Gemmae

[hongrui]

Casey, for germination of gemmae, cool bright shade is good. introduce them to sun slowly after you see the first 2-3 true leaves. i find pygmies generally quite heat sensitive, so you'll need to strike a balance between light and heat.

[droserahybridman]

tarence, are you growing your pygmies outside? If so, how high are daytime temps where you live? I want mine to produce gemmae, but have heard it helps if they're outside. They're thriving indoors for me right now so I am hesitant to bring them outside and risk frying them in the sometimes 100 degree F weather we have in the summer.
Thanks,
Aaron

[edwinclf]

Tarence. Thanks for your Information. My gemmae start to germinate. Saw some tiny thing come out from the gemmae.

[tarence]

Aaron...yes, i am growing my pygmies outside. i was told to keep them away from a`noon heat.....so they get mostly morn` & evening. they have been kept outdoors since they arrived last December...

i am not sure if the abrupt change in climate will be good for your pygmies. my garden temp in the daytime is about 32 - 34 deg C......it`s very hot. but if i keep them in the grassy area, then it`s a bit cooler. which ones do you have & are trying to cajole` into producing gemmae ?

edwin : good to know they are growing already. they are quite cute & interesting to grow. gemmae germinates fast.

[droserahybridman]

D. pygmaea, scorpioides, roseana, dichrosepala, and omissa x pulchella. The pygmaea appear to be full grown but they're only 3 months old from gemmae. The rest are about 3 weeks old from gemmae. I don't know if I should just try acclimating them a little at a time until they can tolerate full sun. LMK what u think I should do.
Thanks,
Aaron

[tarence]

my own experience in sunny m`sia ( all excludes a`noon sun ) :

pygmaea : tolerates heat well

scorpioides : typical form i assume, not giant ? does ok as well outside.

roseana : turned black-ish from the heat

dichrosepala : turned black-ish from the heat

omissa x pulchella : i don`t have this but i think pulchella hybrids do well in heat

what i did was to make sure that the pygmies get enough humidity when exposed to full sun. the water level in the trays i used were quite high. i avoided putting them in the scorching a`noon sun.

hongrui, you might want to comment as well.

[hongrui]

D. scorpioides is pretty heat sensitive .. at least in my environment. i think it is better if you can keep the all pygmies at less than 30C (85F) and they would do best in the low 20Cs (mid 70Fs)

the more heat tolerant species for me are D. occidentalis, D. pulchella and D. nitidula. Hybrids do better for the species too, especially D. nitidula and D. pulchella hybrids.

i'll be getting more pygmies to conduct another round of expensive experiments to see which ones tolerate heat.

[ifurita]

I think pygmies are fairly capable of taking decently high temps during the day, there's no way my room is going to be less than 30C if the outdoor temp is >30C. Perhaps pygmies are more tolerant of day heat if given night cooling?

I've tried letting some pygmies have a blast of direct sun heat for a month or so, plus allowed the media to try out between waterings and they responded to it by going into dormancy, but didn't die straight out. So heat alone...I personally think there's got to be more to it than just that.

Just my 2 cents tho...

[tarence]

Ifurita, what does a pygmy going into dormancy look like ? i have several in varying degrees of `still-life` & i`m not sure what they are up to.

[ifurita]

A pygmy going into dormancy will have shorter/smaller leaves, while the core of the plant will transform into a tuft of white hairs. This happens in various degrees to the different species, but they generally end up with no carnivorous leaves and the main body of the plant more or less becomes a large tuft of white hairs which protect the plant body and the undeveloped leaves.

[droserahybridman]

thanks for the heat info.

[strath76]

Hi Aaron,

Pygmy drosera often experience temperatures in the wild that exceed 40 degrees celcius (104 Fahrenheit). Often this can be for several days in a row but it does generally cool down a bit at night. I don't think you should have too many problems as long as you take some simple precautions such as providing some shade for the hottest part of the day and acclimitising the plants to your outside conditions prior to the extremes of summer or winter.

As with any plant a rapid change in conditions could cause fatal stress and no one likes it when that happens.