Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 13:54:45 -0400 From: Prem Subrahmanyam <prems@noblestar.net> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1191$foo@default> Subject: Re: Sarracenia culture
At 04:19 AM 4/19/2000 -0700, Trent Meeks wrote:
>
>As a newcomer to the world of Sarracenia cultivation, I have a couple of
>questions.
>
>1. I live south of Sarracenia habitats, and create a forced dormancy during
>winter. Starting in late November, I ice down the trays with RO. water ice
>cubes, and water with refrigerated water. By January, all growth has
>ceased, and I typically get reddish tendril like growth from the crowns.
>Different species react differently. About this same time, leucophylla will
>produce its best pitchers and then stop growing, except maybe a phyllodia or
>two. Flava produces phyllodia. By late February, they all come back to
>life, starting with S. rubra gulfensis blooming. I am now entering my
>fourth summer of treating my plants this way, and they all seem healthy and
>happy. Most of my plants are gulf coast natives, with a few Mellichamp
>cultivars thrown in. Finally, to the question. Does anybody know minimum
>winter conditions needed by Sarracenia?
It sounds like you're doing all the right things if you're actually achieving
a dormancy period for your plants. If you're worried that you're not giving
them proper treatment, you could always do a little research. Here is a
web-site, hosted by the University of Florida that gives a county-by-county
map of the occurrence of various species of plants in Florida:
http://cyber.acomp.usf.edu/isb/projects/atlas/mapindex.html
>From there, you can do some research as to the general climate of the
southernmost areas where these plants grow. Note that bog areas
generally stay a few degrees warmer than the surrounding air owing to
the temperature mitigation effect of all that water.
>
>2. A sarracenia seed pod finally matured on one of my plants, so I
>collected the seed into a plastic film cassette holder and placed it in the
>refrigerator. I hope this will stratify the seed. Do they need to stratify
>on growing media, or will six weeks in the 'fridge followed by sowing on
>media in June be sufficient for germination?
>
FWIW, in early fall of last year I searched through the dried and
dehisced seed pods of a number of S. leucophylla in a local bog, hoping
to find one or two stray seeds that hadn't popped out. I found one.
I sowed it onto some damp live sphagnum in a small enclosed terrarium stuck
in a south window and got germination. It's been growing steadily ever
since. I recently put it outside in one of my larger "mini-bogs" to see
how it would fare...it immediately reddened up in the brighter sunlight
and has continued to put up newer and bigger mini-pitchers. So, at least
for me, it didn't require any stratification to grow happily (it didn't
even get a cool winter to induce dormancy).
--> Prem
===================================================================
Prem Subrahmanyam <prems@noblestar.net> or <prems@nettally.com>
- Animator, programmer, and orchid and fossil nut extraordinaire...
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"We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became nothing to show we were wrong."
"God's Own Fool" - Michael Card
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