrapped it instead of misting it. I just have it otherwise sitting in a small tray of water as well.

I'll know for next time, at least!

Really hope this is the start of something growing!