FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I bought a venus flytrap kit a couple of weeks ago, and it told me to put the baggie inside a cup of ice water and then store it in the fridge for 3 weeks. Well, i have been reading on the web that your supposed to put a piece of damp paper towel in with the seeds because the seeds need to be moist and wet. So i put tap water on the paper towel, and put it in with the seeds. Now I am finding out that your not supposed to use tap water. Well the seeds have been dampened in tap water for a couple days now. Is this going to kill my seeds or cause them not to grow?

hello savagegardener,
First off, you don't need to put the seeds in the fridge or in ice water.If your tap waters parts per million (ppm) is under 50 it's okay to use with your plants.The seeds might still grow so take the seeds out of the fridge and just sow them onto some sphagnum peat moss.



Hope this helps.

~Eric

I am so confused. I have been checking many sites on the web, and half of them say cold stratification, and some say no stratification. And then some site say the grow from bulbs, yet I have seeds? This is the second kit I have bought and I just want them to grow!!!

Dionaea seeds are easy. I too have read that stratification is needed, but this is false. I get over 90% germination rate with fresh seeds and no stratification.

As far as water goes for stratifying seeds, it's not going to hurt to use tap water. However, once the seed germinate and you have them growing on peat moss, then you want to use distilled water or rain water only.

I am going to write a letter to that company telling them what blockheads they are.

It's not a bad idea, but if they're making money by selling those things, I doubt you'll get much of a response. Maybe they'll send you a free one though.

savagegardener wrote:I bought a venus flytrap kit a couple of weeks ago, and it told me to put the baggie inside a cup of ice water and then store it in the fridge for 3 weeks. Well, i have been reading on the web that your supposed to put a piece of damp paper towel in with the seeds because the seeds need to be moist and wet.

Lucy (that is your name, "savagegardener," I hope?), are you determined to grow Venus Flytraps from seed, or would you rather have an adult Venus Flytrap to learn how to care for? If the latter, I currently have a free offer (for $6.50 shipping charge) of a nice clone of a "Typical" Venus Flytrap, listed here at FlytrapCare.com. You can take advantage of it if you like.

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/viewt ... f=20&t=634

If you do want to try to grow Venus Flytraps from seed, it's easy with just a few guidelines, although the plants will require several years to become adult, and will remain very small the first year. There is a lot of good experience and advice about growing from seed here at FlytrapCare.com.

Steve

Thank you steve for the generous offer, but i really want to start one from seeds. I dont want to cheat and buy an already started off plant, wheres the fun in that? Thank You again,


Lucy

savagegardener wrote:Thank you steve for the generous offer, but i really want to start one from seeds. I dont want to cheat and buy an already started off plant, wheres the fun in that?

I understand. There's lots of great seed starting advice here at FlytrapCare.com, and in a few months many of us will have fresh seed to share, including myself. If you would like to see my particular Dionaea seed starting "equipment," a photo of it appears near the bottom of the following page:

http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/viewt ... 3&start=10

Happy growing--

Steve

Very Cool Steve,
The kit that I bought uses 2/3 peat and 1/3 sand mix.
I just found a paper inside my Venus fly trap kit that says if my seeds don't sprout they will send me more. So I will keep harassing them till I get one that sprouts from them.

What does the coke can do for the plants? (just kidding)

Thanks for all the help!