Last night in preparation for our upcoming trip, I decided to check on my Sarracenia seeds (purchased from the Flytrap King, listed below) that have been undergoing cold stratification in the refrigerator since 2/14/21 only to find that all of the paper towels had signs of mold. This is the third time I have cold stratified seeds and I have always had some amount of mold but given that we are leaving soon I felt uncomfortable simply leaving the seeds in this state.
[As an aside, when I first placed the seeds in cold stratification I experimented by adding a few granules of Scotts® DiseaseExTM Lawn Fungicide which contains azoxystrobin as the active fungicidal agent. I was first introduced to azoxystrobin by HelixPlants on his Youtube video where he details his observations about its growth-boosting effects on his venus fly traps. I performed a cursory search on the web a found a few pieces of scientific literature detailing azoxystrobin's effects on corn as follows: it has been shown to increase germination rates and yield of corn (Ref 1, Ref 2). I used it with uncertain, but no negative, effects on my mature carnivorous plants (CP). Therefore given the literature review on seed germination and my experience with it on my mature CPs, I decided to add it to my Sarracenia seeds hoping to prevent mold growth. As was already evident earlier by stating that there was mold on the paper towels, adding the granules of azoxystrobin did not mitigate mold growth. There are several factors that could have contributed including not using the proper concentration, old azoxystrobin (left outside under my car porch all summer and winter), the corn studies may not be generalizable to all seeds, my mold may not be the ones that were studied in the literature, etc.]
Back to my Sarracenia seeds, first I tried to pick off each individual seed but there were simply too many especially given their small size (reference picture below from the ICPS). Then I experimented with washing the seeds off the paper towel and catching them in a fine strainer. This worked for the largest of the seeds but I lost a few of the smallest seeds which is especially heartbreaking given they have already been stratified for about half the required time. While the seeds were in the strainer I sprayed them with 3% hydrogen peroxide washed them under cold water several times. I washed the containers they were in with 50% isopropyl alcohol (ideal would have used 70% but I did not have any at the time) and sprayed them with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Having learned that I could lose seeds even through my finest strainer, I decided against washing the super mix #17 seeds which contained several small seeds and I opted for simply washing the paper towel with hydrogen peroxide and water. I sowed the seeds from mix #17 today to allow for pseudo-stratification outdoors if it remained cold or to allow them to germinate if the temperature begins to warm (USDA Hardiness Zones 7b).
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| Image from the International Carnivorous Plant Society with a metric ruler with 1mm hash marks. |
The general recommendation is to cold stratify seeds for between 4-6 weeks depending on the species of the seeds with purupurea requiring lengthier stratification. However, today is March 6th, a mere 3 weeks since the seeds went into cold stratification. Before I cold stratified all 4 sets of seeds I placed them in a solution of gibberellic acid (GBA, GBA sowing) for 24 hours. I was previously successful with a combined GBA and cold stratification approach- though I did allow for 4 weeks of stratification. I was also successful with a batch of seeds that were placed in a GBA solution for 3 days without cold stratification but I found that the plants were not as vigorously growing compared to seeds that underwent cold stratification alone (not the best experimental design given I have a sample size of 1). I am hopeful that I will have a few germinate in the next 2-4 weeks.
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| Seed mix #17 Super mix ~350 seeds S. "Green Frog" OP S. "Super Swamp Ghost OP" x alata "maroon throat" S. flava var ornata x flava var. atropurpurea S. alata "marron throat" |
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Seed mix #24 White top madness ~175 seeds S. leucophylla hurricane creek white "clone F" x S. leucophylla "mbrs alba" S. leucophylla "albino" x S. leucophylla "UCD" S. leucophylla "cronus" x S. leucophylla "Wilkerson bog leuc 3" S. leucophylla OP |
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Seed mix #30 Leah Wilkerson mix ~175 seeds S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ OP S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’ S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x self S. “Johnny Wilkerson” x ‘Leah Wilkerson’ |
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Seed mix #37 Ultra Color ~175 seeds (S. leucophylla x jonesii) OP (S. psittacina x rubra ssp. gulfensis x leucophylla) x (leucophylla "purple lips" x "Wilkerson's White Knight") (S. 'Alucard' x oreophila) x (leucophylla "purple lips" x flava var. rubricorpora) S. 'Lunchbox' x leucophylla "Franklin county clone A" |
Sarracenia seed germination can be challenging but it is a great method for increasing the variety of CPs in your collection on a budget. My first two attempts at germinating Sarracenia seeds were successful albeit with poor yields. The seeds were purchased from Sarracenia Addiction as individual crosses and overall I was happy to have about ~15 plants (see below). Seeds were germinated using cold stratification as well as only GBA acid. I probably used about 3/4 of the seeds and the remaining quarter I gave as a gift. My next batch of seeds were purchased from the Flytrap King as individual crosses (not the mixes used above). I used a mix of the GBA + cold stratification. Only about half of the 10 seed varieties germinated and were promptly killed by leaving them out in the sun without proper ventilation. It is unclear if the remaining 1/2 seeds would have germinated or if the cooking in the sun also affected ungerminated seeds. Nevertheless, I had left the seedling outside 2 or 3 times without harm but the day they cooked was particularly hot and I lost track of how much time they were outside- a truly heartbreaking day. Given these losses and poor germination rates, I decided against purchasing individual crosses and opted for mixes that provided several more seeds. I should have sown half of the mixes to hedge against losses.
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| May 26th, 2020 128: S. Flava All red Wistuba X S. [(Purpurea x Leucophylla) x Purpurea ssp. venosa] x Moorei 'Adrian Slack' clone A 129: S. Flava "Tall" x Flava Cuprea "Intense" (OBF3) X S. Flava Rugelii Giant Robust clone F18 MK 139: S. Flava Atropurpurea -- all red (JPR) (SFA03 CA) X S.x Moorei 'Adrian Slack' |
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| February 19th, 2021 |
Lastly, I am starting to dabble in watercolor painting in a feeble attempt to record the beauty of my cacti and CPs. More to come later.
