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Post by Robert on Jun 15, 2008 15:13:17 GMT 8
my first trial germinating dischidia major and M.tuberosa. I use a mixture of cocopeat and sand. dischidia pods "exploded" to reveal the seeds. Note the fluffy hair like structure enable them to be carried away by wind.  it took 4 days to sprout  M.tuberosa- i managed to collect 2 seeds and one germinated. The young seedling look weird, really ;D  |
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Post by shawnintland on Jun 15, 2008 18:15:30 GMT 8
Cool Robert! By the way, when my D. major seedlings got about 3"-4" long I made a bunch of tip cuttings and just laid them on a bed of sphagnum moss to root. They rooted really quickly and better still; the originals branched out and started forming bulbous leaves within a couple weeks. I've since made a bunch more cuttings out of both halves, potting them up at about 3-4 cuttings per 3" pot. I've been potting them up in semi-rotted leaf/twig compost (broken down to about 1/2 soil, 1/2 decomposed leaves/twigs).
This is the first year that I've kept an eye on my dischidia's for seed pods as I always found cuttings so easy to take. But by watching (and bagging pods) I've gotten seed off of about 4-5 species so far. I have a project creating a "living wall", with a hydroponic setup, that I will start in a couple months and figure once it's planted up I'll sprinkle in the Dischidia seeds to germinate in place. Although I'm not sure about the viability limits of the seed.
You're right! That M. tuberosa IS weird looking! Good luck with it. How big/old was the mother when it flowered? And what were the flowers like?
Thanks for posting the pics!
Shawn
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Post by Robert on Jun 15, 2008 21:10:49 GMT 8
Cool Robert! By the way, when my D. major seedlings got about 3"-4" long I made a bunch of tip cuttings and just laid them on a bed of sphagnum moss to root. They rooted really quickly and better still; the originals branched out and started forming bulbous leaves within a couple weeks. I've since made a bunch more cuttings out of both halves, potting them up at about 3-4 cuttings per 3" pot. I've been potting them up in semi-rotted leaf/twig compost (broken down to about 1/2 soil, 1/2 decomposed leaves/twigs). This is the first year that I've kept an eye on my dischidia's for seed pods as I always found cuttings so easy to take. But by watching (and bagging pods) I've gotten seed off of about 4-5 species so far. I have a project creating a "living wall", with a hydroponic setup, that I will start in a couple months and figure once it's planted up I'll sprinkle in the Dischidia seeds to germinate in place. Although I'm not sure about the viability limits of the seed. You're right! That M. tuberosa IS weird looking! Good luck with it. How big/old was the mother when it flowered? And what were the flowers like? Thanks for posting the pics! Shawn well shawn, the cutting you made on dischidia is new to me. I will try it out ;D M.tuberosa seeds were collected from the wild. Picture below shows one ripe orange fruit, press lightly to squeeze out, they mostly contained 4-5 seeds the size of cucumber seeds. I am not sure how old but it was a very matured one.  |
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Post by shawnintland on Jun 15, 2008 23:37:48 GMT 8
well shawn, the cutting you made on dischidia is new to me. I will try it out ;D M. tuberosa seeds were collected from the wild. Picture below shows one ripe orange fruit, press lightly to squeeze out, they mostly contained 4-5 seeds the size of cucumber seeds. I am not sure how old but it was a very matured one. Yep, the dischidia start putting out aerial roots right away so by the time they are 3-4" it's really easy to root them up fast! I made about 20 cuttings/batch in an 8"' x 10" tupperware container, fairly dry and at the end of the month had to cut the sphagnum with scissors to divide them up for transplanting. The M. tuberosa fruit is a great shot...cool to see how it forms on the trunk like that. thanks for showing us! In your photo, at the crotch of the lowest leaves, there are some small plants. Are those orchids or are they M. tuberosa that fruited and sprouted on the trunk? |
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Post by Robert on Jun 15, 2008 23:45:41 GMT 8
oh..i have not been watchful. yup! on the top are the young seedlings  |
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Post by isaacgoh on Jun 17, 2008 17:27:29 GMT 8
Another very educational thread since I never had this kind of luxury to do this.
Thanks for the wonderful experience (thru pictures).
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