Gemmae

[tarence]

my newest babies....sample of 2 types of gemmae for pygmy sundew.....growlist updated for the new gemmae types received.

[cindy]

Kawan,

Which species are these? And the media is too soggy...

[piscesilim]

May I know how tall is your pot?

[tarence]

Cindy, first one is scorpioides giant....the 2nd one i can`t recall, gotta look at the label at home....mebbe echinoblastus....i`ll check. too wet yah ? it might rot the gemmae ? i`ll let it dry out a bit then. thank you.

Lim : pot is about 12cm....i am also using shorter ones for some but will transplant soon before the roots get too long. i know it`s very risky but i ran out of deeper pots. and i will try to be very gentle with the roots.

[cindy]

Tarence,

If you use more sand but keep the pots permanently wet on the tray, pygmies can do well in pots just 3" deep. Keeping them wet discourages them from becoming dormant which is during their summer period. Those growers giving them dormancy use pots of 6-12" deep!

[tarence]

thx Cindy....i`m using 50/50 sand, peat moss mix. More peat on top where the gemmae is as per seller`s detailed instruction. I notice you top up your medium with sand ONLY. isn`t that dry ? but your d.lasiantha seems to be doing ok, the root was `digging` into the sand. Mmmm.....

[piscesilim]

Mine doing better in more sand and shallow pot. But most of the website said need deep pot.

[cindy]

I topped it with sand according to instructions here.

[tarence]

sometimes instructions may NOT make sense to us but it`s best to just FOLLOW. heheh. coz to me, topping it with sand might make it too dry for the gemmae germination but hey, it works for cindy.

for my previous pic, the 2nd photo was ericksoniae x pulchella

cindy : how do you manage the required germination temp of 22-26 C and yet provide it with enuff lite ?

here`s some more of them....it`s incredible that within a few days they are germinating so fast...

[cindy]

Tarence,

The gemmae will always germinate. Whether the plants make it to adulthood or not, it will depend on how heat resistant it is. Sometimes, they go dormant despite they being in wet media because the heat level is too high. But it depends on individual plants. I have some D. pymaea in one pot and some are dormant, some are not. The dormant ones may or may not survive so hopefully the ones not dormant will form gemmae later on.

I use a cover for the gemmae when they are sown on pure sand.

[tarence]

thx Cindy...

[ameliepoulain]

when you guys say sand, what kind of sand are you refering to?

where do I get them?

[David]

Hi Athene,

The sand they are refering to would be river silica sand. You can check out the nurseries in Penang or aquarium shops. They should have them for sale.

[ifurita]

Personally, I've found that gemmae will germinate and grow even in media which has a lot of peat in it AND is waterlogged(cos I used a container with no holes at the bottom). They're tough, so there's no need to worry too much until you decide to transplant them into their permanent pot.

[piscesilim]

Can't trust the nursery and aquarium shop. Because some sand may contain calsium carbonate. I always use self collected river sand. Wash it several time before use.

You can soak the sand inside the Phosphoric acid to get rid the calsium carbonate.

[David]

Thanks Lim for your information.

Athene, perhaps you could call Lim and check with him where he gets the river sand in Penang

Ya man! wash it several times. I soak my sand in boiling water for several minutes to kill off any beasties, algae etc. I bought my river sand from a nursery near sg. buloh.

[ameliepoulain]

Aiyoh! Now you talking Phosphoric acid & calsium carbonate!

More confused I am!

I think I'll just collect the sand from the nearby waterfall.

The actual question should have been, is it the very fine grain one or the coarse type?

[hongrui]

the sand should be around 1cm-3cm.

[ameliepoulain]

hongrui said:

the sand should be around 1cm-3cm.

are you sure those are sands? with that kind of size, it's more like pebbles/stone!

[hongrui]

smaller sized ones i find compacts too much. so i usually aim for sand/gravel about the size of the perlite bits.